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

[Sciatic]

Nibali and Froome are/were reliable in long and brutal mountain stages. Roglic never had his best performances in stages like we will have in 2 days for example.

2020 Loze? Only 170 km, but two brutal climbs late in race.

 

[DoYouEvenRideBruh]

I'm worried less about age by itself and more about the cumulative effects of all the crashes he has suffered over the last few years. At 35, you don't recover from them as well as in your twenties, and the man hits the deck constantly. I don't doubt his mental resilience, but at some point his body might just decide that it's had enough.

 

[Extinction]

Adding to your point: other than Pogi 2024, Froome+Dumoulin in 2018, Valverde in 2016 and Contador in 2015, who else managed to top10 both the Giro and the Tour in the same year, in the last 10 years?

It's a really hard thing to do. Giro+Vuelta or Tour+Vuelta seem way more likely to happen.

Which is a shame that Pogi didn't go for the grand slam last year, seeing as he was in such a great spot and form. It was a golden missed opportunity to win all 3 GTs in the same year.

The Tour with a Giro in the lega is only for Giants. A Vuelta with the Tour in the legs is a second opportunity or else preparing for Worlds.

 

[Peyroteo94]

2020 Loze? Only 170 km, but two brutal climbs late in race.

Still got beaten by MAL. His best performances are normally in the Vuelta (steep but shorter climbs at low altitude).

 

[CyclistAbi]

What’s the count for each GC rider on how many times they crashed these past 2 weeks?

I mean this Giro was/is already in general a crash fest, for all, but lets look in Rogličes main category, top 6, and accounting recent major (among a lot of minor crashes) crashes and resulting injuries:

Wout van Aert - severe knee injury.
Mathieu van der Poel - currently in hospital Tour participation under threat.
Remco Evenepoel - severe crash and injuries.
Jonas Vingegaard - several severe crashes and injuries.
Tadej Pogačar - injured wrist.

P.S. Rogla meanwhile still fighting while obvisuly in pain.

 

[CyclistAbi]

Roglic's bike handling is a mystery to me.

There are no such mysteries in modern pro peloton, it's a crash fest. And then organisers add additional guarantees, in form of stage design, for crashes to occur. Meanwhile doing nothing to reduce number of crashes or more importantly injuries. Cycling can never become a top sport with such bad image, on when it comes to athlete safety, that is a guarantee.

 

[Jan the Man]

Crashing has always sadly been a part of the sport. I don’t particularly feel it is getting significantly worse and certainly the riders have more authority than ever when it comes to neutralising races which 20/30 years ago would have carried on.

 

[CyclistAbi]

So more time shifted on stage 15, clearly riding in pain. Team doctor to asses and make the final decision, whenever to start after the rest day, or not. Stage 9 is on where injuries where inflicted, shoulder pain and leg muscle pain, crashing on TT reckon didn't help, still things improved ever so slightly, then unfortunately again a mass crash on stage 14, on where Rogla confirmed, after the stage, same muscles affected by the crash.

 

[Sciatic]

Still got beaten by MAL. His best performances are normally in the Vuelta (steep but shorter climbs at low altitude).

He was never a climber of MAL’s quality, but few were. He did drop Pog. But it was more of an outlier performance and as you say those have not been par courses that he’s performed the best at.

 

[YavorD]

Still got beaten by MAL. His best performances are normally in the Vuelta (steep but shorter climbs at low altitude).

To be honest, on his day and especially at altitude MAL was as good as the climbers get. Really no shame in being dropped by MAL.

 

[Oldman]

He was much better earlier this week, so I think he got quite hurt yesterday. Possibly landing on an old wound?

Shoulder injuries are not like surface wounds. They can take a year or more to heal and you must avoid more abuse during that period. Ask Remco and probably Jonas. It's not even potential traumatizing an old fracture or repair; the nerve issues around scapula and axila nerve pathways wreak painful havoc from the neck to the finger tips. Trying to ride a bike competitively on gravel and taking a few, even light crashes will start those nerve area issues. You can't even sit correctly enough to race, let alone recover for another stage.

This really sucks.

 

[SHAD0W93]

Bad race overall so far for Roglic. If he has to withdraw and take time off I think it’d be better to try for the Vuelta win.

 

[CyclistAbi]

Shoulder injuries are not like surface wounds.

In interviews, by Rogla and Tratnik ... a lot of subtle hints were given over the days, on how things stand in regards to the health. For example stage 9 affected shoulder and leg muscles and as a result it was hard to be aggressive in finales. Then things in general did improve, unfortunately stage 14 was a setback again. Tratnik had issues with swollen knee (water), as a result of crash on stage 9. That luckily improved substantially over the days.

All in all Rogla is currently riding in pain, chances to start on Tuesday are hence slim, doctors decision, but if by any chance Rogla decided to continue, lets hope for the body to respond in such way, that the pain will still be manageable. Obviously any idea on riding the remainder of this Giro edition near 100% healthy, that is out of the picture. Ideally Rogla would still get a chance, sufficient health, to beat the competition. But i know, it's a big ask, considering the injuries involved.

 

[SHAD0W93]

@CyclistAbi do you think Roglic has a better chance to win the Tour or Vuelta?

