Bold take from Bradley Wiggins: ‘Gut feeling Jonas Vingegaard won’t finish the Tour de France’

The 2026 Tour de France has looked very different since stage six. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) put minutes into the competition, including his biggest rival Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike). Former Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins has now gone a step further: the Brit suspects the Dane may not make it all the way to Paris, and he explained where that feeling comes from.

On the THEMOVE podcast , Wiggins gave his take on the stage. The Brit saw a visibly demoralized Vingegaard reach the finish line, even if the Visma | Lease a Bike leader himself still insisted afterward that he was ready to fight on. “We don’t know how Jonas is going to hold up over the next two weeks,” Wiggins began.

“I have a sneaking suspicion,” Wiggins then said, after watching Vingegaard on the stage, “that he is not going to finish this race.” It was a striking statement, though Wiggins immediately stressed that he was not presenting it as a certainty. What he did see, in his view, was a rider who looked deeply affected by the way the day had unfolded.

Over the past few years, Wiggins noted, Vingegaard had always managed to stay positive when he found himself in second place. His message would usually be that he would attack the race, keep pushing Pogačar and take the fight all the way to Paris. This time, Wiggins wondered how many more times a rider can keep doing that and still end up second.

The Brit also tried to look for possible reasons behind what he saw. He raised the possibility that something could be going on physically, while making clear that he did not know whether that was actually the case. Vingegaard, Wiggins pointed out, was still wearing a face mask at the start, which only added to the sense that there may be more to the story.

Lance Armstrong pushed back by pointing out that Vingegaard had still ridden the Tourmalet around two minutes faster than he ever had before. Wiggins accepted that point, but came back to the main issue: despite that level, Vingegaard still lost almost three minutes to Pogačar.

That brought Wiggins to a comparison with Remco Evenepoel in the 2025 Tour de France. Back then, the suggestion had been made that Evenepoel might disappear from the race, and one day later that is exactly what happened. Wiggins stressed that he was not hoping for the same thing with Vingegaard.

“When you were right about Remco last year, you said he was going to drop out and then he did,” Wiggins continued. “I don’t want that to happen. I don’t want to see that. But look, we are only six days into this Tour de France.” His bigger question was where Vingegaard could now find joy, motivation and belief in a race that already appears to have shifted so sharply in Pogačar’s direction.

By contrast, Wiggins was far more positive about Evenepoel, whom he currently rates higher than he did last year. “I think Remco is riding the perfect race so far,” he said. “I know he came here to win the race, of course, but a podium place this year would already be a success for him after where he came from last year.”

Wiggins believes that may even have been Evenepoel’s quiet objective all along, whether or not the Belgian would ever say so publicly. In a Tour where Pogačar has already landed a major blow and Vingegaard suddenly faces major questions, Evenepoel’s route to a successful July may be clearer than it first appeared.

Author: David Bavin-Hobbs - [email protected]