Start as you mean to go on, right? Both Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar did exactly this at their first races of the season, with the pair winning the Volta ao Algarve and the UAE Tour respectively.
It was the third consecutive year that Visma-Lease a Bike's Jonas Vingegaard has won his opening stage race of the season, while Pogačar of UAE Team Emirates-XRG might not have been able to win on his first race day, as in 2022 or 2023, but two stage wins and the overall in the Middle East is a good foundation for the year.
The pair are men's cycling's biggest stars, and are both scheduled to clash in the sport's biggest race, the Tour de France, in July, before a potential rematch at the Vuelta a España in August.
Not only are they the favourites for these races this far out, in a sense they seem like the only conceivable winners, such is their prowess. Pogačar is the man who won pretty much everything he wanted to last year - the Giro d'Italia, the Tour and World Championships in particular - while Vingegaard is one of the only riders who has ever stopped him, and has done it twice at the Tour.
However, their opening stage race wins were not the same, and nor will their approach to the Tour. The pair are unlikely to meet until the Critérium du Dauphiné in June, with their schedules look very different. It is impossible to judge their form against each other, in different races across the world, so we might have to wait until summer to find out how they match up.
Pogačar's UAE Tour romp
With hindsight, the UAE Tour was probably a foregone conclusion. Four sprint stages, a time trial, and two summit finishes at his team’s home race were unlikely to challenge Pogačar if he had a semblance of his 2024 form, and they didn’t. The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider won the two stages he was supposed to, finished high up on the time trial, and therefore won overall by more than a minute.
His victories on Jebel Jais and Jebel Hafeet were telegraphed, with stage three finishing in Pogačar out-sprinting whoever was left and stage four seeing the UAE rider dropping everyone 7.4km from the finish, resulting in an inevitable solo win.
It was not just that simple. Pogačar and his UAE squad were constantly on the front foot through the seven stages, with the Slovenian sprinting with the bunch on stage one and being part of a plan to blow the race apart in the crosswinds on stage three. The most unique part of the race was saved for a flat stage five, where the 26-year-old spent 110km in the day’s break, for little reward on the day. If anything, the week seemed like a glorified training exercise for Pogačar, who got hard kilometres in his legs, and three wins too.
The Slovenian now heads into one-day mode for the Classics, starting with Strade Bianche next week, then Milan-San Remo, a spell in Belgium building up to the Tour of Flanders, and then the hilly triple of the Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. This represents a shift to last year, with the Giro d’Italia dominating the first part of the season; this year, it’s all Classics until June.
Pogačar had a similar approach to 2023, which worked very well, with wins at Flanders, Amstel and Flèche before a crash at Liège ruined his preparation for the Tour. However, that year he also rode Paris-Nice, a race he is avoiding in 2025.
Vingegaard triumphs in the Algarve
While his great GC rival was dominating the UAE Tour, Vingegaard also had a successful first race of the year, albeit with slightly less pomp. The Visma-Lease a Bike won the Volta ao Algarve overall after a comprehensive victory in the final-day hilly time trial, a discipline he has built some of his biggest victories on.
He put 30 seconds into his nearest likely challenger, João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), enough not only to take the stage, but the GC crown too.
It was the third year in a row that Vingegaard has won his opening stage race of the season, although the Volta ao Algarve is a step up on his previous target of O Gran Camiño.
It was also not easy, with seventh place on the week’s sole mountain-top finish briefly producing questions over the Dane’s form - although questions over the Dane finishing 10 seconds behind the winner, Jan Christen (also UAE Team Emirates-XRG) - seem more than a little hyperbolic.
Following the time trial, any alarm seemed needless, with a successful week under Vingegaard's belt. Despite not being a WorldTour race, unlike the UAE Tour, the racing seemed just as hard, with a stacked field.
"Getting two victories today, that's super nice and hopefully it'll be a great season," he told Cyclingnews." I'll do everything I can."
Differing from Pogačar, Vingegaard will avoid the Classics - as is his wont - and instead will head to Paris-Nice and then the Volta a Catalunya before the Critérium du Dauphiné and then Tour de France. Stage racing and climbing suits the Dane, not cobbles and punchy hills - and it might well be safer, too.
It is similar, but not exactly the same as 2024, when the 28-year-old dominated Tirreno-Adriatico and then hoped to do the same at Itzulia Basque Country, before a horror crash robbed him of a calm build-up to the Tour. He will hope for no injury or incident, and instead a smooth run-in to his bigger objectives this year.