 

[CyclistAbi]

@SHAD0W93

Lets not get ahead of such things. Very slim, still, a chance does exist, that health situation will allow for it. In that case stage 16 is way way more important than some other potential future goals. In general, if the health will allow for it, then it's Giro-Tour double this season, among some other things.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZWKBpL1d0M


Lets pray for Rogla now, not much else one can do. Rogla is no alien, he is a human.

 

[Cookster15]

He was never a climber of MAL’s quality, but few were. He did drop Pog. But it was more of an outlier performance and as you say those have not been par courses that he’s performed the best at.

I think MAL was a little overrated. MAL was only a great climber when the roads went over 2,000 metres. In the 2020 TdF on Col de la Loze Roglic only finished 15 seconds behind MAL, but Roglic also finished 15 seconds ahead of Pogacar that day. Sure Pog is a different level now but objectively there is nothing wrong with Roglic's climbing on big cols.

Also when MAL won those stages he paid for it by cracking and losing any chance of a podium. That happened more than once. We don't see that with Roglic who has excellent 3rd week recovery - when he isn't hurt.

As for today's stage, as mentioned above, Roglic is clearly riding in pain so not indicative of his true climbing ability. A shame really.

 

[zlev11]

isn't Pogacar doing the Vuelta? it'd be better to finish 5th with maybe a stage win at the Tour than to finish 2nd at the Vuelta (after already winning 4 of them).

Robbie McEwen could barely hide his giddiness today while Roglic was getting dropped. I dunno why but he clearly just hates Roglic for some reason. he talked some hater bullsh*t about him after stage 7 too. it'd be nice if Primoz could come back and win this just to make that guy cry.

 

[Hugh Januss]

There are no such mysteries in modern pro peloton, it's a crash fest. And then organisers add additional guarantees, in form of stage design, for crashes to occur. Meanwhile doing nothing to reduce number of crashes or more importantly injuries. Cycling can never become a top sport with such bad image, on when it comes to athlete safety, that is a guarantee.

There have always been crashes and era to era the speed just continues to go up as the number of riders fighting for the front goes up too. Add in all of the traffic calming road furniture along with tighter fields and it's easy to expect more mass crashes. I don't think rider bike handling has gotten worse, I'm sure that most riders ride MTB or CX in the off season whether or not they publicize it so skills are good. Speeds are higher situations are tighter.

 

[Miha81]

isn't Pogacar doing the Vuelta? it'd be better to finish 5th with maybe a stage win at the Tour than to finish 2nd at the Vuelta (after already winning 4 of them).

It is not in his schedule as far as I know. I think TDF and WC are his main goals for rest of the season.

 

[SHAD0W93]

isn't Pogacar doing the Vuelta? it'd be better to finish 5th with maybe a stage win at the Tour than to finish 2nd at the Vuelta (after already winning 4 of them).

It’s not confirmed yet for Pogacar but possible, so far Vingegaard is the only one confirmed. Then if Vingegaard starts slow that could be to Roglic’s advantage. He was better at the first 1-2 weeks in 2023. If Vingegaard loses CDD and Tour it could also be possible he doesn’t ride Vuelta depending on the circumstances.

 

[Rackham]

isn't Pogacar doing the Vuelta? it'd be better to finish 5th with maybe a stage win at the Tour than to finish 2nd at the Vuelta (after already winning 4 of them).

Robbie McEwen could barely hide his giddiness today while Roglic was getting dropped. I dunno why but he clearly just hates Roglic for some reason. he talked some hater bullsh*t about him after stage 7 too. it'd be nice if Primoz could come back and win this just to make that guy cry.

Due to the time zone differences Robbie McEwen basically sits there alone at night in Australia providing 'insight' which tbh often seems like just pub talk from a guy who's had one or two beers too many.

In moments like this I just ignore the negative chatter entirely. In a way it's a symbol of just how much Rog matters as a champ. If you get the haters passions stirred, you've clearly done something big with your sports career. Take for example Hindley: Giro champ, big name within the context of cycling at least... and when he abandoned 99% of everyone just shrugged. Rog meanwhile generates a lot of chatter. For better or for worse.

But on the topic of his injuries, if it's his shoulder that was operated on over two years ago that's the problem, I don't want to make predictions about a comeback or next win (because a recurrence of the same injury could be problematic). I'm still sort of hoping he can continue here in this Giro and get better tbh. It would be the best outcome.

 

[noob]

Since he cracked on his back and his bike were nowhere to be seen in that pileup he should definitely be in pain.

 

[kamaveli]

Most people forget that pain is not only effect of these less serious crashes. Given that Roglic is as though as they come I'm sure that pain alone wouldn't slow him down singnificantly.
It is quite obvious his injuries are more severe than we tought and it is directly affecting his recovery and power output.

 

[Rackham]

Come on Rog.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1926943660936925678

View: https://x.com/cirogazzetta/status/1926943660936925678

 

[Red Rick]

Tomorrow should decide if there's still something to be had at the Giro or not. If he's better than yesterday, podium is still possible. If he drops 10 minutes, I don't see him in breakaways either.