Teams & Riders Tadej Pogačar discussion thread

[Shortcut]

With WC in Canada it makes sense to skip the Vuelta again and ride Quebec/Montreal and then stay in Canada until WC. With EC likely in Slovenia I don’t think he would go for Tour-Vuelta-WC and risk being burned out before home EC.

Route will be easier (it is already official)than Montreal GP and MvDP will be huge factor next year. With weak Slovenian team and no real climb it will be much much harder as this year. Betting everything on WC RR would be crazy. Also i listed EC just because it will be in Slovenia, but this race is not important.

 

[Barkintheeye]

Surely San Remo.
That's an incredibly hard race for him to win.

Agree and closely followed by P-R which requires massive flat road power, over the average level of riding skills and at least a minimum of good luck.

Easiest has got to be GdL

 

[Cycling111]

He was second in PR in his debut. That's very difficult. Not even Merckx and Hinault did so well in their debut.
With experience, he'll surely do better.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

He was second in PR in his debut. That's very difficult. Not even Merckx and Hinault did so well in their debut.
With experience, he'll surely do better.

Van der Poel is argualby the best cobbles racer ever but good for cycling that Pogacar is taking up the challenge!

 

[Berniece]

He was second in PR in his debut. That's very difficult. Not even Merckx and Hinault did so well in their debut.
With experience, he'll surely do better.

Because Merckx was 21 when he first rode Paris-Roubaix, not 27... Do you believe Pogacar would've been 2nd if he rode PR at 21?

 

[AmRacer]

Because Merckx was 21 when he first rode Paris-Roubaix, not 27... Do you believe Pogacar would've been 2nd if he rode PR at 21?

26? And Yes, of course the goat would be better than Merckx.

 

[Cycling111]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1972320644583792881

View: https://x.com/prestigelisten/status/1972320644583792881?t=E1JtQA_S1e3Cj0qFrbhNWg&s=19

 

[Cycling111]

Van der Poel is argualby the best cobbles racer ever but good for cycling that Pogacar is taking up the challenge!

Yes. I didn't say he'll win on his second attempt.
By doing better, I mean arriving fresher at the finish and further along with VDP.

Hinault won on his fourth attempt. The first time, he lost 6 minutes. It's a very difficult race for riders of that size.

This year, what he's meant to Pogacar has been underestimated. In Amstel, he was completely cooked due to PR. And the need to stop after the Tour is because of such a demanding spring.

As long as he's doing PR, he won't be doing the Tour-Vuelta. In today's specialist cycling, that's impossible.
It's already too much to make this schedule against VDP and Vingegaard who are specialists.

 

[Monsi]

Yes. I didn't say he'll win on his second attempt.
By doing better, I mean arriving fresher at the finish and further along with VDP.

Hinault won on his fourth attempt. The first time, he lost 6 minutes. It's a very difficult race for riders of that size.

This year, what he's meant to Pogacar has been underestimated. In Amstel, he was completely cooked due to PR. And the need to stop after the Tour is because of such a demanding spring.

As long as he's doing PR, he won't be doing the Tour-Vuelta. In today's specialist cycling, that's impossible.
It's already too much to make this schedule against VDP and Vingegaard who are specialists.

The only way I can see him doing the Tour-Vuelta is if Vingegaard does the Giro-Tour next year and even then, I don't think it's a certainty.

 

[AmRacer]

Yes. I didn't say he'll win on his second attempt.
By doing better, I mean arriving fresher at the finish and further along with VDP.

Hinault won on his fourth attempt. The first time, he lost 6 minutes. It's a very difficult race for riders of that size.

This year, what he's meant to Pogacar has been underestimated. In Amstel, he was completely cooked due to PR. And the need to stop after the Tour is because of such a demanding spring.

As long as he's doing PR, he won't be doing the Tour-Vuelta. In today's specialist cycling, that's impossible.
It's already too much to make this schedule against VDP and Vingegaard who are specialists.

It depends on if Mathieu can still be at his 2024/2025 peak level for another year. If not, Pogi will win all five monumnets 2026.

 

[Peter von]

The only way I can see him doing the Tour-Vuelta is if Vingegaard does the Giro-Tour next year and even then, I don't think it's a certainty.

idk, seems to me he might have done it this year if he hadn't caught a virus in the latter part of the Tour.

