It’s just once again amazing the double standard.
remco wins, its a weak field.
pog wins, nothing.
you all realize that pog is literally the only rider in the world who is targeting uae tour. And coming off that he is in his top shape at strade and TA (he said so himself} while most other riders are only gearing up for the season. Montreal is a completely second tier win. And he never came close to destroying top flight competition repeatedly in long solo raids like remco did. Please tell me how pog’s end of the season competition at lombardia was more challenging than lbl, San Sebastián or worlds? And yet he still had to sprint to beat Mas after his team did most of the work.
I really wonder had it been pog who had fallen in 2020 and had a year out of competition and remco had simply carried on from winning literally every race he entered in 2020, whether the narrative would be reversed if pog then made the comeback remco had? In other words would people all be saying oh well pog is winning against no opposition…?
remco remains literally the only cyclist who’s wins are consistently put down to weak competition.
he destroyed the World Tour competition at three races, where he simply rode everyone off his wheel a minimum of 25 km from the finish and then held off the entire chase, often opening a greater and greater gap.
This is unheard of in modern cycling.
(reminder: the above is no dig at pog, I have repeated several times that he is still the best rider, but the constant devaluing of every remco win, when they are actually historic in nature and style is absolutely mind boggling).
RDS (remco derangement syndrome) is alive and well.
Big Dopie I don't think we disagree entirely but I think you need to be a bit more objective.
I'm not a remco detractor. He had the best season this year. My problem is that people view him as some kind of merckxian reincarnation when really he just races smart and has had very favourable circumstances.
His Liege win actually got me on his side because if the way he won, attacking at Le Redoute. Very historic win. He honor the race unlike Gerrans. But the top favourites for that race were not present that year. This is just a fact, he had nelson Powless chasing his attack and the podium was Hermans and Van Aert.
In la vuelta the route was mickey mouse for a GT and he was still leaking time to Roglic. A Roglic who has 2 weeks training and no training camp/altitude camp, a roglic yet to undergo needed shoulder surgery. The final week stages were a joke, 140km rolling stages. Remco deservedly win this vuelta but it was very weak race. Put him in the Tour this year, you think he can compete with Vinegaard and pogacar?
His world championships win was the epitome of what makes road racing beautiful, because he took the risk and it payed of. But nobody bothered to chase him, the major teams got outsider riders in a move with remco and sat up, they gifted him the win. He just had to drop Lorenzo Rota, Sivakov and some others.
I'm not a fan of remco because of his personality. But as a racer I am absolutely on his side, the way he attacks and understands the dynamics of chase groups not collaboration.
I just want people to remember that in 2022 the stars aligned for him in many ways, and you claim that 'this is unheard of in modern cycling', this is objectively wrong, races are won like this every year by riders who take risks. I'm excited to see how good he is in 2023, but for the moment my impression is that his results flatter his ability a little bit. He should prove me wrong as he develops.
I agree with you that Pogacar 2022 is not as good as Remco 2022 in terms of results.
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