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Teams & Riders Tadej Pogačar discussion thread

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Yeah, in the 90s they had the award and the competition but no "actual" jersey. However its anyway hard to figure out who really "wore" the jersey because leader of the classification were also often in yellow or in the polkadot jersey.

I'm bored at work so I counted the number of days where they "would have" worn the jersey and the suggestions so far were quite good:

Pogacar is currently at 16 days (12 last year, 4 this year) and counting.

Quintana: 22 days (10 in 2013, 11 in 2015)
Schleck: 27 days (6+7+14 in 2008-2010)
Ullrich: 52 days (!!!), (14+21+17 in 1996-1998)

So Pogacar definitely has some work to do if he wants to catch Ullrich. He is young enough to do it tho:sweatsmile:
 
I fear we won't see him go all out in the mountains, just following the best of the rest like Armstrong in 2005. With a fully fit Roglič, this would have been a great Tour, despite the anaemic mountain stages.
Anaemic mountain stages? If you really want to race, first opportunity is on Saturday and its a great one. Can be total carnage if Ineos and Movistar wants to. Plenty of opportunities.
 
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Let me know if you want to have a mature discussion of what significance the route has. I'm sure you too can tell the difference between what different mountain stages have to offer, and how different editions offer more proper racing than others.
I know what difference it has, and I dont think the mountain stages are anaemic for Tour standards. Its not like this particular stage we are discussing is miles easier than previous ones at all, and they even included a decently hard pass just before Romme this year. Rome/Colombiere was the queen stage of 2009, and is not this year - not every inclusion of that particular combo needs a big chunk of climbing before, necessarily, although the more the better obviously.

The route isnt original, I dont really care. The two Pyreneen stages could easily have made been harder, and thats about the only negative thing amount the mountain stages to me. They are too similar, lots of flat before - agree. But I dont wanna sit here and nitpick every god damn mountain stage, although every stage obviously in theory could have made better. But they always can, cant they

But just because I dont think they are anaemic doesnt make me immature or whatever. My point still stands - on Saturday, if they REALLY want to, it will be an amazing race. The route isnt easy before the 3 last climbs, and the last climb makes it 50 km of up and down in the final.
 
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I know what difference it has, and I dont think the mountain stages are anaemic for Tour standards. Its not like this particular stage we are discussing is miles easier than previous ones at all, and they even included a decently hard pass just before Romme this year. Rome/Colombiere was the queen stage of 2009, and is not this year - not every inclusion of that particular combo needs a big chunk of climbing before, necessarily, although the more the better obviously.

The route isnt original, I dont really care. The two Pyreneen stages could easily have made been harder, and thats about the only negative thing amount the mountain stages to me. They are too similar, lots of flat before - agree. But I dont wanna sit here and nitpick every god damn mountain stage, although every stage obviously in theory could have made better. But they always can, cant they

But just because I dont think they are anaemic doesnt make me immature or whatever. My point still stands - on Saturday, if they REALLY want to, it will be an amazing race. The route isnt easy before the 3 last climbs, and the last climb makes it 50 km of up and down in the final.
The immaturity was your straw-man followed up with the dismissal that it's just down to the riders. My comment was about the overall impression of the route, and while it's part of a trend it is not constant. Mountain stages continue to get easier, and especially the ceiling of the hardest stage is lower than ever. That's not nitpicking on a singular stage, that's a judgement on the whole route -- not compared to an idealised route that I could draw, but compared to the other routes of the Tour over the years.

And my point was that the riders present here could deliver a spectacular fight in the mountains, but the terrain available to them is the limiting factor.
 
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I never said its just down to the riders. Its up to the riders when you have this kind of finale - if the climbers want to sit there and attack with 3 km to go of Peyresourde, im not blaming the route on this one, but the riders considering the landscape of the GC and the remaining mountain stages.

Look I have been very critical of many routes, and I miss proper queen stages. Im probably what you'd call very conservative regarding routes, and I dont like shorter and shorter stages and I agree with your overall sentiment about routes generally getting easier and easier (in the high mountains, not outside of that). But on the other hand, there definitely are opportunity and it wouldn't make sense to me to blame the route if the riders soft-pedal the Alps.
 
I never said its just down to the riders. Its up to the riders when you have this kind of finale - if the climbers want to sit there and attack with 3 km to go of Peyresourde, im not blaming the route on this one, but the riders considering the landscape of the GC and the remaining mountain stages.

Look I have been very critical of many routes, and I miss proper queen stages. Im probably what you'd call very conservative regarding routes, and I dont like shorter and shorter stages and I agree with your overall sentiment about routes generally getting easier and easier (in the high mountains, not outside of that). But on the other hand, there definitely are opportunity and it wouldn't make sense to me to blame the route if the riders soft-pedal the Alps.
The terrain is good enough for end of the stage action. But with Pogi and Rogla, we could hope to have more than that, unfortunately we won't.
 

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