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

[Rackham]

I believe at the moment there's two realities on display with regards Rog's situation & they're not mutually inclusive, i.e. there's the reality of the narrative surrounding his current performance & placing in Paris-Nice compared to his competitors (& compared to his perceived performances at this stage of the season in previous years), then there's the actual reality of the road itself & what has happened so far.

The narrative is very obvious & not something which can be controlled or countered, i.e. if he gets 'beaten' here by Jorgenson in particular, then the talk will be pretty cut & dry: "new Visma boy beats former Visma boy, Plugge wins".

But then when I look at the actual reality of the race so far, I think it's way, way more nuanced. The route for starters is like a series of one day races so far, i.e. not Rog's forte. Even today, there was very little possibility of getting separation from such a large bunch on such a short cat 2 climb. Evenepoel claimed he made a mistake himself. I disagree. I think when there's a group like that we see nine times out of ten the element of opportunism play the biggest determining factor in deciding who gets away. Today it was McNulty, Jorgenson & Skjelmose. Did they have good legs? Yes. But I suspect quite a few in the bunch behind could have put in the same gap had they moved at that moment when everyone was looking at Rog & Evenepoel.

I need to see Rog in actual mountains before I draw more pertinent conclusions from what we've seen so far. I just don't think Paris-Nice has that this weekend.

 

[theyoungest]

Tullet and Jorgenson entered JBV and are flying.
Roglic leaves JBV and his sheding time and raising doubts.
Too early to tell but perhaps they have in fact an improved - non-clinic - approach to coaching and nutrition.

There is an example of a guy who went from Bora to Jumbo, in Kelderman, and in a podcast he said Jumbo are really far ahead of Bora. But Roglic took his trainer with him, so how much has really changed, you have to wonder. I mean, the trainer knows what Jumbo does, he can simply replicate it... or maybe it's not that easy.

Could also be something else, a different preparation, trying to really peak for the Tour, but if you see how good his rivals are already... they're not going to get any worse, that's for sure. If you put Vingegaard in this field I'm pretty sure he rides away from all of them, as would Pogacar.

 

[AmRacer]

So, Rogla has not got his wings yet.

 

[bNator]

There is an example of a guy who went from Bora to Jumbo, in Kelderman, and in a podcast he said Jumbo are really far ahead of Bora. But Roglic took his trainer with him, so how much has really changed, you have to wonder. I mean, the trainer knows what Jumbo does, he can simply replicate it... or maybe it's not that easy.

Could also be something else, a different preparation, trying to really peak for the Tour, but if you see how good his rivals are already... they're not going to get any worse, that's for sure. If you put Vingegaard in this field I'm pretty sure he rides away from all of them, as would Pogacar.

But Kelderman himself doesn’t really seem to benefit from the move. Wasn’t he a GC favourite at some point in the 2020 Giro with Bora?

But apart from him, the other moves seem to all but confirm this understanding…

 

[theyoungest]

But Kelderman himself doesn’t really seem to benefit from the move. Wasn’t he a GC favourite at some point in the 2020 Giro with Bora?

But apart from him, the other moves seem to all but confirm this understanding…

That was with DSM, or whatever they were called back then.

Kelderman has resigned himself to a domestique role. If you hear him in interviews he's not ambitious at all anymore, he's always been overly modest but now it's quite extreme. Still for a domestique he's riding at a pretty decent level, I would say.

 

[Red Rick]

Roglic will ride both Flèche and Liège after all.

Primož Roglič to add Ardennes campaign to pre-Tour de France race schedule

Red Bull branding and major sponsorship to be worn at the Tour this summer

www.globalcyclingnetwork.com

Its the 2021 Nibali storyline

It is so in the bag

 

[SHAD0W93]

Its the 2021 Nibali storyline

It is so in the bag

Do you mean 2014?

 

[RedheadDane]

Do you mean 2014?

Maybe by "It" he means Giro di Sicilia. Except, that got cancelled, so... the race that got created as a replacement.

 

[Red Rick]

Do you mean 2014?

No this is the no hope all memes and vibes era

 

[topcat]

Paris Nice-in the bag.
Fleche- in the bag, tuning up his mountain sprint nicely
Liege- in the bag, he won it before so of course, he'll win it again
Tour- this is so in the bag, it goes without saying

View: https://youtu.be/AvsXPtMzXME?si=sThTfTNpy4657qS_

 

[Froome]

No, Roglic is actually talented and has a lot more character.

Maybe he has a lot more character( i don't even care), but certainly he is not so talented than Froome in his prime, because he won 4 Tours, and almost the same vueltas Roglic won.

You can think that as a fan, but the reality is different because the palmares of each other says the opposite, even if now Froome is finished.

