Dominant Pogačar and resurgent Vingegaard set to ignite Tour de France

PARIS (AP) — At just 26 years old, Tadej Pogačar is among cycling's greats and also admired as a spectacular rider. The world champion wins on all terrains, and is favorite to win a fourth Tour de France title.

Pogačar lines up Saturday in the northern city of Lille with his confidence sky-high, boosted by a stellar first half of the season punctuated with prestigious wins in both one-day and stage races.

This year, the Slovenian rider won a third Liège–Bastogne–Liège title and other one day-classics. Most recently, he won the Critérium du Dauphiné, a Tour tune-up, with a dominant display in the mountains.

“I’m lucky to have had close to the perfect preparation this year," the UAE Team Emirates leader said. “Everything has gone really smoothly, especially coming off a great altitude camp with my teammates.”

Pogačar posted back-to-back wins in 2020 and 2021, becoming the youngest double winner of the three-week showcase race. He was also runner-up in 2022 and 2023.

“It’s hard to believe it’s already my sixth Tour de France," he said. "Time flies."

So does Pogačar.

His appetite for victory is insatiable and he has clearly established himself as the No. 1 rider in the world, drawing comparisons with the greatest of all time, Eddy Merckx. The Belgian great was known as “The Cannibal” for his ferocious taste for victory.

The 80-year-old Merckx believes Pogačar has already surpassed him.

“It’s obvious that he is now above me,” Merckx told L'Equipe newspaper after Pogačar won the world championship last year. “Deep down, I already thought as much when I saw what he did on the last Tour de France.”

A fourth Tour win will draw Pogačar level with British rider Chris Froome for the fifth-most wins of all time. Merckx, Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain have won cycling’s biggest race five times.

Pogačar's team is formidable. He will be supported by experienced all-rounders and climbers.

His main threat appears to come from two-time Tour champion Jonas Vingegaard, who leads Team Visma-Lease a Bike.

The 28-year-old Danish rider was runner-up at the Critérium and arrives in much better shape than last year, when his preparations were hampered by a crash that left him with a broken collarbone and ribs, and a collapsed lung.

Vingegaard’s main concern is whether he can match Pogačar in the highest climbs. It is a key factor, since this year’s Tour features six mountain stages, with five summit finishes. The support of teammates Wout van Aert, Matteo Jorgenson, Simon Yates and Sepp Kuss will be crucial to Vingegaard’s chances.

“From day one we will have to be there as a team to optimally assist Jonas,” said Grischa Niermann, the team's head of racing. "We have an optimal preparation behind us and with that, we think we can get the best possible result.”

Although there are two clear favorites, the length and intensity of the Tour makes it a race of attrition, where bad days and crashes are always a threat, keeping the door open for other contenders.

Record four-time Spanish Vuelta champion Primož Roglič, who dramatically lost the 2020 tour to Pogačar in a time-trial, remains a dangerous outsider. Double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel has recovered from multiple injuries sustained in a big crash last year, but may lack the endurance to hang with Pogačar over the distance. João Almeida, Pogačar’s teammate, is capable of leading any other team and could step in if needed. Vingegaard’s teammates Jorgenson and Yates could also emerge if their leader struggles.

The Tour will be 100% in France this year with no stages starting from abroad.

A mostly flat first week starts from Lille and stays in cycling-mad northern France for three stages. The peloton will then head south, via Brittany and the mountainous Massif Central region.

Among the highlights of the route are a trio of Pyrenean stages including a time trial to Peyragudes on Stage 13, and a return to Luchon-Superbagnères. The climbing of the Mont Ventoux, the punishing ascent on which British rider Tom Simpson died in 1967, tests tired legs on Stage 16. The Alps could then decide the winner, with an ascent to Col de la Loze — the highest point of the race at 2,304 meters — and the ski resort of La Plagne in the Alps.

The final stage to Paris promises to be spicy.

