{"id":370910,"date":"2025-12-25T12:20:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T12:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/370910\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T12:20:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T12:20:08","slug":"gianetti-says-vingegaard-made-pogacar-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/370910\/","title":{"rendered":"Gianetti says Vingegaard made Poga\u010dar better"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mauro Gianetti does not hesitate when asked whether Jonas Vingegaard has shaped the rider Tadej Poga\u010dar has become. Speaking to RIDE Magazine in an interview published by WielerFlits<\/a>, the UAE Emirates XRG team boss argues that rivalry \u2014 not dominance \u2014 has been the key driver behind cycling\u2019s defining duel of the past decade.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar and Vingegaard have finished first and second in every Tour de France they have both started. Pogi has four under his belt, and Vingegaard two. \u201cAnd they push each other higher every year,\u201d the former pro said.<\/p>\n

Gianetti and Poga\u010dar<\/p>\n

Gianetti first met Poga\u010dar in late 2018, after winning the Tour de l\u2019Avenir. Even then, he said, the teenager stood apart. \u201cHe was only 19, but he knew exactly what he wanted,\u201d Gianetti told Wielerflits\u2019 RIDE Magazine<\/a>. \u201cHe listened more than he spoke, and he immediately wanted to know how to get better.\u201d Physically, Poga\u010dar was still raw \u2014Gianetti admits he carried extra weight \u2014 but on long climbs he was already beating the best of his generation.<\/p>\n

The turning point, in Gianetti\u2019s view<\/a>, came not with Poga\u010dar\u2019s first Tour win in 2020, but later, when Vingegaard began to beat him. The 2021 Tour, which Poga\u010dar won comfortably, almost worked against him. \u201cThat victory was too easy,\u201d Gianetti said. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t forced to go deeper.\u201d Vingegaard\u2019s subsequent Tour triumphs changed that. \u201cBecause of Jonas, Tadej had to take everything more seriously. He had to go the extra mile.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Italian pro slams De Vlaeminck\u2019s \u2018absurd\u2019 attack on Poga\u010dar<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

That lesson crystallized in defeat. The loss in the Combloux time trial and the collapse on the Col de la Loze in 2023 were definitely low points, he said. However, Gianetti called it a wake-up call for both rider and team. Equipment, positioning and preparation were all reassessed, for example. But more importantly, Gianetti said the mindset shifted. \u201cYou often learn more from losing than from winning,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For Gianetti, Poga\u010dar\u2019s response that day defined him. Rather than abandon the Tour, he fought on, won a stage days later, and secured second overall. \u201cThat showed who he really is,\u201d Gianetti said. \u201cNot just a great rider, but a great champion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar\u2019s 2026 schedule<\/p>\n

Pogi has also recently confirmed most of his plans for 2026. He kicks off the spring with Strade Bianche, Milan-Sanremo, and the Ronde van Vlaanderen. Then, he will turn his sights toward Paris-Roubaix. It\u2019s a race he has yet to win and has been quietly targeting in early-season training. (I mean, he\u2019s done it once and he was second, but it\u2019s clear it\u2019s a huge goal.)<\/a><\/p>\n

After Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge, Poga\u010dar switches into Grand Tour mode. However, next year he will take a slightly different lead-up. Pogi will ride the Tour of Romandie and Tour de Suisse, races he\u2019s never done before. And although details of his post-Tour program remain vague, the world championships in Montreal are already on his radar. There, he will try and take a third straight rainbow jersey\u2013on a course that suits him very much. The question is, after another spectacular 2025, can the world champion have an even better season? 2026 is around the corner\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mauro Gianetti does not hesitate when asked whether Jonas Vingegaard has shaped the rider Tadej Poga\u010dar has become.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,6495,85,6494,2845],"class_list":["post-370910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tour-de-france"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}