Teams & Riders Tadej Pogačar discussion thread

[Red Rick]

Just seen the results, lol. Naesen, stuyven, gva, Roelandts all there to try something.

I remember that a Dutch guy attacked towards the end

Still mad he didn't win.

Forget Oliver Zaugg. Tom Leezer would be the ultimate meme champion.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

You have 6 guys in a group of ~20. Then you decide to ride for a sprint with old as *** Boonen against Cavendish and Sagan.

Tom Leezer could've been world championship without all that foolishness

Imagine

 

[hfer07]

Poga posted on IG a pic training around Arenberg
hope he goes for it

 

[stonerider]

Sagan lost a lot more than high end sprint speed

Yes, he lost something more important...motivation.

 

[SHAD0W93]

I would offer a counter point that you never know how long anybody is gonna last. Especially people who are THIS good at young age.
Look at where Sagan is now, and he is still only 31.

There are no guarantees. You do not know if Pogacar has 15 years or 5 years to do it. He better make the best of it when he's at his peak. You might think there will come 10+ chances for Pogacar to win. But for all you know, this could've been his last chance to win RVV.

That’s why I said if he could maintain it. He could be done by 25. We will see. This year was definitely a great chance but without WVA being with them, he should have tried sprinting from further out or putting one or two more attacks in to tire MVDP out. He gave it all he could at times and MVDP held on by the skin of his teeth.

 

[tobydawq]

Sagan is incomparable to me cause while he was very alround he never was that much better than everyone else at what he did

Yes he was.

 

[Red Rick]

Yes he was.

If he was he would've won a lot more of De Ronde and Roubaix and Sanremo in a time when both Boonen and Cancellara were winding down.

 

[tobydawq]

If he was he would've won a lot more of De Ronde and Roubaix and Sanremo in a time when both Boonen and Cancellara were winding down.

"What he did" was something else than just being a monument rider. He was also a super puncheur (not Mur de Huy steep), a cross-wind rider, a sprinter, a point machine, a championship rider.

Of course you know all this but it's so easy for you to look at the "lol only two monuments" fact instead of "five major one-day wins" or just looking at his career in the 2010s as a whole.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Still mad he didn't win.

Forget Oliver Zaugg. Tom Leezer would be the ultimate meme champion.

Thomas Leezer, the Dutch geezer.

 

[gregrowlerson]

By the way, I think Red Rick found his button.

It's on tobydawq and he's pushing it on the regular.

.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

The thing I like about Pogačar is he seems to have the spirit and enthusiasm of a kid, almost as if any of us suddenly were given cycling superpowers and had a chance to use them without caution. Sure we'd ride the Tour, but why not the RVV, possibly Paris-Roubaix, simply because we can!

This seems a good description of Pogacar: a kiddo with superpowers. Let's try mountains, gravel or maybe cobbles for fun. And he's still learning how to use them!

 

[TomBonnen2005]

"It looks like I was angry at someone but I wasn't"

Always had a good PR team.

 

[claude cat]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1511261338097569793

View: https://twitter.com/eltiodeldato/status/1511261338097569793?s=20&t=Im_HiP6EYnCp2nXVZ7oWpQ

 

[RunningRouleur]

What does he need to achieve in order to be considered the GOAT? His achievements can never rival Eddy, but we are in a different, far more competitive era.
It is crazy the level he is going to have to maintain, year after year, in order to get his Palmares on a level that is in the discussion.

But there really is no limit to what this guy can win:
GC+stages in all three Grand Tours
All 5 Monuments
World Championship
Olympics
GC+stages in all the big seven stage races
Big non-Monument one-day races

I think some combination of most of these achievements and 100-150 career victories, in the current era, as a GC rider, would be enough to cement him as the greatest cyclist of all time.

 

[Netserk]

What does he need to achieve in order to be considered the GOAT?

7 Tours in a row.

 

[Extinction]

What does he need to achieve in order to be considered the GOAT? His achievements can never rival Eddy, but we are in a different, far more competitive era.
It is crazy the level he is going to have to maintain, year after year, in order to get his Palmares on a level that is in the discussion.

But there really is no limit to what this guy can win:
GC+stages in all three Grand Tours
All 5 Monuments
World Championship
Olympics
GC+stages in all the big seven stage races
Big non-Monument one-day races

I think some combination of most of these achievements and 100-150 career victories, in the current era, as a GC rider, would be enough to cement him as the greatest cyclist of all time.

