Jonas Vingegaard believes he has reached the peak of his career, but even that was not enough to stop Tadej Pogačar .
Fellow Dane Mathias Skjelmose revealed a conversation he had with Vingegaard during a race, showing just how hard the widening gap with Pogačar is for the Visma | Lease a Bike team leader.
Appearing on Kristian Fuglendorf's podcast, Skjelmose said the two riders talk regularly inside the peloton. Their conversations included the rivalry that has defined the Tour de France in recent years.
According to Skjelmose, Vingegaard has been very clear about where he believes he stands right now.
He puts it like this: "'I am riding at the best level I have ever shown. There is nothing more I can do. If he goes past me even when I am better than I have ever been, what am I supposed to do? I cannot do any more.'"
Vingegaard is the only rider to have beaten Pogačar twice at the Tour de France, in 2022 and 2023. Since then, however, the tide has turned completely in favor of the Slovenian. Pogačar has steadily improved, while Vingegaard's training has been disrupted by crashes and injuries.
The serious crash at the 2024 Itzulia Basque Country was his greatest ordeal, but Skjelmose says Vingegaard does not treat that crash as the reason the gap has widened. Rather, Vingegaard believes he is showing better form now than when he won the Tour de France.
Vingegaard was convinced he had reached a new level.
Throughout the 2026 Tour de France, even as Pogačar kept taking time out of him, Vingegaard repeatedly insisted that his numbers and his performance were better than ever.
By the end of the second week, the gap between the two riders had widened to about 4 minutes 30 seconds.
Vingegaard's race ended abruptly when he broke his collarbone in a crash on stage 15 . He later underwent surgery, bringing an early end to yet another Tour de France in which the fierce rivalry with Pogačar had again drawn great attention.
But Skjelmose said that until the crash Vingegaard had not the slightest doubt about his preparation or his condition. He felt he was showing the best level of his career. The frustration was that even that was not enough to catch Pogačar.
Skjelmose thinks that only added further to the pressure on the Visma leader.
"I think enormous pressure is being placed on him," said the Lidl-Trek rider. "He is the only rider who has been able to truly compete with Pogačar, and the one who has come closest. The expectations of everyone, not only in Denmark but all over the world, are on him."
Vingegaard later admitted that his Tour de France preparation may not have been perfect . Looking back on the race, he pointed out that the Visma | Lease a Bike team had focused too much on improving long climbing ability, whereas the 2026 Tour de France also demanded explosive speed.
"We may have misjudged this year's Tour de France a little," Vingegaard admitted at a press conference after the Tour of Denmark. He felt the team should have paid more attention to the course and to the need for short, intense racing, but he also acknowledged that raising explosive speed after three weeks of the Giro is never easy.
Michael Rasmussen, a former Tour contender, was not convinced by that explanation .
In an interview with Viaplay he dismissed the claim as a "lame excuse", saying the Visma team should have had enough time between the Giro and the Tour to improve Vingegaard's acceleration. He also questioned whether fatigue from the Giro really had that much effect, given how easily Vingegaard had won it.
Rasmussen's claim was even more emphatic. In his view, the final standings would not have changed even with different preparation. "Even if Visma had sent Jonas to the moon, the result would have been the same. He would have lost to Tadej Pogačar ," he said.
