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Teams & Riders Tadej Pogačar discussion thread

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...after I spent years following (& supporting) Andy Schleck in the Tour.

The "he'll get better, he's young!" promise turned seriously sour by the end.

i think you have to be a little careful about comparing anything with the approx. 1991-2010 era -- lots of late-blooming riders in that era and not many young riders (other than Schleck and Ullrich perhaps). those two decades went against the norm in many ways.

i think rog is a great champion. but it is not just the youth thing. he also gives the impression of working very hard (kind of like Cadel Evans). Pog is regal, everything seems easy and fluid. and (beating a dead horse here), he reminds me of how Fignon rode in 1984. Fignon actually said he "laughed" when Hinault attacked towards L'Alpe, because he knew how superior his own form and capabilities were that Tour.

that is the impression Pog exudes.
 
I'm genuinely more impressed by this performance than the PdBF TT. I could put a lot of that down to him simply being a better climber than the TT specialists. Like considering their respective shape if there had been a road stage finishing there nobody would have been surprised if Pogacar had put that amount of time on Dumoulin and Van Aert on that climb. Of course that win was a lot more meaningful and all of that, but this today is something I simply didn't think he could do despite already having witnessed last years performance. Honestly, what on earth can stop this guy? Have we reached the point where climbing is a bigger weakness of his than his TT?
 
I'm genuinely more impressed by this performance than the PdBF TT. I could put a lot of that down to him simply being a better climber than the TT specialists. Like considering their respective shape if there had been a road stage finishing there nobody would have been surprised if Pogacar had put that amount of time on Dumoulin and Van Aert on that climb. Of course that win was a lot more meaningful and all of that, but this today is something I simply didn't think he could do despite already having witnessed last years performance. Honestly, what on earth can stop this guy? Have we reached the point where climbing is a bigger weakness of his than his TT?
Sample sizes are still really low. And for his big performance on Prato di Tivo, he gained as much on the puny climbers in the 10km flat ITT if not more.

In the Tour last year he sure as hell won it more in the ITT than uphill vs Roglic too.

Still, sample sizes are ridiculously small in GTs for him still and we still have to see the big climbing stages this Tour.
 
Yeah but Roglic is crippled.

I mean a mummified crippled Roglic only lost 44 seconds today, so that "convincing Pogacar win" scenario only came about because Roglic went into the ditch. That was not predictable.

2013 Froome meanwhile was inherently head & shoulders above all his rivals. He was in 2014 as well, but he himself went into a ditch & had a DNF which made Nibali look like a Terminator.

Just some food for thought.

This isn’t the thread to debate 2014, but Contador had been just as strong as Froome that entire season, and perhaps even a bit stronger considering that Froome finished behind Contador in every GC race they rode the entire season, including the Vuelta that they both started banged up.
 
I'm genuinely more impressed by this performance than the PdBF TT. I could put a lot of that down to him simply being a better climber than the TT specialists.
He was already top2 in the flat part if I'm not mistaken.
Perhaps we should start consider him as an elite TTer at least for GTs.

Sample sizes are still really low. And for his big performance on Prato di Tivo, he gained as much on the puny climbers in the 10km flat ITT if not more.

In the Tour last year he sure as hell won it more in the ITT than uphill vs Roglic too.
Very true.
But I believe we have yet to see the best from Pog, his career trajectory points to him being better than last year (as it should be for a 22 years old rider).
 
If you want to compare him to someone from the past I would say Greg LeMond. He's the relaxed, flamboyant guy, very good at a very young age, it seems to come easily, and he took yellow in the final time trial. I advise him to avoid hunting parties.

As a French-American, I approve this comparison. LeMond was on the way to a legendary career had he not gotten shot. As it was he merely had an incredible one.

I can't argue with any of the superlatives attached to Pogacar, but I'd say only that he's not yet been as dominant as he could be. He barely won the Tour last year, he hasn't won this Tour yet with crippled rivals, and Roglic has looked just as good in weeklong races, and has won a few big one-days. And recall that Bernal was on a similar GT trajectory (TT notwithstanding), got injured but still has 2 of the 3 GT prizes at age 24.

But yeah, all things being equal and barring bad backs, errant road furniture, clinic issues or hunting accidents, he's on his way to a better palmares than anyone I can think of in recent memory, because there's a lot of classics he can win -- and he seems to like them -- plus (at this point) as many GTs as he wants...surely he'll get a RR WC, maybe even an ITT WC...
 
Struggling to find many people that said "If Pogacar beats everyone in that first Tour ITT then they should definitely pick Roglic"
With all respect for Roglic, Tadej seems the best option to pick for it at the moment.

He suprised me yesterday but his explanations “I started to hard at NC and Basque country) make indeed sense. He had good first time spots there.

But still no word on the slovenian selection. The relationship between Rog and Pog is well below freezing point so not sure how they will work together for the olympics.

And the national coach is Hauptman
 
With all respect for Roglic, Tadej seems the best option to pick for it at the moment.

He suprised me yesterday but his explanations “I started to hard at NC and Basque country) make indeed sense. He had good first time spots there.

But still no word on the slovenian selection. The relationship between Rog and Pog is well below freezing point so not sure how they will work together for the olympics.

And the national coach is Hauptman
They hate each other now? That would be news to me?

First and foremost, I'm not even sure Pogacar has expressed his interest in doing that ITT, whereas Roglic did. Other than that, of Poggers wants it then yeah that spot should go to him probably.
 
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They hate each other now? That would be news to me?

First and foremost, I'm not even sure Pogacar has expressed his interest in doing that ITT, whereas Roglic did. Other than that, of Poggers wants it then yeah that spot should go to him probably.

After yesterday's TT, there shouldn't be any doubt. Is there really question if he wants it? Why wouldn't? I mean he is favorite for the gold in OI. I would find it very strange if he wouldn't want to ride it.
 
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