Tour riders will climb the Montmartre hill three times during the stage — a significant break from tradition that adds a dose of suspense but could prove logistically challenging with heightened security measures required.

AP cycling: https://apnews.com/hub/cycling

FILE - Slovenia's Primoz Roglic of Red Bull competes during the 10th stage of the Giro d'Italia cycling race, an individual time trial from Lucca to Pisa, Italy, May 20, 2025. (Massimo Paolone/LaPresse via AP, File)

FILE - Matteo Jorgenson of the U.S. crosses the finish line to take a second place in the nineteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 144.6 kilometers (89.9 miles) with start in Embrun and finish in Isola 2000, France, Friday, July 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole, File)

FILE - Remco Evenepoel, of Belgium, shows his gold medals of the men's time trial and road cycling events, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)

FILE - Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard is followed by Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, during the twentieth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 132.8 kilometers (82.5 miles) with start in Nice and finish in La Couillole pass, France, Saturday, July 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole, File)

FILE - Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, passes the Arc de Triomphe during the twenty-first and last stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 108.4 kilometers (67.4 miles) with start in Chatou and finish on the Champs Elysees in Paris, France,Sunday, July 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole, File)

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Richard “Dick” Codey, a former acting governor of New Jersey and the longest serving legislator in the state's history, died Sunday. He was 79.

Codey’s wife, Mary Jo Codey, confirmed her husband’s death to The Associated Press.

“Gov. Richard J. Codey passed away peacefully this morning at home, surrounded by family, after a brief illness,” Codey's family wrote in a Facebook post on Codey's official page.

"Our family has lost a beloved husband, father and grandfather -- and New Jersey lost a remarkable public servant who touched the lives of all who knew him," the family said.

Known for his feisty, regular-guy persona, Codey was a staunch advocate of mental health awareness and care issues. The Democrat also championed legislation to ban smoking from indoor areas and sought more money for stem cell research.

Codey, the son of a northern New Jersey funeral home owner, entered the state Assembly in 1974 and served there until he was elected to the state Senate in 1982. He served as Senate president from 2002 to 2010.

Codey first served as acting governor for a brief time in 2002, after Christine Todd Whitman’s resignation to join President George W. Bush’s administration. He held the post again for 14 months after Gov. Jim McGreevey resigned in 2004.

At that time, New Jersey law mandated that the Senate president assume the governor’s role if a vacancy occurred, and that person would serve until the next election.

Codey routinely drew strong praise from residents in polls, and he gave serious consideration to seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in 2005. But he ultimately chose not to run when party leaders opted to back wealthy Wall Street executive Jon Corzine, who went on to win the office.

Codey would again become acting governor after Corzine was incapacitated in April 2007 due to serious injuries he suffered in a car accident. He held the post for nearly a month before Corzine resumed his duties.

After leaving the governor’s office, Codey returned to the Senate and also published a memoir that detailed his decades of public service, along with stories about his personal and family life.

“He lived his life with humility, compassion and a deep sense of responsibility to others,” his family wrote. “He made friends as easily with Presidents as he did with strangers in all-night diners.”

Codey and his wife often spoke candidly about her past struggles with postpartum depression, and that led to controversy in early 2005, when a talk radio host jokingly criticized Mary Jo and her mental health on the air.

Codey, who was at the radio station for something else, confronted the host and said he told him that he wished he could “take him outside.” But the host claimed Codey actually threatened to “take him out,” which Codey denied.

His wife told The Associated Press that Codey was willing to support her speaking out about postpartum depression, even if it cost him elected office.

“He was a really, really good guy,” Mary Jo Codey said. “He said, ‘If you want to do it, I don’t care if I get elected again.’”

Jack Brook contributed reporting from New Orleans.

FILE - New Jersey State Sen. and former Democratic Gov. Richard Codey is seen before New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy delivers his State of the State address to a joint session of the Legislature at the statehouse, in Trenton, N.J., Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)