the fact that he was checking out the weight of visma's Cervelo, is telling.
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I get the "he did a full spring and shouldn't be at his peak yet right now" argument.Give the man a better TT bike.
It looked like he was going to crash throughout the course. It was annoying hearing the commentators talk about how well he’s cornering then you see him fighting the bike the whole way. I’m not to worried about it, I think climbing he’ll be in great shape. Pog and Vingegaard should have a field day the last 3 days.What was wrong with the bike though? The whole thing looked unstable as hell.
View: https://x.com/festinaboy/status/1932813912778371303
I fixed that because I know what you meant:the fact that he was checking out the weight of visma'scolnagoCervelo is telling.
Damn Visma’s colnago weighs less than I thought. No wonder they're flying, it’s like it’s not even there.I fixed that because I know what you meant:
They also made a good point on the LRCP. We don't have a huge reference point for Pog's form at this point before the Tour. In 2024 and 2023 he didn't do a pre-Tour stage race; and in 2022 and 2021 he did the Tour of Slovenia against middling opposition. Maybe this is normal for him, we don't know. It may just be that JV and Remco are hitting their peak slightly early, whereas Pog has just come down from altitude so a little bit off.I still don't know how do you expect Pogacar being in best shape possible through TdF-Vuelta- WC- Lombardia?? And than also being in great shape one month before TdF? The same thing in Spring from UAE tour-LBL? He knows how to get better and what his goals are and he showed that already many times (he won Emilia just 1 time but Lombardia 4!) Than looking totally different in Canada classics last year and than perfect after that in Zürich... He lost 18 seconds against Tarling on flat TT this year (12km) and was flying one month later on Cipressa, so i am not concerned at all. This is only race this year where he can "afford" losing against Remco/Jonas.
ExactlyI still don't know how do you expect Pogacar being in best shape possible through TdF-Vuelta- WC- Lombardia?? And than also being in great shape one month before TdF? The same thing in Spring from UAE tour-LBL?
pog said he is stuck with tour for years.than you have jonas,who lives for tour.wit that menatlity ist gonna be hard.forget about bike,what was pog doing there,lol.he was cooked on climb and it looks heat demolished him.and its gonna be hellon tour,cause july is gonna be extra spicy.
I mean, Contador literally got like 50th at 3 minutes in 2013 in the Dauphine ITT. This is just extreme expectation leading to extreme overreaction. For reference, Vingegaard got 7th in the (admittedly flat) TT in the 2022 Dauphine, losing 1s/min to Roglic rather than Evenepoel, and then in 2023 he lost a hilly ITT to Mikkel frigging Bjerg.One thing I was thinking is that Pogacar might have more of an eye on the Vuelta than Vingegaard which would explain why you would come to the Dauphine a little undercooked. Froome is a good example of a rider whose performances at the Dauphine became progressively less impressive the more focus he put on achieving the Vuelta-Tour double culminating in 2017 when he was pretty bad at the Dauphine yet finally won the double.
But those explanations are always easy to make after we already know the result. The fact that this TT was so far off from the expectations should be worrysome. It reminds me of post ban Contador who always went into the Dauphine with all his fans predicting victory and once he got his butt smacked all the fans pretended that a later peak was just part of the plan. Right now none of us have enough insight to know if this TT will worry Pogacar or if he is just peaking later, but I certainly feel less onfident in him now than I did a day ago.
I still don't see any convincing reason to believe it should be much over 45s for either Vingegaard or Pogacar, nor any reason why there should be a big gap between Pogacar and Vingegaard.I think 40" to Vingegaard and 1'20" to Evenepoel is a more reasonable upper-bound. My expectation is that he will be ready in the Tour (both legs and bike) and be at least 30" better than that.
Road surface. It wasn't any problem with the bike on those corners.It looked like he was going to crash throughout the course. It was annoying hearing the commentators talk about how well he’s cornering then you see him fighting the bike the whole way. I’m not to worried about it, I think climbing he’ll be in great shape. Pog and Vingegaard should have a field day the last 3 days.