Would be wild if Remco is still on form for that and they duke it out especially after his crash.
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Still missing top form at Quebec but was more active today: among the attackers on the penultimate lap. Strong end of the season is still on the cards, methinks.
I wouldn't be worried at all. Pogacar showed he can take this "prep" races before main objectives as training and only to test the legs without going too much into red. He will be fighting for the win in WC RR and Il Lombardia.
Just won Montreal out sprinting Van Aert from the break. Monsterous.
Great to see Teddy in form again. A strong candidate for the rainbow this year.
Nice to see him in good form. Out sprinting Van Aert even from a break would be unexpected. A timely reminder with Remco’s breakthrough in Spain.
What a great win by Pogacar..
Makes me wonder is there any (big) race in the calendar he has no chance of winning?
Makes me wonder is there any (big) race in the calendar he has no chance of winning?
He said it himself it’s Paris-Roubaix. But that was most likely just a diversion… In this years P-R stage it surely didn’t look like he has no chance…
Agree completely that was just deflection to stop the talk of entering this year after smashing The Ronde.
Nibali could have animated the cobbled monuments at his best but Pogacar is the guy who I would be very surprised if he doesn’t at least podium either RVV or PR in his career if he rides them a couple more times while in his peak.
It’s a pity he fumbled the podium at RVV this year even if the win was unlikely. I think he can win any monument but there will be some luck involved and he will have to keep peaking during classics season, hopefully he won’t change anything based on how this year’s Tour went.
I doubt we'll see him at the cobbled classics any time soon, unfortunately, after what happened at the Tour. And now with Remco having shown he's a GT contender, UAE will doubtless want to prioritize the absolutely optimal Tour build-up program.
Reasonable, but it seems high risk to put everything on the Tour. Even with optimal prep it’s almost going to be impossible to take down Vingegaard, and he was already very close to peak this year, while having a very strong classics season. I guess you have to go all in if you’re UAE, but the Tour feels more like a coin flip at best now.
I think Pog lost the Tour because he went after every second's gain in the first week (did he foresee Vingo was going to give him trouble in the mountains?) draining even his formidable reserves; then chased down every attack, a couple too many, on the Granon stage, to then have to fight till the very end tiring himself out only to lose more ground. In other words, it was simply an ill-fated Tour and he made some mistakes. On the other hand, Vingegaard reached the next level and had the best team, despite losing Roglic for week 3, to support him. So, again, I think UAE will have reflected seriously upon this and, knowing with Tadej winning the Tour is for several years to come always going to be a concrete possibility, well, they're going to go all in and give him the best program to bring him to France in the highest possible condition. I say this with some regret, since I'd love to see him at Roubaix and the Giro with the double in mind. But with fish to fry like Vingo and now Evenepoel, they will have to sacrifice some things on his schedule. This applies to the others as well if they want to beat him.
Just noticed this is a 500 UCI point race. Only top 4 in the TDF score more.
I have done flanders and PR. The difference is immense. You really can't compare the cobbles of Roubaix with the cobbles in Flanders. Flanders cobbles are nothing compared to Wallers, Mons en Pévèle et Carrefour de l'arbre. Pogacar is unbelievable but he can't win PR. Not in a million years. You can't compare with the Tour de France stage either because there are only a few secteurs and they were not the hardest.
Yet he was the strongest on them.
I get that there is a vast difference but declaring it impossible for Pogacar seems just a bit easy.
I would imagine that Pogacar can be better than in this year's Tour when he puts everything on the Tour and plans his season accordingly. Last year he seemed so dominant that it looked like he can do everything whenever he wants to, but maybe even for him it's necessary to focus a bit more, and maybe it's not even the best idea to start the season that early. Of course you can always just get sick or crash out of the Tour and then the whole season is ruined, but I think if there are other strong rivals you can well beat you otherwise, you are young and have already secured two Tour wins and the team doesn't need your points that much because there other riders who can collect them - than it's worth the gamble.
When I did Flanders with some friends of mine I was better on the cobbled hills than them. I am 10 kg lighter than them. But on the cobbles of PR they demolished me. Hardest ride on a bike ever for me. And pogacar can be the biggest talent ever. I cant see him beat riders that are build for this race. PR is really something else. It has nothing to do with the cobbles in the TDF
I'd love to know when you did Flanders and Roubaix. As for Pogacar, I hear you, on the other hand, if a Hincapie can come second in Roubaix then perhaps it's not so far fetched that Tadej could at least be competitive.
Diversion or not, Paris Roubaix is much harder than the cobbled stages in the Tour. Current format still benefits riders who can fly on 1 or 2 secteurs, which is no problem for Pogacar, but in Roubaix it's pure attrition and those 1 or 2 surges will go nowhere.
The good thing about Roubaix is that it has the largest amount of contenders and heavily favors opportunists unlike any of the other monuments.
Roubaix in october 21. Crazy weather. Never again. Flanders I did on multiple occasions last one april 22.
Pogacar maybe weighs 65 kg. Hincapie 80 kg... you cant compare them. Roubaix is pure watts. Pogacar will Never push the same watts as these heavy guys.
I would not say never when it comes to Pog and Roubaix. It is technique, and not just brute force, to ride over the cobbles. He has the engine.
But it is an unpredictable race where a lot can happen. The race can swing and swing back again. Riders who has fallen behind for various reasons can come back if they are really strong. It is a hard race but Pog has shown enough that it would not be impossible for him. Does not mean it will ever happen, still, but that is neither here nor there.
But it is an unpredictable race where a lot can happen. The race can swing and swing back again. Riders who has fallen behind for various reasons can come back if they are really strong. It is a hard race but Pog has shown enough that it would not be impossible for him. Does not mean it will ever happen, still, but that is neither here nor there.
Awsome, thanks for sharing! Well, I guess he would have to weigh more. I was, however, thinking of the days of old, when I Hinault or even Kelly I don't think weighed 80 kg, neither did Lemond who came 4th in 86. By I defer to your first-hand knowledge (!) and in any case the sport has changed so much in terms of specialization.
Apart from that, many of the usual would-be favourites in the real P-R were either in the service of their captains or sub-optimally prepared. I agree it’s a long shot for Pogacar to actually pull it off. But not impossible…
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