 

[Carrick-On-Seine]

Tullet and Jorgenson entered JBV and are flying.
Roglic leaves JBV and his sheding time and raising doubts.
Too early to tell but perhaps they have in fact an improved - non-clinic - approach to coaching and nutrition.

Maybe they're just young and improving

 

[Faserr]

Jorgensen was really good at the beginning of last year, too.

 

[Peyroteo94]

Not gonna lie, he looks unimpressive and very far from being a threat to Vingegaard in the Tour.

 

[Rackham]

Not gonna lie, he looks unimpressive and very far from being a threat to Vingegaard in the Tour.

I'm reading quite a lot of comments this evening which say exactly the same... yet when I look at the route in Paris-Nice so far, I think people are overreacting.

I sense Rog might be getting a tad frustrated as well because he really is running out of road to make a difference. There's been a single cat 1 climb & he's lost something like 3 seconds in terms of actual gaps versus Evenepoel. The rest is bonus seconds & the TTT.

Again, I use Evenepoel as the marker because those two are watching each other constantly & basing their race tactics off one another. Today was the first time we actually saw race conditions make them collaborate (& Bernal for example just sat there whilst Evenepoel, Rog & Vlasov did all the chasing in the final 15km).

 

[Red Rick]

Any form issue he has does get a little exagerrated by launching an attack so comically hard before the steep gradients even start

 

[sam6]

I understand that some riders do start the season slow and work up to form later, but not Roglic. He's always strong throughout the season. Even last year when he won Tirreno Adriatico having been added last minute having had a disrupted off-season because of injuries. This is not normal for him and something is wrong. Roglic is the one who gains seconds with his sprint at the end, not Remco. Something is wrong with him

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Maybe Rogla became more like Skeletor? Super thin and optimized for long climbs but at the cost of less anaerobic capacity. We will see at the weekend.

 

[Divergence]

I think this is the first time since I became a fan of his that I really wonder about his form. He has not had any crashes as far as the public knows. That leaves us with three possibilities. He said he was sick during the winter quite a few time (let us say at least two time) so that can disrupt one's preparation. The next possibility is that he did not work much on his top end in terms of power (but even then, he seamed to struggle a bit today after getting caught and that should have been a pretty sustainable pace for him) and he is waiting to do that in time for the TdF. Last, maybe whatever he did is not working and he just cannot produce the needed power.
In any case, he seems to be a little lackluster and I hope he can improve and show us some form before the TdF.

 

[johnymax]

Guys, I don't know what to think. Has the stomp gone for good or does it just need some time to come back?
I don't even care about the Tour, but I'm scared about Fleche, Fleche Wallone, man...
This world,... this life needs a Rogla FW win. I'm scared...

 

[Red Rick]

If he doesn't look better by Itzulia I'll be disappointed.

I'm not worried in the sense that I feel like the Tour is nearly impossible anyway.

And I don't believe the move to Bora would explain the difference in form all alone.

 

[gregrowlerson]

The church of Rogla is struggling to see the light I see.

It is early days. He lost some time doing an ITT when everyone else did a TTT. The team is alright. Hindley has decent form in Italy.

Primoz may pleasantly surprise on stage 7.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

If he's sacrificed some explosiveness to get stronger in longer climbs, his race programme makes no sense?

Why focus the spring calendar on Paris Nice and Basque country? These are the most hilly and explosive WT stage races.

I saw Roglic complaining about the cold weather here in this Paris Nice. His fans say he is much better in heat. Well, paris nice and Basque Tour are cool, wet or windy races, the worst of the spring.

He said he is here in Paris Nice to get used to teammates, the team, equipment. If he want to get used to equipment and teammates, he could have gone to Algarve or UAE tour. In Uae it would be nice and warm with a time trial, in Algarve low stress with a long time trial. These would be an ideal races to get used to the team. There is not TTT in le tour, there is no reason to come to Paris Nice for that.

After UAE or Algarve he could then go to altitude to prepare Cataluña, Liege and Romandie. These races suit much better the guys who are strong in the long climbs, would be better opportunities to test the legs. Catalunya is warmer as well, a nice option.

Even Tirreno would be better than Paris Nice, because Tirreno has the long climbs and an ITT. He could race with hindley, who will be much more present in the high Mountains of Le tour than Vlasov. He could also do Strade Bianche to practice the gravel, certainly would be better option for the team, than dani Felipe Martinez.

He should at least be the favourite for fleche wallonnie

 

[repre]

Vingo looked dead against Pogacar this time last year and even against Gaudu. Chill out people

 

[acm]

Guys, I don't know what to think. Has the stomp gone for good or does it just need some time to come back?
I don't even care about the Tour, but I'm scared about Fleche, Fleche Wallone, man...
This world,... this life needs a Rogla FW win. I'm scared...

Like "pufff", in 5 months? That would be weird...