The verdict landed on The Move, the cycling podcast Bruyneel co-hosts with Lance Armstrong. Vingegaard, the Belgian argued, has hit his ceiling.

“Something tells me, and I don’t have any information on this, it’s purely a hunch, that Jonas is at his limit,” Bruyneel said on the show, in comments reported by IDL ProCycling.

The core claim is blunt. Vingegaard, Bruyneel told the podcast, is not winning cycling’s biggest race again as long as Pogacar is standing on the start line.

Seixas enters the equation

Pogacar sealed a fifth Tour title in July, joining Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Miguel Indurain on the all-time list. He beat Remco Evenepoel by nearly six and a half minutes in a race Vingegaard did not finish after a crash that ended his season.

Read also: Liverpool set unwanted Anfield record never seen in 442 Premier League matches

Behind Pogacar, the Belgian pointed to another name: Paul Seixas. The 20-year-old Frenchman, heavily linked to Visma-Lease a Bike, finished fourth on his Tour debut this year after winning Flèche Wallonne, the Tour of the Basque Country, and the Tour of Lombardy.

According to IDL ProCycling, Bruyneel sees the Dutch team as the natural landing spot, pointing to Seixas’s friendship with Visma rider Bruno Armirail as the reason the team is in pole position.

Visma, Bruyneel argued, wants the Tour. If Seixas arrives, the team’s leadership question answers itself.

‘Project Jonas is over’

The sharpest line was reserved for the Visma rider himself.

Read also: Vingegaard’s winter dilemma

“Project Jonas for the future is over. From what I understand from people who have some inside information from Denmark and the surrounding area, Jonas won’t be racing much more. He has other priorities, but he won’t race until he’s 35. He’ll ride for another two or three years,” Bruyneel told the podcast, in comments carried by IDL ProCycling.

Vingegaard has won two Tours, in 2022 and 2023. He completed the Grand Tour set with victory at the Giro d’Italia in May, having also taken the Vuelta a España in 2025. His contract with Visma runs through 2028.

The Dane himself has started talking openly about broadening his program. He told reporters in the summer that there are “still many races I haven’t won,” pointing to the Tour de Romandie and Tour de Suisse as targets for 2027. Analysts have urged him to go further and build a full Classics campaign around the Tour, though Vingegaard has not confirmed such a shift. His full 2027 calendar is expected in January.

The messenger

Bruyneel’s authority on Tour de France dynasties comes with the heaviest of asterisks. He was the sporting director at US Postal and Discovery Channel during the Armstrong years, and in October 2018 the Court of Arbitration for Sport imposed a lifetime ban on him for his role in that era’s doping. Armstrong’s seven Tour titles were stripped.

Read also: Spanish Footballer in intensive care after suffering cardiac arrest during match

No deal with Seixas has been announced, and the rider himself has publicly declined to confirm any destination, saying he is taking his time on the next contract.

Read also: Mathieu van der Poel makes surprise admission about his cyclocross future