It doesn't matter for Pogacar. He can't drop everyone there. Like I said, his only chance is doing a sneaky attack.
Ahahah. In portuguese is "objeto voador não identificado".
So we will have to wait another year to see both at their peak shape. However, it was clear MVP would destroy the field again without Pogacar.
I think Bruynell actually likes Tadej but it's not "hot take" if you are saying every race "i think Tadej is going to win". I already saw many comments, how they can't wait to see the show and what he is gonna say now. That is what make show atractive fo larger audience. I think Tadej is pretty popular in Belgium/Netherland but of course not like the home riders (that would be weird). He is extremly popular in Italy and Spain, but not so in France (pretty neutral).
The problem is, some people still don't understand, Pogacar is on a different level even from MVP. This is bizarre but it is the truth. MVP is seen like a god in cobbled classics but around Pogi he is human and probably will get beaten more times in RVV. The amount of time Pogacar won after Paterberg, shows he still had something in the tank while MVP was completely dead even after working less than Pogacar.
I was more sure before the race than during the race. In fact, I said MVP would win after the second Kwaremont. But it was silly to think MVP was unbeatable in RVV because he was in his best shape ever, specially when Pogacar already beaten MVP there. And comparing MSR with RVV was beyond stupid IMHO.
you can say beyond stupid but MSR was reason everybody was saying MvDP was "in best shape ever".
Sure mate but there is one thing you are forgetting. 2 years ago, people said the same and MVP was dropped by Pogi. So, 2 years later, we should expect those people to be more cautious, but in the case of Johan, he didn't learn the lesson.
Like i said, it is pretty easy to say "Pogi will win" for every big race except MSR, P-R and Quebec. All other races he is favorite. But they need to play devil's advocate for wiews. And again, even you said MvDP seemed to be in best shape after MSR-so saying, you can't take MSR as reference for RVV is a little bit hypocritical.
You can but you can't say MSR is a great benchmark because it isn't. MSR and RVV are not similar. For some reason I voted for MVP in MSR and voted for Pogacar in RVV. Even had one user here, saying he would like to see MVP win just to see my reaction (after my countless posts about Pogi winning RVV). For me it is silly to listen things like MVP is unbeatable, MVP is head and shoulders above everyone (Boonen). It is silly, specially when Pogi is racing.
Zurich is a bad example, at least for what he can do against MVP. What he did there was impressive against the rest of the field, but van der Poel had no chance even if Pogacar wasn't racing. Every single person I read was predicting a Pogi win and I don't think anyone even had MVDP on the podium. Ben O'Connor got second (!) which should tell you what kind of rider that course favors.
It is not that i don't agree with you. And i know you can't compare MSR and RVV. But if Pogi had won MSR nobody would think MVDP could beat him at RVV. Also i would say MVDP showed really impressive form at MSR 2025 and would have lost it with shape from 2024. Still he destroy everyone at RVV and P-R2024 pretty easily. Including Mads and i don't believe Mads somehow got so much better to be in the same discution with MvDP from now on. That is also the reason why i actually believe MvDP was not 100% at RVV and would be much closer to Pogi, if that was not the case.
The circuit wasn't very tough. The course was very hard before the circuit (hardest climb was there). RVV doesn't have a lot of vertical meters because this race before the first Kwaremont is flat. Vertical meters is not everything, we must know where is the difficulty section of the race. Zurich had a mix of climbers with pure classicomanos (Simmons, Healy, Skujins, etc).
Nearly double the total altitude meters of RVV, every rider that finished within 3 minutes of Pogacar (the top 13) is a more talented climber than Mathieu. The climb in the circuit was nearly twice as steep as Poggio or Cipressa. Enric Mas finished top 10. This was a race for climbers.
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