Richard Plugge believes in new Tour win: "The best rider can be beaten"

Richard Plugge believes that Jonas Vingegaard can win the Tour de France again this summer, he writes in his column in Wielerflits Magazine. Strengthened by Wout van Aert's victory in Paris-Roubaix, Plugge once again believes that "the best rider in the world can be beaten." "Resilience had once again triumphed over adversity after Wout's win."

"In the upcoming Tour de France, Wout will join another symbol of resilience: Jonas Vingegaard," writes Plugge. "In the past two years, Jonas and the team had a disrupted buildup towards the Tour. With that dramatic crash in the Basque Country in 2024, after which Jonas spent weeks in the hospital before being able to train reasonably. We even extended his training camp a bit to ensure he had enough training kilometers in the legs. After that, half of the Tour team subsequently dropped out due to illness or injury, and on the Sunday before the Tour, we even had to ask Bart Lemmen to replace Sepp Kuss."

"In 2025, the long aftermath of the crash in Paris-Nice had a major impact on Jonas’s form and the way the Tour unfolded. With superman Tadej Pogacar and UAE Emirates-XRG as phenomenal opponents, nothing can go wrong in preparation or execution. Jonas recovered after the Tour, won the Vuelta a España, and this past winter, with the help of coach Mathieu Heijboer, was able to finally build a solid healthy base for the first time in two years."

"Just like the rest of the planned squad. Edoardo Affini, Bruno Armirail, Victor Campenaerts, Matteo Jorgenson, and Sepp Kuss form a top support structure for our Danish leader under the guidance of The Architect Grischa Niermann. Both Jonas and Wout have shown in previous editions that the best rider of this moment can be beaten. By joining forces, by overcoming deep valleys, they are back at the peak of their abilities."

"Hopefully, that shared resilience will come together in the upcoming Tour de France into kryptonite, as one of the people in the UAE Emirates-XRG management put it."

This is an abridged version of Richard Plugge’s column in the new edition of Wielerflits Magazine. Order the extensive Summer Guide here with all the Tour stages and stories about Vingegaard and Pogacar’s Tour team.