The soaring temperatures across Northern France are, in many ways, reflective of the bubbling general classification battle between UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Visma-Lease a Bike during the 2025 Tour de France. We have had two sprint days in a row and although there has been no physical battles of strength, a war of words between the two favourite teams has begun. The tensions have been simmering away in the background and on stage 10, when the hilly terrain allows, they could come close to boiling point. 

The disagreements have only been minor – small, playground-style bickering between two teams who are never going to get along. There were first the comments from Tadej Pogačar to the media after stage six where he belittled the “confusing” tactics of Visma-Lease a Bike. A few days later, there were calls from the world champion for more “respect” in feed zones when he argued that Visma was preventing him from getting water bottles when he needed to.

“I don’t know what their intention was,” he said. “They do this a lot of times, coming in front of you in feed zones like they’re the only ones having bottles there. Sometimes you have to be patient and stay on the wheel when taking a bottle and pay respect to everybody.”

Winning Grand Tours, as both Visma and UAE are acutely aware of, is about more than just producing the highest number of watts per kilogram in the mountains. Surviving the three weeks of racing on the road to Paris is also a mental battle; Pogačar’s competitors are going to do everything they can to put him under pressure, especially when they know how difficult this will be to do when the 26-year-old is on the charge and attacking during the race. Every crack in his armour that they can find – on or off the bike – will be exploited. 

Speaking the day before the expected general classification showdown on stage 10, Pogačar played down his own strength, stating that he believes Visma will be able to challenge him on the rolling climbs between Ennezat and Le Mont-Dore Puy de Sancy on Monday.

“I think they [Visma] should be confident, if I am them [he would be]. It’s still two weeks to go basically. Losing one rider today is a bit of a disadvantage [João Almeida abandoned stage nine due to injury], but I am pretty confident in my team and looking forward to the next hard days,” he said.

The UAE Team Emirates man’s key rival, Jonas Vingegaard, also told media that he is expecting a crucial day in this year’s Tour de France to play out tomorrow: “There will be GC action, it is a hard day, hard course, it is up and down the whole day. This will be the first real test outside of the time trial.” 

Is the Danish rider ready for it? “Yes,” he stated in no uncertain terms.

So, let the games begin. Both Pogačar and Vingegaard say that they are ready. They have been watching each other closely until this point. The world champion has more stage victories and executed a better time trial a few days ago, but his Visma nemesis has also been riding better than ever – before we have got to his favoured terrain. The anticipation has been building in the form of mind games and bickering, but tomorrow will be all about the legs. It’s ‘go time’ at the Tour de France.

“I think Jonas will be ready for tomorrow,” Pogačar said after stage nine. “I think it will be a really open race, a lot of things can happen. It is not like three big climbs in the whole stage, but lots of climbs all day and up and down. It’s an interesting stage and, for sure, it will make for good TV.”