Did you watch the Vuelta 2023? Or the Giro? Did you notice who struck first blood in both those GTs on the road? Did you watch the Vuelta 2021, when Roglic nearly lost it all going on a YOLO attack on hat Christian Vandevelde was criticizing (rightfully, as it turned out)? How about when he joined Bernal on a long range attack, working with him equally as you demand, then dropping him from 7km out?
The times you criticize most are when he was riding in a position of weakness or uncertainty. Recovering from surgery and up against a strong rival, recovering from a crash, etc., with the possible exception of Tour 2020, when it is unclear how much the bad Dauphine crash impacted him. However, many are quick to excuse Pogi’s collapse at the end of the 2023 Tour based on his crash a few weeks earlier, so perhaps that also explains Roglic’s collapse.
All in all, I agree Roglic is a more conservative, tactical rider than the more watt monster YOLOers Remco, Vingegaard, MvDP, and Pogi, but calling him “pathetic” is childish or misinformed.
Lastly, Remco has made several comments to the press to the effect that he needs to race more conservatively to win a GT. If you watched the 2022 Vuelta, you saw it in action. And Pogi is far from above a good ol’ sit and kick.
@Netserk covered this pretty thoroughly, but you should never take a turn for the sake of taking a turn; you should do it for a purpose. That purpose could be gaining time on rivals, but in this case, Remco was the only true rival. It could also be nurturing an alliance, but again Remco and Roglic were on a season long collision course as rivals. You guys complain that Roglic only won because of his strategy, and then you bash him for his strategy. It doesn’t seem reasonable to expect someone to take a loss to show panache.
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