Recent content by Extinction

Let's say Remco is able to keep up with Pogi in the mountains, which entirely remains to be seen, mind you, a long TT of 50 km could be decisive. In any case, with this generation long ITTs should really come back, as in two 50 km ones, not the ridiculously short ones of late.

Neither was an issue, so why discuss it, right?

Firstly, being at the right weight is no gaurantee for success. Secondly, not being at the right weight, in this case too heavy, likely results in failure. Neither is an excuse, but an unavoidable truth.

Nice try. He has entered more than one GT too heavy, which was admitted by his then team staff.

Why? Has that ever been an issue? No, it hasn't.

A It is a simple fact that can't be omitted from the critical assessment. So I'm not trying to beat a dead horse, but stating an unavoidable truth.

It's irrilevant what they respectively achieved early in their careers. Remco had a trajectory altering crash and didn't, mistakenly in my opinion, even ride the Tour until 2024. Without that crash, he likely would have ridden the Tour in 2021 and we'd have a whole different set of parameters...

It depends on his weight, if he still needs to shed a few kilos then realistically we won't see him going solo on 8% grades. The uncany thing about Pogacar is that even in early season races with climbs, he always seems to be very light and fit. Remco , who is more like a pitbull, may simply not...

The big question is how much, at this time of the year, would Tadej have put into Almeida under the same circumstances? Put differently, would Pogacar have ridden away from Remco today?

But who is a "natural" climber in modern cycling based on body "type" vs. someone who can just find the right power to weight combo through scientific performance training? Geraint Thomas won Alpe d'Huez during a GC battle. Was he a "natural climber" more than say a featherweight like Louis...

Anybody that can ride to third in his first Tour is a "natural climber" by any definition. At any rate, the whole notion of "natural" is scientifically meaningless, when it just boils down to power to weight ratio over sustained output. One either has it or not and everybody has to train hard...

Or Roglic?

Well, Well, we'll never find out if he doesn't start!

Sure, so Remco should also be able to target "non-conventional" races if he wants too. Perhaps he allows team management to convince him otherwise too much; that, for example, MSR is not "for him"; that Flanders is "too dangerous" (nevermind for a Flandrian it should be an annual must); that...

Remco should throw himself all in and to hell with MvdP in his prime. Who cares if he loses, so long as the fight is earnest? Cycling needs the biggest stars at the biggest events. We're not in the same sport of 20 years ago. With Pog and MvdP, it's more like back to historical cycling and Remco...