Kuss was never a leader until he got the Red Jersey.
And since he got the lead he was a GC threat due to his lead and strength of his two teammates. How do you think Roglic would have done with the positions swapped and getting bullied by three as or stronger riders with a far stronger team than him?
All it took Pogi to blow up in Granon was that he thought Roglic could be in the game so he covered all his attacks.
Right, which is due to Jumbo having two GC leaders plus his previous attacks and showboating. Evenepoel had to worry about two and then three of them. Who all showed to be the strongest in the race, that’s extremely stressful.
More or less unfair than calling Roglic's Giro victory lucky?
I had a prolongued discussion about this with some guys in Remco topic before the Vuelta. I said then that I am not yet convinced he's up to the task when going for GC with the best riders on a really hard route in high mountains. I stand by that, but I am open to change my mind as soon as he manages to keep up with prime Rog, Pog or Vinge on a block of mountain stages with several 1st+ category climbs. I think that's a reasonable doubt. Until then, I would not consider Roglic victory a lucky victory just because Remco didn't finish or had some other mishap...
Edit: The way Remco blew... It wasn't so much of a problem that he couldn't compete with Rog, Vinge or even Kuss. The problem was he was blown at the beginning of the stage, 150km from the finish. You can't really compare that to Granon or de la Loze. Pog was under severe pressure that day and he only blew on the ast climb. Remco was under no pressure (yet), they didn't even try to drop him at that point yet. That's what points to the fact he actually does have a big problem with endurance in stacked high-mountain stages.
If the roles were reversed and it was Roglic who went out with Covid (and Hart with injury) and Evenepoel won all we would hear is how Evenepoel was lucky Roglic became ill, like in the Vuelta last year. Two big favorites went out of the race. Both fan groups are the same side of the coin in regards to the respective riders. The fact is Roglic was losing to Evenepoel in 2022 and only gained time after Evenepoel crashed and had the flat. Yet having a crash is disregarded for Evenepoel when Roglic crashes it’s always brought up for poor performances that occurred on top of saying Evenepoel faked a flat tire to not lose more time. Just like Evenepoel was faking an illness this year. Rolgic wasn’t running away with the Giro like in 2021 Vuelta, he was struggling and didn’t show up until the MTT.
How do you think the roles would have played out if Roglic was in that position of going against 3 as or stronger riders all on the same team and around you in GC while their team is head and shoulders above the rest and yours?
Evenepoel cracked after multiple stages of worrying about two and then three riders all on Jumbo and instead of riding on to save a top 10 gave up so he could go for stages. Now did he underestimate two of the three riders, yes he very much did. He at the start was only worried about Vinge and ended getting worked over by Roglic and Kuss. Something I don’t think Roglic would have walked into per se due to the 2019 Giro.
Pog cracked after attacking every chance he got, responding to Jumbo’s two leaders, and showboating. Then he cracked this year from his poor prep and attempting to go blow for blow with Vinge.
On top of Evenepoel being more focused on Worlds and preparing for the WTT and then having to change his training from the flats to the mountains while losing weight to ride a race he wasn’t planning on doing. Many bring up Roglic potentially not planning on riding the Vuelta in some of his wins but either neglect or forget to mention that he was still training for a GT ride, not one day races and a long, flat TT. If the scenarios were reversed and Roglic had Evenepoel’s prep, we never would have heard the end of it still. Just for a different rider.
So it can be unfair adding in the poor prep and mental aspect and there goes Evenepoel riding out the back.
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