As far as GC and GTs are concerned there is no doubt he can win more than any cyclist in history, given his age (not even Merckx had won the Tour twice at his age). As far as Monuments go, doubtless he can win each one, with still a question mark hanging over Paris-Roubaix however. But as we saw Sunday, he can be the strongest in the race and still not win. Consequently, getting all 5 Monuments is perhaps his biggest challenge. Courses suited to him at Worlds and Olympics are naturally his to lose, but again in one-day events there is always a level of uncertainty that something could go wrong. Same for the non-Monument classics, but not being a specialist how many can he afford to ride considereng his GT prep needs? If he can win most on that list, with a Giro-Tour double or 2 he will go down as peer to Merckx and Hinault.

 

[Lequack]

Pogacar not happy with how the French make their cobbles

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/second-tour-de-france-cobblestone-sector-madness-says-pogacars-ds/

 

[OlavEH]

It is crazy the level he is going to have to maintain, year after year, in order to get his Palmares on a level that is in the discussion.

But there really is no limit to what this guy can win:
GC+stages in all three Grand Tours
All 5 Monuments
World Championship
Olympics
GC+stages in all the big seven stage races
Big non-Monument one-day races

I think some combination of most of these achievements and 100-150 career victories, in the current era, as a GC rider, would be enough to cement him as the greatest cyclist of all time.

Merckx has 11 GTs, 19 monuments and 3 Worlds. Pogacar has a looooooooooooong way to go yet. Most realistically I think he can be the greatest in modern times. That is post Hinault.

 

[Red Rick]

What does he need to achieve in order to be considered the GOAT? His achievements can never rival Eddy, but we are in a different, far more competitive era.
It is crazy the level he is going to have to maintain, year after year, in order to get his Palmares on a level that is in the discussion.

But there really is no limit to what this guy can win:
GC+stages in all three Grand Tours
All 5 Monuments
World Championship
Olympics
GC+stages in all the big seven stage races
Big non-Monument one-day races

I think some combination of most of these achievements and 100-150 career victories, in the current era, as a GC rider, would be enough to cement him as the greatest cyclist of all time.

7GTs, 5 monuments, maybe a WC and weak era arguments can do the rest

 

[tobydawq]

Merckx has 11 GTs, 19 monuments and 3 Worlds. Pogacar has a looooooooooooong way to go yet. Most realistically I think he can be the greatest in modern times. That is post Hinault.

So he needs to win 19 monuments and 11 Grand Tours before we can consider him the equal of Merckx? Isn't that a bit silly when we consider the depth of the field today versus back then and that riders specialise much more now than then?

If we plopped Merckx down into today's peloton and gave him the training, equipment and nutrition of today, do you then think he would get the same wins as he did?

 

[OlavEH]

So he needs to win 19 monuments and 11 Grand Tours before we can consider him the equal of Merckx? Isn't that a bit silly when we consider the depth of the field today versus back then and that riders specialise much more now than then?

Perhaps not, but something close to that. When Merckx won 30 in total, 33 if you include the Worlds, 12 or 15 doesn't cut it for Pogacar.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

7 Tours in a row.

Winning 7 Tours in a row doesn't end well, 5 is enough it seems.

 

[Red Rick]

So he needs to win 19 monuments and 11 Grand Tours before we can consider him the equal of Merckx? Isn't that a bit silly when we consider the depth of the field today versus back then and that riders specialise much more now than then?

If we plopped Merckx down into today's peloton and gave him the training, equipment and nutrition of today, do you then think he would get the same wins as he did?

Hot take but I think Merkcx wouldnt do that well in the present era. Rouleurs had massive advantages back then because of worse bikes and weak domestiques. I dont evem know what races he would be world class at

 

[gregrowlerson]

Hot take but I think Merkcx wouldnt do that well in the present era. Rouleurs had massive advantages back then because of worse bikes and weak domestiques. I dont evem know what races he would be world class at

Maybe he would be like TDG

 

[gunara]

It would have been a bit easier for him if his competitors was restricted to riders from about 12 or 15 countries like 60s/70s greats, no South American or fellow Slovenian to be bothered with.