Exclusive: Nathan van Hooydonck pinpoints ‘where Jonas Vingegaard makes the difference’, tips him for Tour hat-trick

Nathan van Hooydonck has pinpointed what sets Jonas Vingegaard apart from Tadej Pogacar and the rest of his rivals as his former Visma-Lease a Bike team-mate goes for a historic Tour de France hat-trick this summer.

Should he top the general classification standings come July 21, Vingegaard will join an exclusive club of riders to claim the yellow jersey on three successive occasions.

It’s a list that contains some of the biggest names in the sport, including Eddy Merckx, Jacques Anquetil, Miguel Indurain, Chris Froome and Louison Bobet.

Yet it’s lofty company Van Hooydonck believes Vingegaard belongs in.

The Dane dethroned Pogacar in 2022, denying the Slovenian his own three-peat, and defended his title at the end of another gruelling duel with his fierce rival.

Van Hooydonck played a vital role in Vingegaard’s success in the iconic race before he was forced to retire in October 2023 after being diagnosed with a heart anomaly.

In an exclusive interview with Eurosport, the 28-year-old explained what makes Vingegaard such a formidable competitor.

“I think his ability to recover day in day out as good as he can because as we all saw Pogacar was equally strong actually in the first two weeks last year,” he said. “I think Jonas proved that in the third week that’s where he makes the difference.

“Also the belief in himself. I think he believes he’s the best and as soon as he commits to the start of the season, he only has the Tour de France on his mind.”

It’s set up to be one of the most fascinating Tours in recent memory. As well as Vingegaard and Pogacar, the spotlight will also be on Primoz Roglic (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step).

Roglic, 34, closed the book on his seven-year association with Visma-Lease a Bike at the end of last season and will be bidding to add the Tour to his past triumphs in the Giro d’Italia (2023) and Vuelta a Espana (2019, 2020, 2021).

As for Evenepoel, the highly rated Belgian is set for his long-awaited debut. The 24-year-old has downplayed his chances but Van Hooydonck is anticipating a four-way scrap for the top step of the podium.

“I think it’s going to be a very hard contested Tour de France,” Van Hooydonck added. “I think the four best stage racers, they’re all going to attend the Tour and I think that’s how it should be.

“The best stage racers should race in the Tour de France because that’s what counts, that’s the most important.”

Pushed to choose a winner, however, the Dutchman admitted it’s hard to look past the defending champion.

“If I had to pick, I would pick Jonas any day of the week,” he said. “I’ve worked with him for two years quite closely, we’re still very good friends, I’ll go to his house to visit him before Tour, and I have an extreme amount of confidence in his ability to win the Tour three times.”

For the first time in history, the Tour will conclude outside of Paris, owing to the impending Olympics in the French capital.

While that means there will be no sprint to the finish along the famous Champs Elysees, in its place a time trial between Monaco and Nice could provide fireworks.

Not since 1989 has the battle for the yellow jersey come down to the final stage, and coming after two climbs, Van Hooydonck thinks there is plenty of potential for late drama.

“Paris is really the tradition but now with the Olympics I think it’s quite cool actually to see a time trial and from Monaco to Nice, also the last weekend actually is super hard,” he continued.

“Friday and Saturday have over 4,000 altitude metres and then there’s a really hard time trial to conclude so I think they’re gonna take all the fatigue from the last two mountain stages into the time trail and it might cause an even bigger time differences in than you might expect.”

And whether that will play into the hands of Vingegaard, Pogacar, Roglic or Evenepoel, Van Hooydonck concluded: “All four are quite good time trialists. I think if one of them wasn’t it would be very beneficial for the others but they’re all actually kind of equal.

“And they’re all very good climbers, they have a punch. I think it doesn’t really favour any of them.”