But yeah, maybe he'll just keep being opportunistic about it and do Vuelta whenever an opportunity presents itself, if he get's ill or crashes out of Tour or if he has an injury in the early spring ruling him out of a lot of high pressure race days or if he just feels super on top after the Tour one year.

 

[scribers]

Bruyneel says emphatically Merckx is the goat

 

[bNator]

Bruyneel says emphatically Merckx is the goat

I always had a feeling Bruyneel doesn’t like the way Pogacar races. He’s all about tactics and winning with minimum effort where team car plays a huge role in the final outcome. Pog is intuitive, his racing style appears to be based on instict and not that much on analysis and optimisation. A style that Brunyneel appears to find hard to appreciate and ironically, the one employed by the guy he proclaims as the GOAT.

 

[Cycling111]

I always had a feeling Bruyneel doesn’t like the way Pogacar races. He’s all about tactics and winning with minimum effort where team car plays a huge role in the final outcome. Pog is intuitive, his racing style appears to be based on instict and not that much on analysis and optimisation. A style that Brunyneel appears to find hard to appreciate and ironically, the one employed by the guy he proclaims as the GOAT.

Merckx won races by a landslide. How they think he won? Anyway, a Belgian will always belittle the rest.

They've only agreed to compare Remco to Merckx; they consider doing so to a foreigner an insult, even though he wins more than Remco or other Belgians who have tried to compare Merckx.

Something similar happens in France with Hinault. They can't stand dominant cyclists, but they're eager for another French Hinault to emerge.

But it's already a good sign that they're even belittling Merckx. Theystarted saying Pogacar wasn´t better than Roglic, VDP, Vingegaard, or Remco. Then he wasn't even in the top five all-time, and now all they have to do is say he's no better than Merckx. Things are getting better .

I remember when they said Van Aert was the best and most complete cyclist in the world for winning the Ventoux stage from a breakaway. Even though he wasn't capable of doing the overall like Pogacar.

 

[Cycling111]

Van der Poel is argualby the best cobbles racer ever but good for cycling that Pogacar is taking up the challenge!

Yes, but in Flanders Pogacar has proven to be better. 2/3, the one who didn't win, we already saw how he did in his debut.

Considering he's a cyclist who needs to be in top shape to win the Tour in July, if he didn't have that objetive, Pogacar would surely be more dominant in Flanders because he wouldn't have to consider so many factors like weight and training. In such a specialized field of cycling, being the best in Flanders and winning the Tour is impressive.

 

[scribers]

He’s stronger than last year. The only reason he didn’t get time on a 30 man chase is he had a mind to take del toro all the way. Each time he let up to bring del toro closer to himself the chase seemed to gain 5-10 seconds.

 

[scribers]

Merckx won races by a landslide. How they think he won? Anyway, a Belgian will always belittle the rest.

They've only agreed to compare Remco to Merckx; they consider doing so to a foreigner an insult, even though he wins more than Remco or other Belgians who have tried to compare Merckx.

Something similar happens in France with Hinault. They can't stand dominant cyclists, but they're eager for another French Hinault to emerge.

But it's already a good sign that they're even belittling Merckx. Theystarted saying Pogacar wasn´t better than Roglic, VDP, Vingegaard, or Remco. Then he wasn't even in the top five all-time, and now all they have to do is say he's no better than Merckx. Things are getting better .

I remember when they said Van Aert was the best and most complete cyclist in the world for winning the Ventoux stage from a breakaway. Even though he wasn't capable of doing the overall like Pogacar.

Bruyneel can look at it objectively though

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Merckx won races by a landslide. How they think he won? Anyway, a Belgian will always belittle the rest.

They've only agreed to compare Remco to Merckx; they consider doing so to a foreigner an insult, even though he wins more than Remco or other Belgians who have tried to compare Merckx.

Something similar happens in France with Hinault. They can't stand dominant cyclists, but they're eager for another French Hinault to emerge.

But it's already a good sign that they're even belittling Merckx. Theystarted saying Pogacar wasn´t better than Roglic, VDP, Vingegaard, or Remco. Then he wasn't even in the top five all-time, and now all they have to do is say he's no better than Merckx. Things are getting better .

