• The Cycling News forum is still looking to add volunteer moderators with. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

Teams & Riders Tadej Pogačar discussion thread

Page 795 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
But that’s not the point. We’re comparing two different eras. Merckx rode in an era where what he did was more common and easier to do. Racing changed and what Pogacar is doing in a specialized era that no one has done for a long time is remarkable.

I agree,
in a way my comment, besides being a joke, was also meant to address the incomparability of a lot of these achievements.

When it comes to Marino and Mohomes e.g., the way you frame it Marino sounds more impressive, but than again as I don't know *** about american football (except accasionally watching a bit of the post season), I e.g. have no idea what the context of Marinos passing yards was. What were his teams doing, maybe they exploited something that made passing for them relatively easy in the context of the defenses those years e.g. ? I am interested now as this sounds to be an interesting case for comparison.
 
What’s better; Marino throwing 5000 yards in a non run first league and defenses allowed to do majority of what they want or Mahomes throwing 5000 yards in a pass happy league with penalties that benefit the offense over the defense.
I find it extremely disrespectful to the other riders from that era as well as Merckx to just go with the narrative that Merckx was the only good rider against farmers.
 
I find it extremely disrespectful to the other riders from that era as well as Merckx to just go with the narrative that Merckx was the only good rider against farmers.
I’ve never posted he’s riding against farmers, absolutely Merckx was head and shoulders over the others before and after that competed in everything. But now Pogacar is doing the same thing as those in the past while in a specialized era. He definitely needs more seasons like this though to firmly stand or surpass Merckx.

I agree,
in a way my comment, besides being a joke, was also meant to address the incomparability of a lot of these achievements.

When it comes to Marino and Mohomes e.g., the way you frame it Marino sounds more impressive, but than again as I don't know *** about american football (except accasionally watching a bit of the post season), I e.g. have no idea what the context of Marinos passing yards was. What were his teams doing, maybe they exploited something that made passing for them relatively easy in the context of the defenses those years e.g. ? I am interested now as this sounds to be an interesting case for comparison.
View: https://youtu.be/5bn-jMSmhhE?si=J85xd4JfICZZjka5


Video was made 5 years ago so doesn’t have all of Mahomes career. Marino was the first quarterback to reach 5000 yards in 1984 and the only one until 2008, while it took till 2011 for someone to break Marino’s yard record.



There’s a lot of factors that go into it; offensive game plan, rules, receivers, defenses, and if you pat your stats against bad teams or in garbage time (when your team is getting beat by multiple scores and it’s late in the game so defenses play soft coverage that allows you to get a lot of yards). But Marino was first in a time that it was unheard of. Now quarterbacks are talked down on if they don’t reach 4-5k.
 
I find it extremely disrespectful to the other riders from that era as well as Merckx to just go with the narrative that Merckx was the only good rider against farmers.

It is absurd to suggest Merckx raced against farmers.

It is however true that cycling was less ‘specialised’ and less global in the 70s and therefore the depth and level of competition is clearly relevant if one subjectively tries to compare across generations- which i am not a big fan of. There were also races which have changed in significance - so FW was more important in the 70s than now and a win in GP Nations was big in the 70s whereas winning it from the 90s onwards less so, there are other races now which are WT level which did not exist in the 70s ie these Canadian races.

In any event if Pog won Worlds and Lombardia (which given the level of competition I think is unlikely but of course given early season form possible) there is a strong argument to say that this would then objectively constitute the best season ever.
 
