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Teams & Riders Tadej Pogačar discussion thread

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What did he do to his hair?

View: https://twitter.com/SapFred18/status/1856449753350914283


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It's obvious Pogi is better than Merckx. Only difference that makes Merckx the GOAT (yet) is his palmares compared to Pogacar. Pogacar winning all GTs (and 5 Tours) and monuments is enough to change this paradigm.
Its ironic how people consider merckx a goat and armstrong a froud when both actually got caught doping multiple times in their career with only the later getting the stick for his behavior to cover up his sh**😖 If it wasn't for his bad attitudes towards some riders we would've still considered him the greatest GT rider with 7 consecutive tdf wins🤭. Even if i'm a die hard pogi fan i wouldn't even mention his name amongst the best if he got caught doping 3 times as merckx was.
 
If Pogacar rides like he did this year, he does what he wants regardless of what the others do.
Pogacar succeeded in some races because other riders chose not to take him on directly. Not all events but the Giro was a sad promenade behind him. The Tour was a closer reality for about 2 weeks and then everyone settled into their petty fights for the lower placings. So, yes; if they do that in 2025 the results could be the same.
They will all start out healthy save for the unknowns of Vindegaard's recovery to form. That could take some time and, if it does Visma will need to be realistic and pick a #1 rider that they'll give full support.
 
Its ironic how people consider merckx a goat and armstrong a froud when both actually got caught doping multiple times in their career with only the later getting the stick for his behavior to cover up his sh**😖 If it wasn't for his bad attitudes towards some riders we would've still considered him the greatest GT rider with 7 consecutive tdf wins🤭. Even if i'm a die hard pogi fan i wouldn't even mention his name amongst the best if he got caught doping 3 times as merckx was.
To be fair, though, 'doping before 1989' =/= 'doping after 1989'.
Amphetamines etc. vs. blood doping.
Even Coppi and Ferdi Kübler were, admittedly, taking 'The Bomb'.
"Too bad that" Coppi's bomb was most likely closer to caffeine than to EPO, and not for a lack of trying (to make it more potent).

Also I personally think of Lance as a 7 TdF winner. Even more so given that the wins of Mr60%, Jan, Pantani and such, weren't scraped off, and those 7 weren't given to anyone else either (and we all know why).
Though, yeah, especially during 1990-2010 (or at least till 2008) you must consider all results as having an asterisk*.
 
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They will all start out healthy save for the unknowns of Vindegaard's recovery to form. That could take some time and, if it does Visma will need to be realistic and pick a #1 rider that they'll give full support.
Wait... what?

1) Vingo is fine.
It's not like what happened to him was the same as Egan Bernal, who 12 months later was still struggling to stay with the "mid" group.
Jonas might've not been 100% but in 2024 he was the only one able to follow Pog on the 'San Luca', he won a stage, and ended the GT at second place.

2)Let's assume for the moment Vingegaard will only be at "90%" at the next Tour:
who else could Visma pick as a #1 TdF rider?
Outbid Redbull and offer Remco 13 million per year, betting on him improving a ton uphill?

I don't get it.
 
Is this now the doping forum? Because it will just spiral into an abyss of conspiracy and innuendo. I am not naive to where we have been and what could be going on, but I find forum threads about what anonymous randos think riders might be doing based on whatever to be uninteresting at best.
 
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Vingegaard will be better than ever. My question is how much can Pogacar improve? If he improves, no one will give him a fight.
There should be a limit up to where Pogacar and Vingegaard (and Evenepoel for that matter) improve. I find it hard to believe that Pogacar can improve any further (without visiting different part of the forum) and Vingegaard being 28 should be close to his limit as well.