Contador warns Vingegaard ahead of the 2025 Tour de France: "Your rivals may fail, but..."

Alberto Contador, a two-time Tour champion, believes the 27-year-old Vingegaard needs to tweak his approach. "It’s the nature of the sport, it’s always been that way. The numbers and performance that win you the Tour one year might not be enough to do it again the next year. If you’re pushing 400 watts, you need to push 420," Contador told AS.

This year, Vingegaard faced an incredibly strong Tadej Pogacar, who ultimately finished six minutes ahead of him in the GC. The competition for the yellow jersey will be just as fierce next year. "Your rivals might slip up, but if you don't keep improving, the reality is you need to be better than you were the year before to win the Tour de France. So, Vingegaard will have to step up from where he was this year."

Vingegaard’s lead-up to the Tour was anything but smooth. He crashed hard in the Tour of the Basque Country, sustaining a broken collarbone, multiple fractured ribs, and a collapsed lung. As a result, he couldn’t race in any preparation events, and his first competition back was the opening stage of the Tour in Italy. "We have to acknowledge that the Vingegaard we saw wasn’t at the level he might’ve been under normal conditions," Contador admits.

Contador also addressed Pogacar, who shattered several records during the Tour, with the climb to Plateau de Beille being a standout: the Slovenian beat Marco Pantani’s previous record by four minutes. "A lot of watts are saved these days with improved bearings and tubeless tires. Plus, the climb was practically a team time trial, with Visma | Lease a Bike pacing for the first four kilometers. In Pantani’s case, there was still a group of fifty riders after four or five kilometers before he attacked solo. It’s all relative. Those four minutes don’t mean the record is untouchable, but they aren’t as extreme as they seem."