Bradley Wiggins thinks Vingegaard's Giro win puts him in a better position to beat Pogačar at the Tour de France

Bradley Wiggins believes Jonas Vingegaard has taken the smarter route to the Tour de France by winning the Giro d’Italia first. The former Tour winner sees a Visma leaader who goes into July in better shape than in previous seasons. Speaking on The Move’s Giro d’Italia review podcast, Wiggins and Johan Bruyneel spoke about Vingegaard’s ‘flawless’ season, and argued that the Giro-Tour double is no longer the impossible task it once was.

Wiggins’ key point was that Vingegaard has arrived at this moment without the injuries and disruption that ruined recent Tour build-ups. “I wonder how this is going to set him up for July,” he said. “This is the best Jonas Vingegaard we’ve seen over the last few years, since he won the Tour I would say.”

The former Team Sky man was especially struck by how complete Vingegaard’s spring has been. “He’s won Paris-Nice already, won Catalunya. So he's had a flawless season so far up to this point. It remains to be seen how that's going to set him up for July in the big challenge that comes against Tadej [Pogačar].”

Wiggins also pushed back against the idea that riding the Giro leaves a rider too empty to also win the Tour de France. “I think the sport has changed so much now. I think gone are the days now of the Giro - Tour double being too hard and impossible to do. I think now the way guys are racing, the way guys are recovering, it's a different sport now.”

He was even more direct when asked whether Vingegaard should have skipped Italy altogether. “He’s tried the other way. A couple of times,” Wiggins said. “I actually think that this will set him up better than we’ve seen him in previous years at the Tour de France.”

Johan Bruyneel’s reading was less about Vingegaard alone and more about the machine around him. His view was that Visma | Lease a Bike managed the Giro d’Italia almost perfectly. “Take Pogačar and UAE out of the equation and Visma almost never fails,” Bruyneel said. “The way they have prepared, the way they have controlled, and the way they have executed, their strategy has been flawless.”

He stressed that this kind of control will be crucial for Vingegaard across the three weeks of the Tour de France. In his eyes, Vingegaard’s Giro was not just a display of individual superiority, but proof of how tightly the team managed every phase of the race. That is also why Bruyneel thinks the Dane can start the Tour with a cleaner head than his main rival.

Bruyneel argued that Pogačar and UAE enter July in very different positions:

“Jonas Vingegaard and Visma can now go into the Tour de France without a lot of pressure. They have won the Giro, Jonas has won every single race he started. He wants to win the tour, but he comes in relaxed.”

“Pogačar is now in a different situation because if you're the best and everybody expects you to win. Anything but a win is a failure for Pogačar and UAE. And this is not the case for Visma. It changes a lot in the approach because you know there's the physical fitness, the physical tiredness, but mentally also we have a lot of energy wasted on stress, nerves, pressure, and I think this is an advantage. He comes in really relaxed and if he finishes second in the tour to France behind Pogačar, everyone says, ‘Okay, great job,’” concluded Bruyneel.

On this, Wiggins and Bruyneel would not be drawn out. But Wiggin’s did double down on how strong Vingegaard’s position is going into the Tour, largely thanks to winning the Giro:

“He’s won five stages [at the Giro], looks to be in the form of his life in terms of numbers and the stats. Going into this Tour de France he can be confident that he can push Tadej more than he has done in previous years.”

Bradley Wiggins’ final word on the matter: “I think July is going to be really exciting.”

Author: David Bavin-Hobbs | Email: [email protected]