Teams & Riders Tadej Pogačar discussion thread

[scribers]

I wasn't exactly expecting this but its great for cycling that a rider like Pogačar is going to the Giro and this could actually be the best way to maximise his chances of having a legendary season next year.

His schedule could look something like this

Algarve
Strade
Tirreno
Sanremo
Flèche ?
Liège
Giro
Tour
(Olympics could be scrapped depending of how tired he is after the Tour)
Couple of italian one-day races
Worlds
Lombardia

Agreed on most of this. I think he might ride Paris Nice again. He will target the MSR and LBL, imo. He will skip the olympics RR (and everything else there) as the parcours do not suit him. He will attempt the Worlds again and Lombardia.

 

[Aimar16]

Agreed on most of this. I think he might ride Paris Nice again. He will target the MSR and LBL, imo. He will skip the olympics RR (and everything else there) as the parcours do not suit him. He will attempt the Worlds again and Lombardia.

So far the impression is that it's important for him to represent his country, so it's unlikely he'll miss the Olympics.

 

[CyclistAbi]

Although realistically hard even for Pogi, doors to Giro-Tour double are open, as Pogi won't be denied, wanting to go to the Tour after Giro. Will Jonas settle with potential Tour-Vuelta double attempt? Or will be tempted to undertake Giro and Pogi from the get-go. Jonas in my opinion has strong ambitions to ride two GTs this year. Will be interesting to see the selection.

 

[bNator]

Winning the Giro, even without the absolute best there, does not come without a cost, ask Froome and Contador. I think we've just gone from two competitive grand tours to zero, though hopefully I'm completely wrong.

Vingegaard is hopefully rethinking his plans for next year.

For Pog, the cost was always there. Doing all those classics and monuments. At least next year, what he does before the Tour is more aligned with his Tour goals.

 

[Boehmand]

Although realistically hard even for Pogi, doors to Giro-Tour double are open, as Pogi won't be denied, wanting to go to the Tour after Giro. Will Jonas settle with potential Tour-Vuelta double attempt? Or will be tempted to undertake Giro and Pogi from the get-go. Jonas in my opinion has strong ambitions to ride two GTs this year. Will be interesting to see the selection.

As said elsewhere, I think Vingegaard is only doing 1 GT as a captain next year.

His wife floated the idea of attempting the triple a while back, and if the routes make it feasible in 2025, he probably doesn't want to do it on the back of a double.

Also with Worlds 3 weeks after the Vuelta, and being on a route that suits him, he probably doesn't want to ride GC at the Vuelta just to be completely gassed at Worlds.

He might ride the Vuelta, but not as a contender IMO.

-

As for Pogacar I admire his bravery, but baring crashes/injuries I don't see him beating Vingegaard at the Tour, on the back of riding GC at the Giro.

Pogacar may even decide to just stage hunt at the Tour, to hone his shape for the Olympics (which Vingegaard will probably not get selected for).

 

[CyclistAbi]

@Boehmand

Somehow i don't feel either Pogi or Jonas are interested, any more, to ride a GT as a preparation to something or not to aim for the win. Jonas not doing a double in 2024 is possible. Somehow i feel he will do just that. We'll see.

 

[scribers]

So far the impression is that it's important for him to represent his country, so it's unlikely he'll miss the Olympics.

He can also do that at Worlds, which is a more realistic parcour. Plus, right after the tour. Needs to sit a spell and wind back up for Worlds and Lombardia

 

[johnymax]

Now it's Vinge's turn.

Yes, if he has the balls, he should follow. But I doubt it. He's not a big champion yet like Pogi, Rogla and Blobloblo...

 

[Lequack]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igpdtgDI1ow

 

[Froome]

As said elsewhere, I think Vingegaard is only doing 1 GT as a captain next year.

His wife floated the idea of attempting the triple a while back, and if the routes make it feasible in 2025, he probably doesn't want to do it on the back of a double.

Also with Worlds 3 weeks after the Vuelta, and being on a route that suits him, he probably doesn't want to ride GC at the Vuelta just to be completely gassed at Worlds.

