Pogacar won the 2024 Tour on w/kg so Vingegaard needs to improve a lot if he wants to win the Tour.
Vingegaard's best chance to beat Pogacar is by doing better TTs than himEspecially because, even if vingegaard were to improve and reach pog's climbing level from last year, he still has to ride him off his wheel. Just so much more difficult than for pog, who can take seconds everywhere (unless we still believe pog can 'crack', which i always found more of a hail mary than a foolproof masterplan even when it worked). Maybe his best chance is to smoke the time trial up to peyregourdes, but even there the climb is not that steep or long, so im not sure how much time you can realistically gain.
In any case, hope for a round 5 with optimal prep for both, we really need a credible challenger...
Like weve seen every single person who try to keep his pace does, they completely blow up,in every race..You don't lose 10s on explosivity if you're aerobically at the same level. The main gap last year was just threshold W/kg. That's why you'd see Vingegaard first respond to Pogacar's attack, keep the gap small, and then explode whenever he responded.
He is almost in the all time top10 in PCS. These classics will give him a lot of points and by the end of the season, he will be close to Anquetil. This at 27 years old. Absurd stuff!Given that he didn't ride UAE Tour last year, he now added further to his ridiculous CQ score which now stands at 5648. He will lose more than 500 points from Catalunya (which in itself is ridiculous) but with E3, GW, De Ronde, AGR and FW or PR instead of the latter two, there should be ample opportunity to increase the number even further in the next two months.
His attack on Jebel Hafeet was incredible. I didn't realize how long it was until I saw the highlights. More than 30 seconds of sheer power out of the saddle against a 25-30 kph headwind.Seemed easypeasy. Was never in any trouble/limit, hard to assess anything more than that really from this race when he never pushed all out(uphill). Now real season can begin.
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Yeah, perhaps, but a way bigger factor in the equation is supposed to be the simple fact that Pogi runs:The consensus right now is that Pogacar is better than Vingegaard but out of all teams Vingegaard could be in, Team-Visma gives him the best chances of winning. They have a detail for marginal gains and are tactically creative coming up with ideas always having something up their sleeve to best Pogacar. They keep evertyhing secret including wether Vingegaard has improved or not and so who knows what happens come TdF.
Weeks as #1 since inception (Jan 2016):Given that he didn't ride UAE Tour last year, he now added further to his ridiculous CQ score which now stands at 5648. He will lose more than 500 points from Catalunya (which in itself is ridiculous) but with E3, GW, De Ronde, AGR and FW or PR instead of the latter two, there should be ample opportunity to increase the number even further in the next two months.
Yeah, had the same reaction. How did he lead this statistic?The ****'s a Jason Christie
That‘s just how it is when you‘ve got two people in 9th place.I think a much more important question is:
What have they got against the number 10?
And Simon Gerrans spent 7 weeks in the first place. Mind blowing!That‘s just how it is when you‘ve got two people in 9th place.
Jason Christie was the 2016 NZ national champion, which was a very timely win for this statistic.
And Simon Gerrans spent 7 weeks in the first place. Mind blowing!
Yes but you have to count the previous year too. Pogacar is always leading because he has a lot of points in the year beforeNo, not really. That's the most expected thing actually.
Gerrans was a monster in TdU and TdU winner is always number 1 for at least 5 weeks.
But it should start from some point.Yes but you have to count the previous year too. Pogacar is always leading because he has a lot of points in the year before
Gerrans is such an overachiever.But it should start from some point.
And starting from a point in the middle of the last decade makes it perfectly normal that Gerrans leads in the beginning.
Gerrans is such an overachiever.
2010-2018 was clearly the dark era of cycling. Era full of uphill sprinters like Martin, Gerrans, Valverde, Purito (hilly classics) and Sky dominating GTs with an ultra boring and defensive train.
Gerrand ended his career with 2 monuments wins, incredible how routes of hilly classics were tailormade for an uphill sprint
Tour and Ardennes were so bad for years. And they decided to bring back Cauberg as the last climb of AGR. Dreadful decision. I just hope they don't go back to the previous LBL route.I don't know honestly.
Visma suffocating GTs in 2023 (and the Vuelta in particular) and Pogacar destroying every race in 2024 wasn't much fun either.
Honestly 2024 should be very low in terns of level of fun in the biggest races, lower than many of the years in the "dark era".
I do agree about Gerrans though.