{"id":674537,"date":"2026-07-05T05:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T05:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/674537\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T05:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T05:12:13","slug":"ef-team-boss-vaughters-identifies-pogacars-only-weakness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/674537\/","title":{"rendered":"EF team boss Vaughters identifies Pogacar’s ‘only weakness’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 Tour de France<\/a> starts today, so all the teams and riders have spoken briefly with the media. CEO Jonathan Vaughters<\/a> did so on behalf of EF Education-EasyPost<\/a>, and some interesting points were discussed. For example, the American team boss claimed to have identified Tadej Poga\u010dar’s \u201cthe only weakness\u201d.First, let\u2019s look at EF itself, which is heading to the Tour de France with an ever-aggressive eight-man squad<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s the most important race of the year for all teams, but for us it\u2019s even more important, because it\u2019s the only Tour that everyone knows,\u201d according to Sport<\/a>. And so, according to Vaughters, the team is lining up at the start with very high ambitions.<\/p>\n

EF\u2019s strategy? \u201cThat\u2019s a bit of a secret,\u201d the American says, refusing to answer. The team has already made it clear that it plans to race very aggressively and go for every opportunity. Richard Carapaz is a dangerous asset in this regard; he recently finished second in the Tour de Suisse, a respectable distance behind the unbeatable Pogacar.<\/p>\n

Still, it was a tough year for Carapaz, marked by the death of his mother and physical setbacks. Despite this, Vaughters is counting on the rider from Ecuador. \u201cWhen the Tour is tough and hot, Richie is a very tenacious rider\u2014he\u2019s got what it takes.\u201d The team boss even dares to dream of a top-five finish, or even a podium spot. This is despite the fact that Carapaz himself has stated he isn\u2019t aiming for the general classification<\/a>.Read more below the photo!\"richard-carapaz\"\/Vaughters points out Poga\u010dar’s ‘only weakness’<\/p>\n

In the battle for the general classification, the competition will be fiercer than ever. First and foremost, of course, there\u2019s always that pesky Poga\u010dar. Does Vaughters think the champion can even be beaten? \u201cNot so far,\u201d he says firmly. So even at EF, they seem to think that second place is the best anyone who isn\u2019t named Tadej Poga\u010dar can hope for.<\/p>\n

But\u2026 there\u2019s always a \u201cbut\u201d! For example, Vaughters can point out a weakness in the world champion. \u201cIn theory, Tadej performs slightly worse when it\u2019s very hot for several days in a row.\u201d According to the CEO, \u201cit looks like that\u2019s going to happen in this Tour de France.\u201d That heat exhaustion, the CEO says, would then be \u201chis only weakness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given the forecasted heat for the first few days of the Tour de France, we might find out if Vaughters is right sooner than we think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 Tour de France starts today, so all the teams and riders have spoken briefly with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,56528,38302,101,8782,135345,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-674537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-ef-education-easypost","tag-jonathan-vaughters","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tour-de-france-2026","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}