Alex MacQuoid
With the Tour de France looming large, the WorldTour peloton’s focus has narrowed to one target. At the heart of this season’s mounting tension lies a familiar rivalry: Tadej Pogacar vs. Jonas Vingegaard. And if you ask Groupama–FDJ general manager Marc Madiot, the Slovenian still holds the upper hand.
Speaking to Cyclism’Actu after the Critérium du Dauphiné, Madiot pulled no punches in his assessment: “We can see that Pogacar is at his best, especially in the mountains. There may still be a few details to adjust regarding the time trial, but overall, he’s been very strong since the start of the season.”
Indeed, the high-altitude showdowns in the Dauphiné mirrored Pogacar’s past 12 months—one long crescendo of dominance whenever the road tilts skyward. Even with Vingegaard returning to competition, the visual was clear: Pogacar remains the one to beat.
“Vingegaard seemed to be in good shape,” Madiot continued, “but he’s still missing that little something to compete with Pogacar across the board. There’s clearly a gap between the two of them and the rest, even though Evenepoel is also at an excellent level. Last year’s hierarchy seems to be confirmed.”
The script, it seems, might be repeating itself. With all three major GC contenders—Pogacar, Vingegaard, Evenepoel—hitting their expected power zones during the Dauphiné, and no recent injuries clouding the form book, we may be staring at a 2023 rerun in terms of general classification battles.
“I haven’t seen the odds,” Madiot remarked, “but based on what we’ve observed, you don’t need to be a great expert to say that Pogacar is the number one favorite.”
Yet for all the pre-race bravado, Madiot tempers his insight with the seasoned caution of a veteran of many Grand Tours. “The Tour is three weeks with many pitfalls: the mountains, the time trials, the tricky stages, the wind, managing the peloton… There are many parameters that we try to control, but that we never master 100%. There are always the vagaries of the race. So everything remains open, even if on paper, Pogacar ticks more boxes than the others.”
With the opening stage just around the bend, Pogacar may wear the invisible leader’s jersey, but the Tour’s beauty lies in its unpredictability. For Vingegaard, the question is no longer if he’s close—it’s whether he can bridge that elusive final gap.