Teams & Riders Tadej Pogačar discussion thread

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Stage 10 could be the perfect stage to make another statement. Probably just a 10s gap but he could smash Vingegaard's head there.
I actually think UAE is going to drop the hammer and try to stick the knife hard into Jonas tomorrow; Jonas and Visma suffered a pretty big psychological and physical blow today, if you're Pog and UAE you do not give Jonas one second to recover. Maybe not the hardest finale but it's up and down all day; GT racing is a cruel cruel game and when you've got your opponent staggering a little you hammer the absolute crap out of him. If Jonas recovers and looks solid they can always back it off but I'd be shocked if Pog and UAE didn't really try and hit him hard.
 
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I actually think UAE is going to drop the hammer and try to stick the knife hard into Jonas tomorrow; Jonas and Visma suffered a pretty big psychological and physical blow today, if you're Pog and UAE you do not give Jonas one second to recover. Maybe not the hardest finale but it's up and down all day; GT racing is a cruel cruel game and when you've got your opponent staggering a little you hammer the absolute crap out of him. If Jonas recovers and looks solid they can always back it off but I'd be shocked if Pog and UAE didn't really try and hit him hard.
Nah, stage is too long to control and very little gain.
 
Nah. His recovery is very good and he is used to these efforts in the Tour.
When he followed & followed tadej & sat up on the climb yesterday he should have let tadej to have 4 secs at the top and continue at his pace b/c that was his limit instead he decided to increase his lactate going beyond himself which costs him in the next stages especially if its a one day type of racing. This reminds me of paris nice 2023 where he overextended himself following pog on la loge des gardes and was average the next day
 
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When he followed & followed tadej & sat up on the climb yesterday he should have let tadej to have 4 secs at the top and continue at his pace b/c that was his limit instead he decided to increase his lactate going beyond himself which costs him in the next stages especially if its a one day type of racing. This reminds me of paris nice 2023 where he overextended himself following pog on la loge des gardes and was average the next day
I don't agree. He wasn't more cooked than Remco (look to his sprint and Remco lost 3 seconds in the end, dropping time on flat terrain) for example and he ended up losing a lot to Remco today.
 
Nah, stage is too long to control and very little gain.
I don't necessarily think you're wrong, you're probably more right than I am, but after having inflicted this big punch today I just don't see how the right tactic is to sit back and let Jonas have an armchair day. That said, it's probably going to be hard enough at the sharp end to test him anyway; I still think UAE might have something up their sleeve, perhaps profit from the chaos of the fight for the break? In any event, I do predict a hard day. Outside of the travesty that was stage 3 every day has been hard and I see no reason tomorrow won't be either.

Probably good I'm not a DS I suppose. :p
 
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2022 and 2023 were really blessing in disguise.

That is where he understood he couldn't only rely on talent and had to put in the work if he wanted to achieve greatness...
I don't think those years were because he didn't (or couldn't) do the work. He did the work but it was the peripherals.

2022 seemed like complacency on Granon to me - he never recovered from cracking that day.
2023 his prep was hampered by his wrist injury after LBL. Emptied himself at Combloux but paid for that on Loze the next day. Yes we all know Jonas came back from far worse but every person is different and every injury is different.
2024 everything clicked but I think helped by it being a weak Giro field and also less climbing than normal. So he actually rode himself into form rather than the reverse which is normally the case (ask Contador).

What 2022 and 2023 might have done is force him to be more professional. Doubt he could ever reach Armstrong's level of obsessiveness but pretty sure he did lift in his professionalism for 2024 (or at least UAE did around him).
 
How important was yesterday's stage for the GC?
1) If the difference between Pogacar and Vingegaard in the mountains is significant then yesterday's gap won't matter (however, maybe it indicates which guy will have an advantage)
2) If they are close in the mountains then the TT gap gives Pogacar an important tactical advantage. Holding Vingo's wheel is a simple tactic and saves some energy due to drafting (important if they are evenly matched). If Pogi feels like it he can also attack Vingo after many kilometers of sticking to his wheel.
 
I don't necessarily think you're wrong, you're probably more right than I am, but after having inflicted this big punch today I just don't see how the right tactic is to sit back and let Jonas have an armchair day. That said, it's probably going to be hard enough at the sharp end to test him anyway; I still think UAE might have something up their sleeve, perhaps profit from the chaos of the fight for the break? In any event, I do predict a hard day. Outside of the travesty that was stage 3 every day has been hard and I see no reason tomorrow won't be either.

Probably good I'm not a DS I suppose. :p
I get your point but being safer without misfortunes and being attentive to any Visma's move is what UAE should do. The TT will live in Vingegaard's head during this stage but Pogacar can't burn his team to gain 4-10 seconds.
 
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I don't agree. He wasn't more cooked than Remco (look to his sprint and Remco lost 3 seconds in the end, dropping time on flat terrain) for example and he ended up losing a lot to Remco today.
This is the first time vingegaard has a bad day in the tour apart from last years disrupted preparation. Do u think what happened yesterday is an incident or has a clear reason for him following all out on a classics route day in day out against probably the best classics rider of all time? And for remco he doesn't even try to follow pog he did his own race. Imo when u do above the limit efforts the day before a TT & the next day its an all out threshold effort thats when you will pay for what u did