If between the end of the vuelta and the start of next season Bernal does anything other than ride his TT bike he should be sacked.
I dont understand the doom and gloom posts about Pogs domination yesterday. "Borefest" etc.
We all watched something great yesterday.
"Sport ruined for years" such drama queens.
Pog is an exceptional talent and if he wins this race it is another victory for him which might be one of many more to come. If he really is that great and will continue to win, then I will be glad that I am at least watching history and one of the greatest riders we might ever see during our lifetime do his work.
Far too many times these talents have faded or something happens that ends their career prematurely. We will be asking what could have been once again. I hope that doesnt happen and that we will have many years of Pog, Bernal and Evenepoel to watch in this sport. Someone else might step up also, it would be strange if someone didnt. All of these guys can crash, have bad form, have bad days or lose motivation. We shouldnt take things for granted what will happen in the future nor the present. Hence the doom and gloom post is so unnecessary after yesterday instead of celebrating that performance.
It is hard to win bike races. Which makes it even more impressive if you manage to win a lot of them. So many things has to fall in place before and during the race.
Anyway. My two cents. There is still many stages left for things to happen, even though there seems to be one rider above everyone else.
We all watched something great yesterday.
"Sport ruined for years" such drama queens.
Pog is an exceptional talent and if he wins this race it is another victory for him which might be one of many more to come. If he really is that great and will continue to win, then I will be glad that I am at least watching history and one of the greatest riders we might ever see during our lifetime do his work.
Far too many times these talents have faded or something happens that ends their career prematurely. We will be asking what could have been once again. I hope that doesnt happen and that we will have many years of Pog, Bernal and Evenepoel to watch in this sport. Someone else might step up also, it would be strange if someone didnt. All of these guys can crash, have bad form, have bad days or lose motivation. We shouldnt take things for granted what will happen in the future nor the present. Hence the doom and gloom post is so unnecessary after yesterday instead of celebrating that performance.
It is hard to win bike races. Which makes it even more impressive if you manage to win a lot of them. So many things has to fall in place before and during the race.
Anyway. My two cents. There is still many stages left for things to happen, even though there seems to be one rider above everyone else.
Adding to this he did it by himself. No painful train where 5/7 best climbers in the race ride for the same team and you just get to watch the winding down of gc contenders slowly and painfully. This kid attacked with 30km to go and obliterated everyone with 1.5 mountains to go. If this spectacle wasn’t cool to watch I don’t get what people want from this sport. If people didn’t like this, chances are they’ve never liked a single of the great climbers of cycling history and perhaps should just stick to watching classics. These days it’s seems that only Pantani and Contador are allowed to have performed insanely without being called out negatively by most.
- Feb 20, 2012
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The best thing Bernal can do is just look where Pogacar is going and then go the other way.
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Do you remember when I wrote here after Tour of Slovenia Stage 2 when Pogačar won? I said that it is impossible to beat him. He was riding in the rain, on very bad asphalt, headwind with 1900 of VAM in average. Yesterday's stage was exactly the same as Tour of Slovenia. Went solo on the second to the last climb, grinding all the way to the line. And you were asking there, well Tour of Slo is third tier field, we cannot say he is better than others, blabla. It is impossible for anyone in this world to sustain such a big vertical speed in such a bad conditions, so I knew that he will be unbeatable at the Tour. Nothing surprising yesterday. The best part was when he was extremely aggresive to drop Carapaz.
What a show that accelleration was!!!!
What a show that accelleration was!!!!
I agree with the previous posters - yesterday was exciting and not a borefest. But at the same time if he does that for the next 5+ years, I would hate it. That said, Urich was set to dominate after 1997 and never won again. Schleck was set to dominate after Contadors ban and never won again. Heck, even Bernal was called TdF dominator in this forum after 2019 and for now he looks one level below the Slovenians (although I still have hopes for him).
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The funny thing is that I don't think Pogacar is at his absolute physical peak. When you look at other top guys during GTs (i.e. Roglic and previously Froome or Contador) they are so skinny, almost no fat, absolutely peak shape. Maybe it's just me but I think Pogacar still has some reserves in body mass department, maybe a couple of kilos. If that's the case it's scary for his rivals but OTOH operating at a slightly higher fat level is healthier and enables an athlete to keep his form for longer (peak is fragile and short-lasting).
Ok so we changing the distance units when Pogacar is participating. In hills it will be like 6 hills to go and cobbles will be like 4 cobbles to go.
- Feb 20, 2012
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More than 15 seconds of suspense about who wins.
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The 2011 Giro was quite the spectacle, and it had even less suspense.
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I really wish we would have Roglic to compare Pogacar to. I have absolutely 0 doubts that he woulnd't be a match either but it would put a lot more context to these sort of performances if he had to beat a different extremely highly rated rider.
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Undoubtedly the loss of Primoz made this race much less competitive. Actually there's no competition as Pogi is in the league of his own. That being said, Carapaz is a GT winner while Uran & Mas were runner-ups at GTs. He isn't crushing nobodies.
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My guess is that in good weather in a pretty pure W/kg fest he might be quite close or at least make the gap look respectable. It's very hard to say how much is down to Pogacar being way superior, which he undoubtedly is to some extent, and how much it's down to him also dealing with the dogshit weather much better.
Yesterday was a bit like Giau. Bernal/Pogacar set climbing records, while the guys behind them drop dead and some of their mummies will probably be found by aliens in 12000 years.
he's disappointing me...
fignon had 5 stage victories in 84. though most of them came late.
let's hope pog goes apesh!t on ventoux to get the stage victories rolling.
#fignon84
fignon had 5 stage victories in 84. though most of them came late.
let's hope pog goes apesh!t on ventoux to get the stage victories rolling.
#fignon84
- Jun 7, 2011
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He will want to win a mountain stage in yellow, will he be all in for stage glory on Ventoux, or wait until final week?
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I saw that and, if anyone was paying attention: almost all of the front riders save for the two Bahrain teammates all cashed it in and were just cruising to the finish. That Tadej could put 4 minutes on two hills into guys that were dead tired and noodling to the finish isn't that shocking considering his TT and the energy management he followed after the TT stage. I'm never suggesting the peloton is clean but the Bahrain duo and Ben O'Connor rode equally amazing rides.I think Søren Kragh's face said it best.
- Apr 30, 2011
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Roglic wouldn't be able to follow Pogacar. Roglic isn't a better climber than Carapaz. Not in the Giro 19, not in the Vuelta 20. Yes, in the TdF 20, the one Carapaz wasn't supposed to ride. With Roglic here, he might have done what Carapaz did yesterday, follow at first ,be dropped later. The 2 might have then collaborated and saved some time over the group behind, but nothing more.
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Ulrich came up against a better organized force and his own demons...Schleck was fortunate Contador got banned, overworked his engine, and then came Skybots...Bernal was the "Masi" of cycling before anyone heard of Pogacar. Pogacar, by contrast, is confirming his dominance (as in his previous wins this year at Tirreno, LBL, etc.)
He is at the least the new Bernard Hinault, unless a bigger fish comes along, but I doub't it.
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