One of the strange quirks of cycling is how rarely the best riders on the planet actually race against each other. Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard have only raced against each other five times in the last three seasons: three times at the Tour de France, and once each at Paris-Nice and the Criterium du Dauphine. The design of the cycling calendar allows riders – particularly of their calibre – to pick and choose their moments.
Which is what makes this week’s European Championships, normally something of a footnote in the calendar, such an occasion. It marks the reunion of cycling’s modern ‘Big Three’, in a three-way shootout for a major title, but on very different terrain to their usual battlegrounds. It is a rare race which none of them have ever won, a state of affairs which is unlikely to remain the case for long.
The combatants: Pogacar, the man with a serious claim to the status of greatest of all time, fresh off a defence of his world title in Rwanda last week. Remco Evenepoel, possibly the single best time-triallist the world has ever seen, and the first to hold the world, Olympic, European, and national titles against the clock at the same time. And Vingegaard, a few weeks on from a dominant win at the Vuelta a Espana, but an unknown quantity in France.
Evenepoel and Pogacar are frequent adversaries in the sport’s biggest one-day races, but the last time Vingegaard completed one was almost exactly three years ago: Il Lombardia in 2022. It is not just regular one-day racing he avoids, it’s any major championships. Vingegaard has never appeared in Danish colours at elite level, last racing the under-23 World Championship seven years ago.
But he’s picked as good a place as any to end that streak: the sole one-day race win of his career came in the same region as this week’s road race, the Drome Classic, and he will arrive in France fresh compared to those coming from the high altitude and gruelling hills of Rwanda.
Denmark has one of the strongest teams, with all three of Vingegaard, Mads Pedersen and Matthias Skjelmose possible winners. The team has the opportunity to take the fight to Pogacar, attacking in turn to wear down his defences – a tactic which has previously delivered Vingegaard’s Visma-Lease a Bike squad to Tour de France glory.
Vingegaard’s stage-racing tactics are generally conservative. He doesn’t generally, Pogacar-style, take off with 100km to go. How he translates that style into 200km of flat-out racing – and how his presence will affect the dynamic of the race – will be a fascinating subplot to this clash between titans.
His participation also offers an insight into a possible future. Now with three grand tours under his belt, his place in history is secure. But seemingly no closer to beating Pogacar over three weeks when both are on top form, will Vingegaard diversify his ambitions in the hope of more wins, or double down on his Tour fixation?
The motivations of his two rivals are simple: both out for revenge, in different ways.
Two weeks ago Kigali provided the backdrop to possibly Pogacar’s most humiliating defeat since the infamous time he was dropped by Vingegaard on the Col de la Loze in the 2023 Tour, leading to the now-immortalised quote, “I’m gone, I’m dead.”
There were no team radios to capture any such distress in the Worlds time trial, but no doubt had he had one, the sight of Evenepoel catching him – having started two and a half minutes behind – and motoring away to gold would have been met with something unbroadcastable.
Pogacar was gracious in defeat – although amusingly he was at pains to note how much time his Belgian rival spent on the discipline compared to him – and as so often, action spoke louder than words. He won the road race in his usual commanding style, dropping Evenepoel with 104km to go.
The Slovenian opted against a rematch against the clock in Drome-Ardeche, but Evenepoel was similarly dominant. His frustration and misery at defeat on the road in Kigali will undoubtedly be fuel for a rider who seems to find another gear when things aren’t going his way.
Two catastrophic bike changes led to him standing at the roadside, venting his anger by kicking a water bottle, and no Remco race is complete without a fair bit of shouting and gesticulating at the team car or a race moto. If he can channel that residual rage into pedal-revs on Sunday, even Pogacar may have something to worry about.
It would be disrespectful to the other 98 riders on the startlist to suggest that the battle for the European crown is already down to just three men. But it would also be inadvisable to stake all your savings on a lesser-known contender.
Pedersen and Skjelmose should be lively on the punchy course, which is not so ludicrously difficult as to put everyone but Pogacar into a state of existential despair (by contrast, Tom Pidcock called the Worlds course the “most unenjoyable race of the year”). Spain has Juan Ayuso; France, Romain Gregoire and Paul Seixas. Portugal’s Joao Almeida skipped Wednesday’s time trial with illness and seems emotionally exhausted following his second-place Vuelta finish, but can’t be ruled out either.
When it comes to the women’s race, however, it is anyone’s game. Regular racing has its super-teams, its alliances, its well-drilled leaders and domestiques. But on the rare occasions where riders race in national colours, all bets are off.
The Dutch, French and Italian teams were undoubtedly the strongest in Kigali; not one of their riders finished on the podium, the major squads having paralysed each other through indecision and sheer tactical blundering.
That, coupled with the astonishing strength in depth of the women’s peloton, means that on the day, anything can happen – as new world champion Magdeleine Vallieres can attest to.
Tour de France champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot pulled out after falling sick earlier in the week, denying her the chance to compete on home roads in a galling end to a supremely successful season.
But her rivals Demi Vollering and Kasia Niewiadoma, the previous two Tour de France winners, will be favourites once again, while the Swiss pair of Elise Chabbey – an agonising fourth at the Worlds – and new world and European time trial champion Marlen Reusser are in superb form. Spain’s Mavi Garcia, at 41 the oldest in the field, proved she still has it with a hard-fought bronze medal.
France, Italy and the Netherlands are all bringing formidable squads; a Dutch woman has won the last six straight European crowns and eight of the nine since the race began. Even if Vollering falters, any one of her teammates and sometime rivals – including previous winners Mischa Bredewold and Anna van der Breggen – should be able to pick up the mantle.
That unparalleled strength means they have many cards to play, but we have also seen it dissolve into infighting in the past. If that happens we will have another thrilling race on the cards, putting the often-forgotten Europeans firmly on the map.
