Teams & Riders Everybody needs a little bit of Roglstomp in their lives

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Another day when I was unavailable so just watched the stage. Amazing Champion!!! How many people can come back after his last 6 months and win back to back WT stages and take the leaders jersey on their 4th and 5th days back racing? Name one please :).
Keep on stomping Primoz you make me happy to be a cycling fan :blush:
I know two similar cases, both done by the same rider.
  1. Tour Down Under, Alejandro Valverde Belmonte winning queen stage on Old Willunga Hill, on his 5th day of racing after 20 months pause due to suspension.
  2. Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, he wins on his 4th day of racing after 7 months pause due to a broken leg.
 
I know two similar cases, both done by the same rider.
  1. Tour Down Under, Alejandro Valverde Belmonte winning queen stage on Old Willunga Hill, on his 5th day of racing after 20 months pause due to suspension.
  2. Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, he wins on his 4th day of racing after 7 months pause due to a broken leg.
Back to back wins on 4th and 5th day and taking leaders jersey was the criteria :)
 
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A very, very sweet win. What a crazy good week.

I'll also say he's in a very interesting shape right now because that performance was IMO very impressive on the sort of stage profile where he hasn't always enjoyed himself (a circuit with very small punchy climbs where positioning is very important). He could basically do whatever he wanted today & followed whomever without breaking a sweat or finding himself out of position. Yesterday some people suggested he wasn't in good shape on that final climb but I don't think the same could be said today. He was the strongest.
 
A very, very sweet win. What a crazy good week.

I'll also say he's in a very interesting shape right now because that performance was IMO very impressive on the sort of stage profile where he hasn't always enjoyed himself (a circuit with very small punchy climbs where positioning is very important). He could basically do whatever he wanted today & followed whomever without breaking a sweat or finding himself out of position. Yesterday some people suggested he wasn't in good shape on that final climb but I don't think the same could be said today. He was the strongest.
A circuit like this is perfect for Roglic. He's naturally good at these short explosive efforts. It's his trainer who suggested they got lucky yesterday with the headwind because he's not quite there yet on the longer climbs.
 
A circuit like this is perfect for Roglic. He's naturally good at these short explosive efforts. It's his trainer who suggested they got lucky yesterday with the headwind because he's not quite there yet on the longer climbs.

I can't say I agree, at least based upon watching Rog for five years straight. His 'range' (insofar as when he's in good condition) is any climb, basically. Whether it's a 1km wall at the end of a Vuelta stage or the 20km Col de la Loze in the TdF.

It's the positioning required in a circuit race with flandrien style steep little climbs (on cobbles as well) which has often been an issue. But he was all over Landa today when he attacked on that penultimate cobbled climb & had no positioning problems at all, even without teammates there guiding him (he even jumped on Vlasov on the flat at one point).

So that's why IMO he appears to me in such great shape. He did what he wanted to, basically. He certainly looked much better today than he did 1 year ago when he got dropped by Simon Yates in last year's Paris-Nice. It's the body language as well (he looks spritely on the bike).

I'm hoping this encouraging performance is the first sign of that shoulder operation last autumn having positive effects; aka no more health niggles.
 
I can't say I agree, at least based upon watching Rog for five years straight. His 'range' (insofar as when he's in good condition) is any climb, basically. Whether it's a 1km wall at the end of a Vuelta stage or the 20km Col de la Loze in the TdF.

It's the positioning required in a circuit race with flandrien style steep little climbs (on cobbles as well) which has often been an issue. But he was all over Landa today when he attacked on that penultimate cobbled climb & had no positioning problems at all, even without teammates there guiding him (he even jumped on Vlasov on the flat at one point).

So that's why IMO he appears to me in such great shape. He did what he wanted to, basically. He certainly looked much better today than he did 1 year ago when he got dropped by Simon Yates in last year's Paris-Nice. It's the body language as well (he looks spritely on the bike).

I'm hoping this encouraging performance is the first sign of that shoulder operation last autumn having positive effects; aka no more health niggles.
Positioning may be a bit of an issue, he'll probably never be completely comfortable in a peloton. But give him a stage like this any day rather than some giant mountain pass like the Stelvio or Tourmalet. This comes naturally to him, and that's why even when he's not in great shape yet he can win on such a course.
 
Positioning may be a bit of an issue, he'll probably never be completely comfortable in a peloton. But give him a stage like this any day rather than some giant mountain pass like the Stelvio or Tourmalet. This comes naturally to him, and that's why even when he's not in great shape yet he can win on such a course.
At high speed he's pretty bad at moving through a peloton. But uphill on low speeds he's actually quite aggressive in moving himself into and shoving those mini climbers around a bit.
 
Him dominating high mountains is over, but that doesnt mean he's not absolutely lethal in these kinda races since thats more of his natural element (kinda similar to Valverde).

Will be interesting in Catalunya. Need to actually check the route and the competition, but chances are he'll win that one as well given how that race is usually raced.
 
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