Spanish all-time nice Alberto Contador believes that Jonas Vingegaard will stay Tadej Pogačar’s largest stage racing opponent in 2026 regardless of two consecutive defeats within the Tour de France.
Talking on the presentation of the most recent model of his Aurum bike, el pistolero – as Contador was identified – additionally paid tribute to Pogačar’s ongoing marketing campaign to try to win Paris-Roubaix and to topple Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) within the Queen of the Classics.
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Himself the winner of two Excursions de France and 7 Grand Excursions in whole, Contador argued that when it got here to biking’s largest stage race race, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) remained the rider probably to topple Pogačar.
The UAE Staff Emirates-XRG chief has already said that the Tour de France will as soon as once more be a prime objective in 2026, with Vingegaard persevering with to be decided to try to shut the hole after two consecutive defeats.
Nonetheless, Contador recognised to MARCA that for now a minimum of, Pogačar was in a league of his personal, whereas refusing to be drawn into the continuing insistence in some quarters in evaluating Pogačar with biking’s best ever racer, Eddy Merckx.
“Lately riders solely compete in half of what they used to do. We will not examine information.”
“So let’s simply get pleasure from what Pogačar does. He is distinctive. Each race he does is a present.”
the way forward for Spanish biking and potential targets for 2026, Contador agreed that Enric Mas (Movistar) – the nation’s most constant Grand Tour racer of current years and a former rider on the Contador Basis again in his newbie days – might effectively take a look at making his debut within the Giro d’Italia.
Concerning Spanish biking normally, he stated: “It’s totally heartening, we have a terrific collection of up-and-coming riders like Ayuso, Carlos Rodríguez – who’s been hit by greater than his justifiable share of dangerous luck – [Adrià] Perica, Pablo Torres, and veterans like Enric and [Mikel] Landa who can nonetheless be in on the motion.”
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In the meantime, taking a look at 2025, Contador stated that biking had lived by way of a spectacular season. Lengthy-distance attacking – one thing he was additionally very given to doing, with memorable all-or-nothing strikes prefer to Fuente Dè within the 2012 Vuelta a España or throughout the Galibier within the 2011 Tour de France – had grow to be nearer than ever to being the ‘new regular.’
“Even to ask them for a repeat of final 12 months’s fireworks can be virtually an excessive amount of. It is getting more durable and more durable for them to shock us… the one factor left is for them to begin occurring the assault within the neutralised zone.”
