As I corrected a population of just 2, not 4 million. Naturally Slovenia doesn't have the infrastructure or the resources to produce a series of riders of their calibre, but it does have foreign scouts looking on that know who isn't being watched and tested so rigorously in the youth ranks. And someone else finds another freak crating fish at the market. You have to know were to look in the woods to find the truffles.I'm also pretty sure those will be the only two Slovenian GT winners for quite a while. So I mean sure taken at face value there's obviously going to be some head scratching going on regarding the emergence of Rog & Pog, but their stories & path to the top are so different & unique they're not IMO indicative of a systematic Slovenian approach to mass producing cycling champs with a state backed operation (or something similar). Like Roglič with a DIY (do it yourself) path into pro-cycling where he landed in the former Rabobank team which had totally lost its position among the top teams (& it took them years to get it right), whilst Pog became a protégé of Gianetti.
I'm obviously not saying PED's weren't involved, I'm just saying they were once-in-a-lifetime situations which resulted in their rise to the top, i.e. for example both their teams (UAE & Jumbo) subsequently started looking inwards within the usual cycling powerhouses for future prospects & the 'next gen' after the Slovenians are Danish (Vingegaard) & Spanish (Ayuso).
I don't see how another young Slovenian rider is going to make his way to the 'right place at the right time' type of deal anytime soon because they don't exactly have the structure for it. I also think there was a void after Sky quit the sport (with their ultra British Empire stuff going on) & Jumbo & UAE filled the void. Pog & Rog were there at the right time.
Now UAE & Jumbo are the 'Empires' & Jumbo replaced Rog as number one in their team with Vingegaard whilst UAE has Pog racing everything (i.e. not just a focus on the Tour).
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