He might ride the Vuelta, but not as a contender IMO.

-

As for Pogacar I admire his bravery, but baring crashes/injuries I don't see him beating Vingegaard at the Tour, on the back of riding GC at the Giro.

Pogacar may even decide to just stage hunt at the Tour, to hone his shape for the Olympics (which Vingegaard will probably not get selected for).

Of course he is going to the vuelta after the tour as a contender, specially when he was able to find this year, that he can win the double Tour-vuelta.

 

[DoYouEvenRideBruh]

What a piece of news. Who's even going to be his opponent in the Giro? Not sure I'd want to watch something like the '21 Tour.

 

[CyclistAbi]

Of course he is going to the vuelta after the tour as a contender, specially when he was able to find this year, that he can win the double Tour-vuelta.

I doubt Kuss would be OK with not going to one GT as a leader in 2024.

 

[Froome]

I doubt Kuss would be OK with not going to one GT as a leader in 2024.

He will go to the vuelta as a co captain with Vingegaard. Then, the strongest works for the other.

 

[scribers]

Didn’t Kuss literally say he wanted to defend his title at the vuelta?

 

[scribers]

What a piece of news. Who's even going to be his opponent in the Giro? Not sure I'd want to watch something like the '22 Tour.

That’s why it’s the perfect year to go for it. All of the egos are targeting France

 

[CyclistAbi]

He will go to the vuelta as a co captain with Vingegaard. Then, the strongest works for the other.

Likely not, GC Kuss is real, there is no going back now. Otherwise Kuss might just as well start looking elsewhere.

 

[Cookster15]

For Pog, the cost was always there. Doing all those classics and monuments. At least next year, what he does before the Tour is more aligned with his Tour goals.

I think the cost was his crash and broken wrist from LBL. I don’t think racing those classics and monuments blunted him in July.

His collapse on stage 17 of the TdF suggested he was short on base conditioning after he went all in to minimise losses to Vingegaard who did an incredible TT. So Pog didn’t have good recovery from the TT effort. This has been suggested by others here.

No doubt I am biased as he has won me over with his style of racing but I am interested to see how Pog performs with an uninterrupted prep. Likely he would be too tired after the Giro (like Contador 2011) but who knows - he is a freakish talent and there is nothing wrong with hoping for the best?

 

[SHAD0W93]

The Giro in 2011 wa also extremely hard for Giro standards. Every GT rider that raced it struggled in future races with Contador performing the best of them all.

 

[Rob5091]

Surprising news that Pogacar is doing the Giro next year. It will be good for the Giro, but will it be good for Pogacar? With the Tour starting early and the Olympics next year, I was expecting him to do the Giro in 2025.
We'll have to see what else he plans to race.

 

[saunaking]

I guess Remco wasn't so stupid for skipping the Giro after all

 

[saunaking]

Just when you thought the Giro couldn't get any more boring....

 

[Gargamel35]

Good one for Pog. He already won TdF 2 times and it gets boring to try again every year and loose against Vingegaard. Many other goals to achive and Giro was always high on his list.

 

[Berniece]

The biggest reason he's doing this is for the Olympic Games, I just don't see him winning there on that profile.

 

[Gigs_98]

A guy who is seemingly trying to win every race on the calendar was always going to do the Giro at some point. I'm just surprised this point is right now. Maybe Pogi has simply gotten sick of the Tour.

Whatever it is, I agree this will likely make two GTs uncompetitive, though I much rather take another 2011 Giro over the last two "super competitive" races. I also think that if Vingegaard wants to put his name into the history books he should absolutely follow Pogi to the Giro. This might be the best chance of a giro-tour double of his career as all he has to do is beating Pogacar mano a mano twice (really making that sound easier than it is). If Vingegaard ever does the Giro in the future, Pogacar will immediately put his entire focus on the Tour.

 

[hfgon1]

Visma just outplayed him with the departure of Roglic. Roglic in the Tour means harder fights for bonus seconds between Pogacar und Roglic while Vingegaard is waiting for the hardest stages. So a wise decision to just win the Giro instead.