State of the Peloton 2024

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Feb 29, 2012
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The stages were obviously different, but I remember Schlecks and Voeckler crawling through this last KM compared to Pogacar and Vingegaard just flying through it, the time tells the story too, LOL
 
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Apr 8, 2023
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Headwind too, but wow! it was USPS & Sky all over again.

https://www.cyclingnews.com/races/tour-de-france-2024/stage-4/results/
“At first, it was a lot of headwind on the climb, so on the wheel it was not super hard,” Pogačar said. “The team did a super good job but I didn’t want to go too early because of the wind. I had to make all the difference I could in the last few hundred metres. Then I knew the descent to the finish.”
 
May 29, 2011
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Is this a case of the evolution Dave Brailsford knowingly spoke of finally catching up with the top riders?
 
Jun 30, 2022
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And people ridicule me for years when i suggest motodoping
Riders are generationally slow: They are motordopingggg!!!
Riders go faster than ever before: See, I knew it! Told you so!

It doesn‘t explain why the difference between the top 0.1 % and the rest has improved so drastically. Like what, Pog and Vingegaard are super-responders to having a motor in their bike? You‘d expect the super-responders to be the guys who suffer under long-term high tempo because the speeds are higher and drafting is more significant, yet the best guys now are all incredibly tempo-resistant by nature and physique. Also, how does the motor work to allow guys like Pogačar to gain 38 seconds in 800 meters on the Galibier today. If the main performance enhancer for mutant accelerations is a motor, can they just rev it up to massive watts or does it do nothing much for that?
 
Apr 16, 2009
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Too much for me. They beat the record of Quintana by almost 1:30 minutes and by more than 2 minutes with Bernal in 2019. With headwind.

So the authorities couldn't find other riders to attack than Quintana and Lopez?

Yes, I am a bit upset.
 
Jul 16, 2015
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Just here to say it's laughable. Come on.

Gonna take an outside force to crack it open again. Now way the sport is dealing with this, it's been open season since Froome's positive got buried.

The Galibier today was one of the most delirious things I've seen... & I've seen a lot. It was like Beltran sprinting up the first ramp on the Alpe D'Huez back in the 2003 TdF for US Postal but at the top of an HC climb.

It was also so ridiculous I now pretty much refuse to accept there's even a proper hierarchy in this sport, i.e. I think anyone who gets the dark arts magic spot on at the right time can win something major. Impossible is nothing IMO. Even Evenepoel can win this Tour, as insane as that sounds.
 
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Dec 2, 2020
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A 10% improvement over previous record with significant headwind? No amount of hard pacing can account for that. It’s like a handful of guys coming in at 11:30 on a 5k.
 
Dec 2, 2020
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Unless the Strava segment is BS, Pogacar did 2200+ Vam for 2 minutes at the end of a 40 minute 2600m altitude climb.
His attack started with around 700m to go or about 2 min and they normally go at what 1650 VAM at that gradient so a 30% increase would be needed to put him there, no idea if that’s realistic or not.
 
Sep 14, 2009
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Unless the Strava segment is BS, Pogacar did 2200+ Vam for 2 minutes at the end of a 40 minute 2600m altitude climb.
Did I see braking into a switchback while climbing? I mean, if I saw that, it's been a while. 🤔
 
Apr 10, 2019
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Too much for me. They beat the record of Quintana by almost 1:30 minutes and by more than 2 minutes with Bernal in 2019. With headwind.

So the authorities couldn't find other riders to attack than Quintana and Lopez?

Yes, I am a bit upset.
tbf, the Quintana record was set on a much harder stage in the 3rd week, when he was in the breakaway all day long. Also 40°C in the valleys that day. Not that the attack at the end wasn't freakish, but the overall time has to put into perspective.