• 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 975 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Aug 31, 2023
194
267
1,230
The cycling podcast discussed the difference between Pog and Jonas’ aims and schedules for the year which was quite interesting.

Their take was that basically everything for Jonas this year is surrounding the Tour while Pog has multiple goals for the year. Interesting their discussion on tour prep basically highlights Pog is only doing 2 stage races before the tour; UAE and Dauphine but with quite a lot of one day racing. Jonas on the other hand is doing 4 stage races and altitude in between.

They weren’t saying either way was correct or incorrect but jus noticing how different their prep is.
 
May not be the worst thing for their chances to podium from behind in Group 2 as the perfect excuse to do no work in a chase group.
No, I was talking about the future. In 3/4 years, both of them will probably be at their best (or close to). Where will they be leaders with Pogacar?
Sometimes we forget how young is still Pogacar. He is not even 6 years older than Christen and Morgado.
 
No, I was talking about the future. In 3/4 years, both of them will probably be at their best (or close to). Where will they be leaders with Pogacar?
Sometimes we forget how young is still Pogacar. He is not even 6 years older than Christen and Morgado.
If Pogacar is still as good then as he is now then their chances to win will be severely limited even if they moved teams.
 
  • Like
Reactions: scribers
Dominance can be dividing. I understand both "camps" but can not be mad at 100km solos and breakaways on "boring" flat stages ;)
Long solo's where the race is instantly over aren't great racing, and breakaways like to day have 0 added value to the race than circlejerk and that one dopamine hit of "omg he's in the break". It was never going anywhere.
 
Long solo's where the race is instantly over aren't great racing, and breakaways like to day have 0 added value to the race than circlejerk and that one dopamine hit of "omg he's in the break". It was never going anywhere.
Better than seeing a sunday ride until 5 km to go and then a sprint.
Or it is really better to see Valverde doing an uphill sprint in LBL? He was dominant there and don't tell me, you cheered for him.
Most people complain about anything, they are never satisfied and they will never be, do you know why? Because their favourite rider is getting destroyed by Pogacar. And it doesn't matter if it's Remco, Vingegaard, Roglic, etc. At the end of the day, Pogacar is paid to race and he likes to race like this. Your beloved Roglic was doing nothing in the 2020 Tour and you were cheering for an uphill sprinter to win the race. For me, Roglic was, is and will always be a negative rider and I don't understand why he is so loved but I'm not here claiming every single time how a rider like Roglic is bad to this sport.
 
Long solo's where the race is instantly over aren't great racing, and breakaways like to day have 0 added value to the race than circlejerk and that one dopamine hit of "omg he's in the break". It was never going anywhere.

I admit that if long solo sticks it can be anticlimatic. Should it fail to be great racing or should they prohibit solos?

Is this fault of rider attempting solo or peloton for not reacting?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sandisfan
I admit that if long solo sticks it can be anticlimatic. Should it fail to be great racing or should they prohibit solos?

Is this fault of rider attempting solo or peloton for not reacting?
It's not about who is at fault. It is nobody's fault.

It's about tension and uncertainty. Who is going to win? Are they making the correct decisions. When Pogacar is racing, there is almost never going to be any of that. You know he is gonna win, there is no uncertainty when he goes solo, and often the riders behind instantly give up and start riding for 2nd place.

The only races where Pogacar adds something is Sanremo, the cobbles, and The Tour, and the latter only if he's at a similar level to Vingegaard. Take him out of the last Tour and it doesn't change all that much although probably Evenepoel poses some problems in the hills and on the gravel stage.

In the previous era, long solo's were spectacular because they weren't the norm. They weren't expectable, and when they did happen, they often went wrong too. Contador built a reputation for crazy attacks in the 2nd half of his career, but they went wrong a lot more often than they went right. Same for Nibali and the rest of that generation.

And these guys would find themselves into situations where they were behind and had to do something. Pogacar has been in such a situation like once? And he tried, sorta and went back asking if he could just try for the stage win instead.
 
It's not about who is at fault. It is nobody's fault.

It's about tension and uncertainty. Who is going to win? Are they making the correct decisions. When Pogacar is racing, there is almost never going to be any of that. You know he is gonna win, there is no uncertainty when he goes solo, and often the riders behind instantly give up and start riding for 2nd place.

The only races where Pogacar adds something is Sanremo, the cobbles, and The Tour, and the latter only if he's at a similar level to Vingegaard. Take him out of the last Tour and it doesn't change all that much although probably Evenepoel poses some problems in the hills and on the gravel stage.

In the previous era, long solo's were spectacular because they weren't the norm. They weren't expectable, and when they did happen, they often went wrong too. Contador built a reputation for crazy attacks in the 2nd half of his career, but they went wrong a lot more often than they went right. Same for Nibali and the rest of that generation.

And these guys would find themselves into situations where they were behind and had to do something. Pogacar has been in such a situation like once? And he tried, sorta and went back asking if he could just try for the stage win instead.

I can relate to this. It is kinda new era and top guys make it stick more often than not.

Maybe they should impose rules that would not encourage racing for 2nd? I still think top guys are not so strong that whole peloton would collapse once they attack but it happens a lot lately (and not only by Pog).