I remember when they said Van Aert was the best and most complete cyclist in the world for winning the Ventoux stage from a breakaway. Even though he wasn't capable of doing the overall like Pogacar.

Some rather gross national stereotyping here. Some French/Belgian/[any other nationality you want to mention] commenters will have a blinkered attitude, a huge proportion will not.

 

[yaco]

Pogacar made the right call. I just think Roglic putting a hard tempo on Mount Kigali would benefit Pogacar more.

Reading your posts it seems like Pogacar lost the race. It was sensible for Novak to pace Mt Kigali and have Roglic in reserve. Otherwise if you get Roglic to pace and Pogacar can not get a gap on the climb then he is isolated.

 

[Tanakka]

Bruyneel says emphatically Merckx is the goat

"Emphatically" ???

Whoever has been following Bruyneel on over the last years, is well aware that he always says:
you cannot compare eras!
He did the same on the latest episode of 'The Move'.
His co-host replied that such is the serious answer, but not the fun one.

Realistically, Pogi and the other guys riding today will be comparable enough in the context of the 2010-2030 era.
Will we be able to extend it to 2010-2040? Hard to tell.

 

[Hugh Januss]

I remember when they said Van Aert was the best and most complete cyclist in the world for winning the Ventoux stage from a breakaway. Even though he wasn't capable of doing the overall like Pogacar.

To be fair that was before Pogi exhibited the full extent of his abilities in Classics type races. Also, "they" were wrong.

 

[Cycling111]

To be fair that was before Pogi exhibited the full extent of his abilities in Classics type races. Also, "they" were wrong.

He had already won Lombardia and Liège. Van Aert won a stage from the breakaway, but not being a GC cyclist already put him behind Pogacar.

The feeling is that Pogacar has been undervalued for many years and has always had to prove more each year to overcome comparisons. As soon as he won at Ventoux, Van Aert was already the best and most complete rider in the world.

 

[pihi42]

Who is the greatest composer of all time? What about the greatest painter? Mathematician? Rock band? We think we know who the tallest person ever was, except we aren't sure since not all people have been measured in meters and recorded. And a certain great writer put it this way "The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about". Pogi is a legend of cycling at 27 years old, he will be mentioned in any GOAT conversation for the next 50 years at least. There will be lists with him on top and lists with him in top 10. But he will be included in all of them. Cycling will be forever divided into "before", "during" and "after" Pogačar era. But it is his opponents, their own greatness, that will define his own. There is no Pogi without Vingegaard, MVDP and Evenepoel. All "ranking lists" I'm aware of lack this weighting factor, something like an ELO rating of chess players. Fischer vs Carlsen vs Kasparov is an easier comparison although they are from "different eras". It should be possible to calculate ELO of cyclists past and present.

 

[James M]

Van der Poel is argualby the best cobbles racer ever but good for cycling that Pogacar is taking up the challenge!

Not to dismiss Jonas vs. Pog in the Tour its also incredible and up there but currently not at the same level atm, discrepancy is to big.

From a historic perspective this is as good as it gets. For sure, MvdP is arguably among the best cobble rider ever, total freak, going up against the best rider ever in Pogacar, toe-to-toe with MvdP in PR and the RVV, on MvdP’s turf, It's amazing and hard to drew up a better matchup if we could cherry pick even, cause they both clash in their prime which makes it even more rare, only question which remains how long will that last for both.

 

[Peyroteo94]

Merckx won races by a landslide. How they think he won? Anyway, a Belgian will always belittle the rest.

They've only agreed to compare Remco to Merckx; they consider doing so to a foreigner an insult, even though he wins more than Remco or other Belgians who have tried to compare Merckx.

Something similar happens in France with Hinault. They can't stand dominant cyclists, but they're eager for another French Hinault to emerge.

But it's already a good sign that they're even belittling Merckx. Theystarted saying Pogacar wasn´t better than Roglic, VDP, Vingegaard, or Remco. Then he wasn't even in the top five all-time, and now all they have to do is say he's no better than Merckx. Things are getting better .

I remember when they said Van Aert was the best and most complete cyclist in the world for winning the Ventoux stage from a breakaway. Even though he wasn't capable of doing the overall like Pogacar.

Pogacar is the best and most complete rider since 2021.