Mathieu Warnier, media365: published on Wednesday July 30, 2025 at 4:10 pm
While Jonas Vingegaard lost to Tadej Pogacar for the second year in a row on the Tour de France, the Danish was strongly criticized for his behavior by Eddy Merckx.
Jonas Vingegaard was not at the end of his ambitions. After bowing during the Tour de France 2024 against Tadej Pogacar, the leader of the Visma-Lease team in Bike could not return the same to the Slovenian and settled from second place to a little more than four minutes. A behavior that has not escaped Eddy Merckx and “Le Cannibale” expressed a very clear opinion towards the Danish during an interview with the Dutch daily De Telegraaf. “There was not much tension, Jonas Vingeegard was not a real competitor,” said the one who won the big loop five times in the late 1960s and the early 1970s. In three weeks, he could only hold. And this faced with a pugacar tadej that the old glory of Belgian cycling presents as “incredibly strong” but which must face adversaries much less tough than those he could meet during his career.
Merckx Croit Plus and Van der Poel qus Vingegaard
“Tadej Pogacar meets less opposition than me from my rivals at the time,” said Eddy Merckx. If there had been more competition, he would have had more trouble winning so many victories. “For” the ogre of Tervueren “, see the current world champion join him in the club of the five -time winners of the Great Loop in the future appears obvious when he does not see” really no one threatened him in the coming years “and even less to see” Jonas Vingegaard reduce the gap of any time “. Presenting Remco Evenepoel as “rather a trial runner”, Eddy Merckx considers Mathieu Van der Poel as “the only one who can really challenge Tadej Pogacar”. Nevertheless, the former Belgian runner launched a warning to the native of Komenda, that of being wary of his own teammates such as João Almeida and Juan Ayuso, who will lead the UAE Team Emirates-XRG team on the next Vuelta. “The biggest threat will probably come from his own team,” concluded Eddy Merckx. A message that the Slovenian ogre will undoubtedly have received well, he who will turn to Canada to prepare for the defense of his rainbow jersey.
