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Teams & Riders Tadej Pogačar discussion thread

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If Pogacar is not in at least good form this tdF will be extremely boring as I don't see anyone who can do anything against Vingegaard.
The hard thing for Pogacar is that the Tour has more difficult stages in the first week then I can remember in any other edition. So even if he's at 95% he can loose here some time and the later mountain stages are better for Vingegaard. Normally you would expect Pogacar to gain some time in the first week and then he has to try to fight of the aggression of Vingegaard.

On the other hand this Tour is more open to a third contender emerging then it would be on other routes. It has absolutely no flat TT kms, difficult to control stages throughout and leans more punchy in it's climbs then normal. So would me more advantageous to Pogi but if he's not his normal self (or of course crashes and abandons can happen at any point see Remco) this route gives in my eyes at least the chance of someone like Gaudu, O'Connor, Yates or Hindley to emerge with a career best performance.
 
Pogacar will be ready in July since day one but I really think he would win the Tour if his crash did not happen. Now, I'm not sure if he can follow Vingegaard

I think the Tour is going to be much more condensed in terms of GC than last year, at least over the first part of the race.

Granon really did nuke the time gaps in every direction last year. I'm not sure the route in 2023 favors these sorts of massive differences, so there are other ways for Pog to win in July as well, i.e. for example tactically.

I think a lot of people look at the Vinge versus Pog duel & believe it all comes down to relative strength of one versus the other but the parcours (& serious lack of ITT km's) will make this TdF a little bit more 'precarious' for the pre-race super favorites, at least IMO.

Even stage 1 in Bilbao looks like a potential screw-up just waiting to happen if one of the favorites has some bad positioning in the final.
 
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I think the Tour is going to be much more condensed in terms of GC than last year, at least over the first part of the race.

Granon really did nuke the time gaps in every direction last year. I'm not sure the route in 2023 favors these sorts of massive differences, so there are other ways for Pog to win in July as well, i.e. for example tactically.

I think a lot of people look at the Vinge versus Pog duel & believe it all comes down to relative strength of one versus the other but the parcours (& serious lack of ITT km's) will make this TdF a little bit more 'precarious' for the pre-race super favorites, at least IMO.

Even stage 1 in Bilbao looks like a potential screw-up just waiting to happen if one of the favorites has some bad positioning in the final.
The question is that I just see one anti Pogacar stage..and that day just people as Vingegaard or maybe Landa if he is on one of his magical moments could beat him if he doesnt make mistakes like last year. The rest are stages, even first ones in Pais Vasco, where he can get time. Anyway he has difficult to beat Vingegard, but it will be a great battle.
 
So, Cycling Weekly has been doing a series of "21 things you didn't know about [rider]", and today the turn has come to Pogacar:


This bit in particular caught my attention:

10. He is the only rider ever to have broken the 6,000 point ceiling for UCI points.

He's earned more points than you can? Why is there a ceiling?
 
Vingegaard basically said in an interview last week that the Tour is only thing that are important to him, and he'll go for Tour every year. I through the times with Lance Armstrong or Team Sky only riding for 1 goal a year was over, and new riders like Pogacar and Remco and their programs was the new normal. But I guess not.

Team Sky?
Froome actually tried 2 GTs almost every year

2011: 2nd Vuelta (later changed to 1st)
2012; 2nd TdF 4 Vuelta
2013 1 TdF, no Vuelta
2014: Out of Tour, 2nd Vuelta
2015: 1 Tour, out of Vuelta
2016: 1 Tour, 2 Vuelta
2017: 1 Tour 1 Vuelta
2018: 1 Giro, 3rd Tour

So basically except for the year he won his first Tour he tried to get the Vuelta win every year. Finally got it in 2017, and then what did he do? Go for only one goal? Which would have been the 5th Tour win? No, he tried the Giro-Tour double. Already Froome alone shows how ridiculous the "Sky only cared about the Tour" charge is.

The Giro less successful but tried with Wiggins in 13, Uran then got second, later Porte and Landa were there, crashing out basically.

Of course the Tour has always been Sky's most important goal, as it is for most, now with no Italian teams left probably all, teams aiming for GC in GTs..
 
Team Sky?
Froome actually tried 2 GTs almost every year

2011: 2nd Vuelta (later changed to 1st)
2012; 2nd TdF 4 Vuelta
2013 1 TdF, no Vuelta
2014: Out of Tour, 2nd Vuelta
2015: 1 Tour, out of Vuelta
2016: 1 Tour, 2 Vuelta
2017: 1 Tour 1 Vuelta
2018: 1 Giro, 3rd Tour

So basically except for the year he won his first Tour he tried to get the Vuelta win every year. Finally got it in 2017, and then what did he do? Go for only one goal? Which would have been the 5th Tour win? No, he tried the Giro-Tour double. Already Froome alone shows how ridiculous the "Sky only cared about the Tour" charge is.

The Giro less successful but tried with Wiggins in 13, Uran then got second, later Porte and Landa were there, crashing out basically.

Of course the Tour has always been Sky's most important goal, as it is for most, now with no Italian teams left probably all, teams aiming for GC in GTs..
I looked at his profile and even with his minimal classics riding it’s surprising he’s never been #1 in the rankings for any year
 
Broken bones brothers are back together

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