Teams & Riders Tadej Pogačar discussion thread

[Peter von]

Well, clearly I don't want him to burn out. The question is if he will. Now, I'm certainly no expert in the area as most of us aren't, but is there any evidence that you risk burning out faster if you do all three Grand Tours? Doing the three Grand Tours, the five monuments and Worlds is 69 race days. Perhaps on the higher end of the spectrum, but definitely not unheard of. There's of course some cumulative fatigue in the Grand Tours but on the other hand, a one day race is much harder than many Grand Tour stages. Besides, Pogacar is a physical freak and should be able to do a harder schedule than most others.

Yeah there isn't enough data to really pass judgement either side.

I often hear former riders say it's also mental thing than physiological. Living in the GT bubble and competing etc. having these intensive periods of stress without time for your mind to go on vacation.

Thing is Team Pogi doesn't have the data yet on whether or not his body is too overworked to do Vuelta or if he needs a break from the 3-week bubbles. He hasn't done Giro-Tour before so it's a bit uncharted territory for them. Both in terms of how his muscles are reacting and in terms of his mental state.

IMO it would always be a last minute decision if Pogi decided to go, but I am sure the plan was always to "only" go for Giro+Tour double which is very impressive in itself.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

3 GTs is doable, and I don't think the burn rate is that much higher if you actually start the seasons slow.

I kind of know what you mean, but Pogačar didn‘t start the season slow considering he won Strade Bianche by almost three minutes. He‘s still got to have some kind of form curve after reaching the highest-ever peak at the Tour.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

He became the greatest climber this year, and it was because of Gianetti and Matxin with the resources from the UAE.

It wasn't because of Sola, otherwise the best coach in the world is the coach of Landa who was able to improve in 5 % a guy of 34 years.

[[content removed: clinic]] but you can't deny Sola's influence just like that. Thermonuclear performances aside, Pogacar demonstrated excellent endurance this year by staying at a super high level for two consecutive GTs without any hiccups, which many cycling fans (you and me included) kinda expected. He was visibly lighter from the season start (no 67 kg Flandres Teddy) and they focused more on long climbs. Even without his watt H-bombs I do think he's a better and more consistent stage-racer than ever before.

 

[James M]

Training dont matter. New cadence, new program, lighter, nothing matters. Full switch on entire program, to tracking everything now, altitude etc etc list goes on. Doesnt matter though, training is not important.

 

[James M]

Its equivalent to Jorgenson getting a new training program from the Moviestar to Jumbo switch ofc it matters. Sometimes I wonder who is on the other side of the computer here ngl. Or if someone just incapable of being objective idk but its weird.

 

[Peyroteo94]

I will be very mad if they put Ayuso in the vuelta instead of Pogi. In both situations, team's chemistry will suffer but at least we will get a life time opportunity to see the treble.

 

[bNator]

Knowing Pog, he might have an issue or two with Trine loud mouthing during last year’s TdF after Jonas defeated Pog how he may go for the treble next year. Now Pog actually achieving it instead of Jonas may feel like poetic justice to him.

That sentiment aside, I hope he doesn’t go for it - you never know how it could affect him years to come…

 

[Cookster15]

I will be very mad if they put Ayuso in the vuelta instead of Pogi. In both situations, team's chemistry will suffer but at least we will get a life time opportunity to see the treble.

I am not sure we will see him try the treble but after what we just saw at the Tour who would bet against him also winning the Vuelta? He showed zero signs of Giro fatigue in winning the Tour with ease.

 

[Peyroteo94]

I am not sure we will see him try the treble but after what we just saw at the Tour who would bet against him also winning the Vuelta? He showed zero signs of Giro fatigue in winning the Tour with ease.

Yeah, it is a lifetime opportunity, why wasting it? He doesn't need to be at his best. He wasn't close to his best in the Giro and he still destroyed the field. Last year Vingegaard was close to win the Vuelta after spending all his time in Danmark after Tour. No way, Pogacar would lose the Vuelta without Roglic, Remco and Vingegaard. There is no way! And he will have Almeida and Yates in the team! C'mon Pogi, pull the trigger!

 

[hayneplane]

I think he will focus on the cobble classics in the first part of the season and then will do the tour vuelta double.

Maybe something like this.

Omloop
Strade bianchi
Mailand san remo
E3
Gent wevelgem
Ronde
Roubaix
Dauphine
Tour
Vuelta
Worlds
Lombardia

Without the ardennes classics he has enough time to rest and to loose a few kilos.

E3 yes and would be cool to see at the cobbled curtain raiser but doing GW would be very surprising as it is the least suited of all the major one day races for him.

 

[hayneplane]

I kind of know what you mean, but Pogačar didn‘t start the season slow considering he won Strade Bianche by almost three minutes. He‘s still got to have some kind of form curve after reaching the highest-ever peak at the Tour.

Only starting your season in March is starting your season slow. The awesome level he showed is irrelevant to that point.

 

[James M]

Just go RVV/Roubaix don't need that dumb tuneup crap

Agree. Just do Catalunya to build on your first base, show up at RVV and dip - go Liege then break - altitude and Tour Vuelta- Lombardia. Start with Strade and MSR.

Monuments is the name of the game for him and let the others fight for the scraps. Would much rather him do Liege etc than E3, Gent..
Think Roubaix is still too early in his career in terms of their plans so would personally be surprised if he did Roubaix next year.

 

[scribers]

One only needs to analyze what races are missing from his palmares to know how his schedule might go. Exceptions to this rule will be desired repeats of certain monuments (Flanders, LBL, and Lombardia) and the tour. There is a smattering of a collection of known missing monuments, the vuelta, 1 week stage races like Basque, Swiss, and Dauphiné (these are more important than we might believe), and difficult to obtain classics (targeting Merckx here).