Jun 24, 2024
12
29
80
Visit site
Lequack This is priceless! The image sums up perfectly what most of us think is happening in the UAE team.
I read that mou is back on "X". Hope someone with an account can keep us updated on what he is saying.
His two most recent tweets are indeed about Ayuso:
mou - @mou55981652
I want to see the reaction of Ayuso when DS shouts in his ear "forward Juan, start pulling" and Wellens and Majka when they start calling Ayuso turn after he ignores DS's orders and after that Gianneti call to Matxin to explain what the *** is going on
8:38 PM · 12 set 2024
mou - @mou55981652
Imagine how much of a fool you must be to think that you are 50:50 with Pog in terms of talent, and believe me that Ayuso thinks at this moment that his peek is bigger than Pog,boy lives in some parallel world, he thinks he is acting in the Avengers, captain America(Spain)
11:16 PM · 12 set 2024
:grin: :grin:
 
I find it extremely disrespectful to the other riders from that era as well as Merckx to just go with the narrative that Merckx was the only good rider against farmers.
No one is going to fight much on the legend of Merckx. It’s a fun comparison but impossible one too, as these discussions always seem to resolve to. We can at least agree at the difficulty pog might experience even contesting a similar calendar to Merckx in today’s peloton
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sandisfan
It is absurd to suggest Merckx raced against farmers.

It is however true that cycling was less ‘specialised’ and less global in the 70s and therefore the depth and level of competition is clearly relevant if one subjectively tries to compare across generations- which i am not a big fan of. There were also races which have changed in significance - so FW was more important in the 70s than now and a win in GP Nations was big in the 70s whereas winning it from the 90s onwards less so, there are other races now which are WT level which did not exist in the 70s ie these Canadian races.

In any event if Pog won Worlds and Lombardia (which given the level of competition I think is unlikely but of course given early season form possible) there is a strong argument to say that this would then objectively constitute the best season ever.
It's also true that we are in the age of superteams, and riders, no matter how talented they are, have little chance of winning big races if thay aren't in the top 5/6 teams. Look at the difference in performance of Jorgensonn between this season and when he was at Movistar. I think both Merckx era and todays are not the most competitive when it comes to GTs, altough of course both faced some really good riders, but in small number
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sandisfan
It's also true that we are in the age of superteams, and riders, no matter how talented they are, have little chance of winning big races if thay aren't in the top 5/6 teams. Look at the difference in performance of Jorgensonn between this season and when he was at Movistar. I think both Merckx era and todays are not the most competitive when it comes to GTs, altough of course both faced some really good riders, but in small number
I don't think it's any worse now than it has ever been regarding teams' quality affecting the outcome of grand tours. Sky, US Postal, Telekom, Banesto... All of them winning with several rider in their era. There were usually these super teams which appeared to be spawning top riders for one reason or another...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sandisfan
I don't think it's any worse now than it has ever been regarding teams' quality affecting the outcome of grand tours. Sky, US Postal, Telekom, Banesto... All of them winning with several rider in their era. There were usually these super teams which appeared to be spawning top riders for one reason or another...
Cycling didn't just randomly appear in the '90s. Through the post war period up to the '80 teams where not so important. Altough some really strong teams existed, like KAS or Van Looy's Faema, they never had the strongholds of todays team. Like almost 75% of this year world tour races (so far) have been won by 4 teams, and that's not inclunding Trek and Ineos. And not only they dominate the result sheet, they also dominate the race development.
 
The big difference is that the top teams now each have several riders who win top races.
Going back a few decades teams had one leader and the rest were doms.
Winning was frowned upon unless God gave the go ahead. If the leader failed the team all failed.
If the junior upsurged the leader all hell broke.
Now if there is disunity a rider will transferred, in the past careers were effectively ended.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sandisfan
The Quebec/Montreal team. Ayuso not looking as pleased.

2miryck97eod1.jpeg


GXMKefDXwAAIg7w
Ayuso should leave the team. What an arrogant person.
 
I find it extremely disrespectful to the other riders from that era as well as Merckx to just go with the narrative that Merckx was the only good rider against farmers.
If we go by that logic of "farmers" in Merckx era, then we can say the same about this era.

This era is basically 3/4 riders above everybody, and the rest is farmers.

What is the name of the guys Pogacar beat in strade bianche, Giro? I'm not going to talk of the Tour because the competition he faced was injuried competition, even if it was better than the competition he faced in the previous races.

There is 3/4 guys that win every race, especially Pogacar who won a lot this year, and then there is a bunch of farmers who always lose against those guys.