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

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Chapeau, Rog. Great career. My favorite rider of the past 10 years. But as of now, too many crashes and too many birthdays to find another grand tour podium.
The guy literally won the last Grand Tour of the year, last year. I think a podium is not out of reach, and he could win another Vuelta or Giro if things line up (luck, who else is riding, etc.). The Tour? No way. But that goes for everyone. He's had an incredible career and I think he should step back from chasing Grand Tours and pick and choose other races like Tour de Suisse (complete the palmares) and stage hunt at the Tour/Vuelta/Giro and rebuild the RoglaStomp in the final year(s) of his career.
 
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By the way now that the "dream" of third in le Tour is dead can we talk about why it's even a thing these days? I swear no one cared when Richie Porte or Adam Yates podiumed this race.

It's why the Giro was and is the major disappointment of this season because unlike the Tour, Rog could actually have won it.
Obviously the Giro win would be bigger. But I also think having only 1 2nd place at the Tour is below his stature, even as a non-TDF winner, so it would still add to his palmares to get 3rd here, especially when everyone and their mother is calling him completely washed.
 
So first big mountain stage and now seventh in GC, 7:30 down on race leader. Hills on where Visma drilled, over there Rogla still look attentive and comfortable, on Hautacam Pogi and UAE took over and each GC contender bleeding differently. When it became apparent Lipo has better legs today i feel it was a sane choice to let him go. In the end and when it comes to the ultimate climb, Rogla didn't have the legs today, hopefully for that to improve deeper into the race. As for tomorrow and and ITT performance, lets see if Rogla has anything left in the tank, it should suit him.
 
By the way now that the "dream" of third in le Tour is dead can we talk about why it's even a thing these days? I swear no one cared when Richie Porte or Adam Yates podiumed this race.

It's why the Giro was and is the major disappointment of this season because unlike the Tour, Rog could actually have won it.
I cared very much when Richie Porte podiumed, as did Richie Porte!

Roglic already had second so it's true, probably doesn't really care as the giro is definitely the greater disappointment, he would have had it for sure.
 
The numbers back it up; he is far, far from his Vuelta form. It’s hard to believe he could have gone from great to washed that quickly, so I have to think it’s mostly crashes, illness, and resultant bad prep. The problem is by riding the Giro and the Vuelta with subpar showings, he’s effectively ruined his season. At age 36, that is really tough.
 
Crash at the Giro wasn't planned, the form seemed there, ITT performances, as for the Tour, the GC battle just began, hence lets give it some time. Halving the deficit first main objective, possibly through a break. Crazy to think that halving the deficit would already push Rogla into second place. Anyway, lets do a solid ITT first and do the rest after.
 
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I look around the peloton and I see a lot of known names in there exploding all over this race. A few years ago Carlos Rodriguez was called a GT podium contender. Remember how he once mugged Pog and Vinge on Joux Plane? Seems like a lifetime ago. No injuries or crashes to explain the falloff either (like for Alaphilippe) but there's others as well, i.e. even a younger rider like Lenny Martinez who seems to have his FdJ form in this Tour has just been seriously underwhelming.

The point is this race has become way too fast to enter with half-baked form and sketchy values. He could have maybe gotten away with this sort of approach 4-5 years ago and podiumed but not now.
 
What if Almeida goes all out for GC? Or Evenepoel, Lipowitz, Del Toro... Last year Roglic was 34, next year he will be 36. Two years is a big deal at that age.

Now that's a good question, certainly regarding the bolded. Because it depends on 'which' Evenepoel shows up. FYI if Rog had paced yesterday's stage with the benefit of hindsight and stayed with Evenepoel (even on Soulor) I'm pretty certain he would have finished with him at the very least.

When we see these younger stars and big names struggling for xyz reasons I think it really puts everything in perspective, i.e. there's a point when we just have to take a step back and say "Rog is nearly 36". I mean... if G Thomas gets to ride around France like a tourist I think Rog should be cut some slack.
 
I think he can bounce back today and be around place 3 to 4.
I also think he will help Lipo if he needs him for the podium. Bora won't give up on him for GC. Everything can still change at this Tour. There are 5 mountain top finishes including the TT left. Perhaps we see him attacking and Lipo drafting Evenepoel for a while in some of this stages.
 
Oct 11, 2024
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I think the sickness in the giro had a way more serious impact than we know. We heard about antibiotocs, I heard a rumour, apparently from his inner circle, that it was a really severe case of pneumonia... Which is shame as it really robbed him of a chance to win the giro and podium the tour.

What he is showing is not his max current level. That is a hill I am willing to die on. People saying this is the best he got and he is just washed is really tiresome to hear as he literally made some of his best performances very recently (last year Vuelta and even Catalunya just couple of months back).

But he has never been the one to make excuses and just soldiers on. And this is imo the biggest irony of his career. He is tough as hell, never gives up, never makes excuses... yet people give him *** because of his comments and call him unprofessional, not caring, etc. when it is in fact always been just the opposite.
 
What he is showing is not his max current level. That is a hill I am willing to die on. People saying this is the best he got and he is just washed is really tiresome to hear as he literally made some of his best performances very recently (last year Vuelta and even Catalunya just couple of months back).
Old guys can't go out of form without everyone thinking it is the last time. Still, it seems very bizarre that he is at the Tour this year after the last few months. He could have aimed for Vuelta once he crashed out of giro. I think he would have a good chance of winning that one. I don't think Jonas is unbeatable there (esp if he continues to go all inn and get pounded physically and mentally over the next week) and I got a feeling that Tadej might skip it (it just seems demotivating mentally to go for 3 weeks more of hard racing at the b- or c- grand tour after dominating the a-grand tour, what's he got to prove... Also, I think being world champion is much more rewarding, and does not take 3 weeks)

If Rog gets back to his Catalunya form for the Vuelta, I'm pretty optimistic.
 
I think the sickness in the giro had a way more serious impact than we know. We heard about antibiotocs, I heard a rumour, apparently from his inner circle, that it was a really severe case of pneumonia... Which is shame as it really robbed him of a chance to win the giro and podium the tour.

What he is showing is not his max current level. That is a hill I am willing to die on. People saying this is the best he got and he is just washed is really tiresome to hear as he literally made some of his best performances very recently (last year Vuelta and even Catalunya just couple of months back).

But he has never been the one to make excuses and just soldiers on. And this is imo the biggest irony of his career. He is tough as hell, never gives up, never makes excuses... yet people give him *** because of his comments and call him unprofessional, not caring, etc. when it is in fact always been just the opposite.

It's definitely not his level, that's for sure. Neither his current level nor his level from a few years back. What we're seeing is closer to his early 2022 form when he had knee and shoulder problems (or his early 2024 Paris-Nice form). The loss of stomp is another concern because it could be associated with that "damn shoulder" as he called it during the Giro. Maybe he can't do an explosive effort anymore without risking aggravating his prior issues.

But that's the thing here, i.e. he's nearly 36 and he's putting strain on his body again, again and again, constantly pushing it to be at the max of his power. Going thinner as well also carried inherent risks. His coach said a few months go that there was a risk they overdid things and that's sort of what happened, except it was exacerbated by the Giro problems (crash + illness).
 
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