 

[SHAD0W93]

Agree. Just do Catalunya to build on your first base, show up at RVV and dip - go Liege then break - altitude and Tour Vuelta- Lombardia. Start with Strade and MSR.

Monuments is the name of the game for him and let the others fight for the scraps. Would much rather him do Liege etc than E3, Gent..
Think Roubaix is still too early in his career in terms of their plans so would personally be surprised if he did Roubaix next year.

Next year I think he will do ToBC or TdR as his WT week races to add to his palmares.

 

[James M]

Next year I think he will do ToBC or TdR as his WT week races to add to his palmares.

Yeah same I heard he wanne tick of all one week races so properly. And repeat of certain monuments without all the smaller pre races hopefully. And Tour-Vuelta seems very likely almost a lock.

 

[Lequack]

He just tore up his jersey and went for a drink. What a guy.

 

[2WpK]

To have a real chance at PR, even the great Pog has to commit to a cobbles program. Lots of risk. Probably not worth taking it in the phase of his career when he can win a bunch more TDFs

 

[scribers]

mou has taught us the sponsors love the tour more than Pogi. He also said no P-R before 2026. For sure though Pogi is will keep trying the ciciban race MSR until he wins it. And he will contest P-R for the same

 

[YavorD]

I want to see him go and win some of the big One week races.
Potential schedule
Strade-MSR-Itzulia--LBL-Dauphine-Tour-Vuelta-Worlds isn't too bad.

 

[hayneplane]

One only needs to analyze what races are missing from his palmares to know how his schedule might go. Exceptions to this rule will be desired repeats of certain monuments (Flanders, LBL, and Lombardia) and the tour. There is a smattering of a collection of known missing monuments, the vuelta, 1 week stage races like Basque, Swiss, and Dauphiné (these are more important than we might believe), and difficult to obtain classics (targeting Merckx here).

Biggest difficulty is Itzulia and Flanders/Roubaix don’t really go together in the modern era and Sean Kelly doing all of them was insane that could never be imagined seriously now.

Think he will pick off either Suisse or Dauphine next year.

 

[scribers]

I would expect him to become obsessed with eddy’s classics resume.

One-day races and Classics
World Road Race Championships (1967, 1971, 1974)
National Road Race Championships
(1970)
Milan–San Remo (1966, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1976)
Paris–Roubaix (1968, 1970, 1973)
Tour of Flanders (1969, 1975)
Liège–Bastogne–Liège (1969, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975)
Giro di Lombardia (1971, 1972)
La Flèche Wallonne (1967, 1970, 1972)
Gent–Wevelgem (1967, 1970, 1973)
Omloop Het Volk (1971, 1973)
Grand Prix du Midi Libre (1971)
Rund um den Henninger-Turm (1971)
Giro del Piemonte (1972)
Amstel Gold Race (1973, 1975)
Paris–Brussels (1973)
Giro dell'Emilia (1973)
Grand Prix de Fourmies (1973)
Trofeo Laigueglia (1973, 1974)

 

[BigCoward]

I would expect him to become obsessed with eddy’s classics resume.

One-day races and Classics
World Road Race Championships (1967, 1971, 1974)

Milan–San Remo (1966, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1976)
Paris–Roubaix (1968, 1970, 1973)
Tour of Flanders (1969, 1975)
Liège–Bastogne–Liège (1969, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975)
Giro di Lombardia (1971, 1972)

If he's got any sense he should worry about the above only. Nobody is going to say he's not the goat because of secondary races.

 

[RedheadDane]

I would expect him to become obsessed with eddy’s classics resume.

Honestly, I don't think he's the kind of guy who would do that. I think he just rides whatever races he wants to, because he thinks it could be fun.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

To have a real chance at PR, even the great Pog has to commit to a cobbles program. Lots of risk. Probably not worth taking it in the phase of his career when he can win a bunch more TDFs

Pogacar could try PR with his weight from last year's Flandres. Then he would still have time to prepare for the TdF. However, I realized that they want to prioritize the Tour and probably won't change it (esp. after realizing that Vingo is such a monster rival). So PR (which is more risky and requires non-optimal weight) could wait longer than I thought and it seems there's no option that he will ever skip the Tour in his schedule (and do full classics assault + Vuelta for example). I'm no longer an optimist regarding PR in 2025 or 2026.

 

[Valv.Piti]

“For me he is just Tadej. I think he is one of the best cyclists in the world. If not the best. But at home he's just a normal guy who does his own laundry and makes dinner. He was just making his own race meal for the start. He's just a normal guy. Even after all his successes. He's just Tadej.
He hasn't changed since I first met him. He's someone who pushes hard on the pedals, he stirs up so many emotions in so many people around the world. But for me, he doesn't have to do anything to be special.
We are very close and we do the same thing. We know exactly what the other needs because we experience it together. And when our careers are over, I don't think our lives will be normal again, because it has never been normal. And then maybe we will start a family. Or maybe start a business. Maybe I will continue studying law.
We will let our children decide for themselves what they want to do. If they do decide to become cyclists, then we will happily follow them in a mobile home in the Tour.
Last year he doubted himself a little bit. Tadej also had a bad fall at 70 km/h. He sat on the road for five minutes because he didn't know what had happened. He wasn't sure of himself last year. There are other things he doubts himself about. I once beat him at pool. I also beat him at darts. But he's gotten a lot better at that now." said Urška Žigart,