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Like I said he isn’t a bad sprinter but he is actually less punchy than he used to be. You can tell by how he has been attacking, a lot more seated long attacks. He is still the best sprinter on a long hilly stage race because of his endurance.
Most people who know more than me (ie team consultant and strategists) seem to think this is exactly what he has done so I trust them.
https://www.bicidastrada.it/pogacar-usa-una-nuova-colnago-dopo-la-sanremo/ it seems like I was right, pog is trying a bike that could be the v5rs
Me neither, he's as explosive as he has ever been, on cipressa in the first attack he reached 50 km/h on a 4% gradient. Another impressive stats, apart from the record on cipressa. is that he was able to set the fastest time in the first 1.8 km of poggio (from strava). In this 1.8 km he was 3 sec faster than the previous record (from 2024) while having to pull the entire segment in front. Also the overall time on poggio is impressive: 5.45, only 14 sec slower than the record of 2024, while pulling from the bottom for basically 95% of the 3.7 kms. Rewatching the last 30 kms you can see how basically mvdp used pog and ganna as domestiques. I say also ganna because in the most explosive effort of pog, the first attack on cipressa, vdp didn't pull for a sec, he let ganna do all the work and avoided a monster 45 sec effort. I rewatched that portion, ganna followed pog with vdp in his wheel for exactly 45 sec, then clearly ganna exploded and vdp after having benefitted from that huge draft was able to stay with pog. After that vdp continued to stay in the wheel while pog was basically riding always in front on the poggio to avoid ganna coming back. And this is the only mistake pog made, riding against ganna and not realizing that the only problem was vdp. Especially after poggio, pog should not have pulled for a single meter, let ganna come back and put the entire pressure on vdp, trying to play a tactical game
Well I like to support my arguments, and I wouldn't say that MVDP is the smarter racer, I would say that everything is a lot easier when you have a better sprint, the only tactic you need is to follow a wheel. I guarantee you that if pog was the stronger sprinter between the two, he would look a lot smarter since he would be winning every single race in which they both take part
After that, Van der Poel comes through and takes a pull on the Cipressa, but as he grabs a bottle, Pogi immediately attacks him again. Why would you take a pull again after that when you know he will attack you?
Because you don’t want to fend off attacks from the group of 40 behind for the win?
Did you read the post I responded to? At least one of us seem to be on the wrong track.
Strange to me that people think race and racers at MSR were harder than they actually were..
Don't think MvdP owe pogi the win here. Without him he goes over the top of the Poggio and wins anyway.
Lol. And where would MVP gain time to the peloton in Cipressa?
What? Why would MvdP need time on Cipressa? Pogi needed that. The statement was the MvdP and Ganna got there 1-2 because of pogi. I said the in my mind MvdP would win no problem without pogi in the race.
MVP can't drop everyone in the Poggio. In 2023, he took advantage of Pogacar's attack.
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