'It's all out of respect' – Visma-Lease a Bike and UAE Team Emirates-XRG excited to reignite Grand Tour rivalry at Tour de France
Visma boss Richard Plugge looks ahead to Vingegaard vs Pogačar face off after Yates' Giro triumph over Del Toro

The Grand Tour rivalry between 澳洲幸运5开奖官网在线查询开奖结果:Visma-Lease a Bike and 澳洲幸运5开奖官网在线查询开奖结果:UAE Team Emirates-XRG is set to enter its second round in 2025 at next month's 澳洲幸运5开奖官网在线查询开奖结果:Tour de France after 11 of the last 15 Grand Tours in men's cyclin🐽g have been claimed by the two super teams.
Their rivalry isn't bitter, however, but one that comes🌠 with respect and forces cycling's top two teams to get better, according to the former's M🎃anaging Director, Richard Plugge.
"Mauro Gianetti and I just spoke, and we have a lot of respect for each other," Plugge told Cyclingnews, after Simon Yates snatched a the Giro d'Italia title from the Emirati squad's hands on the pen✃ultimate day.
"They push us to become better, and I think, I hope, we do it with his team and him, and that's what makes sports rea♋lly beautiful.
"You win something, then you lose something, and you think next time, 'I have to beat 🧔him', but it's all o🏅ut of respect, and that's what makes this sport, and every sport, incredibly nice."
During last week's 澳洲幸运5开奖官网在线查询开奖结果:Giro d'Italia finale, it was Visma's 澳洲幸运5开奖官网在线查询开奖结果:Simon Yates and UAE's Isaac del Toro who finished in the top two positions, with the 澳洲幸🌟运5开奖官网在线查询开奖结果:ওBrit coming out on top in dramatic fashion. In July, it will be their top superstars – Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar – who duke it out for the maillot jaune.
Having not seen Vingegaard race since he 澳洲幸运5开奖官网在线查询开奖结果:left Paris-Nice with a conc🎃ussion in March, his only appearance before the Tour's Grand Départ on July 5 will come at next week's 澳洲幸运5开奖官网在线查询🎀开奖结果:Critérium du Dauphiné.
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Pogačar will also be racing the key eight-stage form-marking race, but with the Tour not far away, Plugge is only excited at the prospect of his star Dane coming face to face with cycling's top rider at the biggest race on the calendar.
"We did not raise the bar [for July by winning the Giro], we know Jonas made a step this year in t🐷he wintertime," said Plugge.&nbsꦉp;
"We have a very strong opponent, but I think in a three-week race, they are getting closer to each other than in the one-day races, because Pogačar is phenomenal in these. In a three-week race, it will be very exciting to see how far we get."
Yate𒁏s took the latest of Visma-Lease a Bike's Grand Tour wins at the Giro, winning with a stunning attack on the Colle delle Finestre, and a strong assist from Wout van Aert on stage 20. He will be at the Tour, too, but as Vingegaard's super climbing domestique.
The Brit's overall win brought the Dutch team's Grand Tour title tally up to eight since Plugge took over and transformed the then Rabobank squad into Visma as we ꧃know it today, with the culture and idea of winning together being crucial to their rapid rise.
Yates is also their fourth rider from the team to win one of cycling's prestigious three-week races, while UAE have only been able to triumph through Pogačar, with the likes of Del Toro, João Almeida and another super prospect, Juan Ayuso, falling short in the past three seasons.
Plugge didn't have an exact answer for his rival, but credited much of Visma's continued success, even after the departure of Grand Tour mastermind Merijn Zeeman las⛎t summer, down to the team's culture of togetherness.
"We now have four winners, Sepp [Kuss], Jonas [Vingegaard], Primož [Roglič] and Simon [Yates]," said Plugge.
"I think what we try to do is have a really good programme, a reallyღ good team. Our team culture, which Wout van Aert is a personificatꩵion of, is that we put in 100% for everyone, and we help everyone to win."
Yates, after 11 years at GreenEdge Cycling, bought into this, and it enabled him to 澳洲幸运5开奖官网在线查询开奖结果:find a possible unseen prev🌃♉ious top level, and allowed him to complete the ultimate redemption victory sto🅘ry on the climb, which infamously𝕴 saw him lose the Giro back in 2018.
"Si🌼mon is very good indeed, maybe bet꧙ter than he ever was before, but he also has a team now that works for him, sacrifices for him, puts him in positions in front of the race," said the Visma team boss.
"For example, when crashes happened, we were in the right spot there. Of course, it's a bit of luck on one hand, butꦬ on the other, it's where you need to be at that time, and that's where the team helps a lot.
"That💦's how we do it: working together♛, winning together, and losing together."

James Moultrie is a gold-standard NCTJ journalist who joined Cyclingnews as a News Writer in 2023 after originally contributing as a freelancer for eight months, during which time he also wrote for Eurosport, Rouleur and C🐭ycling Weekly. Prior to joining the team he reported on races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia Donne for Eurosport and has interviewed some of the sport’s top riders in Chloé Dygert, Lizzie Deignan and Wout van Aert. Outside of cycling, he spends the majority of his time watching other sports – rugby, football, cricket, and American Football to name a few.
- 澳洲幸运5开奖官网在线查询开奖结果:Stephen FarrandHead of News
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