Teams & Riders Tadej Pogačar discussion thread

[Cycling111]

If this guy, who finished second inexperienced, can't win, then no one will be able to compete next year.
He made a mistake; with experience, he'll do better. My conclusion today is that he can win this race more than ever. I had doubts about whether he could do better than Philipsen....
Anyone who thinks otherwise will think that no one should go to Roubaix in 2026; others have fewer options given today's race.

 

[scribers]

He will certainly understand the energy stores how to best manage them going forward. Until you've done a race like there, there is no other like it to compare. Length, speed, competition, sectors, exposure, etc.

 

[JoãoRamos]

Keep calm, no one thought he would break his hand in LBL but he broke. And the Tour-Vuelta can definitely hurt his chances in Rwanda and GdL. He can't softpedal just like he did in the Giro 2024. At least I expect a strong Vingegaard.

Yes, that's why I said: can and should.
I don't see anyone close to Pog in LBL, Rwanda and GdL.

But a race is a race, everything can happen.

 

[jmdirt]

He will certainly understand the energy stores how to best manage them going forward. Until you've done a race like there, there is no other like it to compare. Length, speed, competition, sectors, exposure, etc.

...soft tissue pounding around...

EDIT: Similar, otherwise very fit roadies fatigue quickly on mountain bike rides because their muscles and connective tissue aren't conditioned.

 

[Froome]

Yes, that's why I said: can and should.
I don't see anyone close to Pog in LBL, Rwanda and GdL.

But a race is a race, everything can happen.

I wouldn't be so sure about LBL and Rwanda.

 

[Peyroteo94]

Until this moment, he has 11 racing days because of that disgusting UAE Tour. Ending his spring season with 14 racing days is not good but also not bad. However he will probably race 70 racing days this year. Way more than last year.

 

[Red Rick]

...soft tissue pounding around...

EDIT: Similar, otherwise very fit roadies fatigue quickly on mountain bike rides because their muscles and connective tissue aren't conditioned.

It's when cycling becomes an an impact sport like running on old school running shoes without 3 cm of elastic polymer dampeners.

 

[Cycling111]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1911471017467265387

View: https://x.com/laflammerouge16/status/1911471017467265387


There are some misconceptions about Hinault in one-day races.

He was very good, but his total results are much closer to those of Pogacar at 26 than to the Merckx results.

Pogacar has already surpassed Hinault in the Classics. What Pogacar doesn't have compared to Hinault is Roubaix and Ghent. What Hinault doesn't have compared to Pogacar: Flanders, fewer wins in Lombardy, the sam wins in Liège (he should surpass him), Pog with better results in San Remo, etc.

 

[Peyroteo94]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1911471017467265387

View: https://x.com/laflammerouge16/status/1911471017467265387


There are some misconceptions about Hinault in one-day races.

He was very good, but his results are much closer to those of Pogacar at 26 than to the Merckx results.

Pogacar has already surpassed Hinault in the Classics. What Pogacar doesn't have compared to Hinault is Roubaix and Ghent. What Hinault doesn't have compared to Pogacar: Flanders, fewer wins in Lombardy, the sam wins in Liège (he should surpass him), Pog with better results in San Remo, etc.

Pogacar has a strong chance of reaching double digits monuments, only behind Roger and Eddy. 10 monuments against 5 from Hinault.

 

[Cycling111]

Excellent showing and he seemed to enjoy the race at least until the crash. Chapeau to MVDP, kudos to Teddy, I hope they'll both be back at P-R next year.

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He's too good a teammate to congratulate the team when they were completely useless

When van der Poel was with Philipsen and attacks him on the flat, which hurts him so much, Florian was there and he hasn´t helpnothing. He seemed to have no strength, but then he found the strength to stay with Pedrsen and Wout...
The rest of the team was a disaster, too many kilometers alone against two Alpecin riders and before that, completely alone. Vermeersch didn't offer any help at any point and then finished strong with Pedersen and Wout
Florian seemed weak in helping him when the group was at 15, but he found the strength to achieve his result. I was disappointed to see that attitude.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1911502326143078692

View: https://x.com/lucasaganronald/status/1911502326143078692


I don't understand how this guy has haters.
Like all great athletes, he has a certain arrogance to deal with pressure. Remco has it, and Vingegaard, although he shows it in a different way.
He has great sportsmanship when he loses.


Today, he could have made the excuse that he didn't have experience, but he didn't; he simply congratulated another rider for being better. We've seen many riders make excuses in this sport, this guy doesn't usually do it.



You may be very young, but if you've seen anything like Hinault, Eddy, De Vlaeminck, etc.
Those rider were saying outrageous things to each other

 

[Froome]

He's too good a teammate to congratulate the team when they were completely useless

When van der Poel was with Philipsen and attacks him on the flat, which hurts him so much, Florian was there and he hasn´t helpnothing. He seemed to have no strength, but then he found the strength to stay with Pedrsen and Wout...
The rest of the team was a disaster, too many kilometers alone against two Alpecin riders and before that, completely alone. Vermeersch didn't offer any help at any point and then finished strong with Pedersen and Wout
Florian seemed weak in helping him when the group was at 15, but he found the strength to achieve his result. I was disappointed to see that attitude.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1911502326143078692

View: https://x.com/lucasaganronald/status/1911502326143078692


I don't understand how this guy has haters.
Like all great athletes, he has a certain arrogance to deal with pressure. Remco has it, and Vingegaard, although he shows it in a different way.
He has great sportsmanship when he loses.


Today, he could have made the excuse that he didn't have experience, but he didn't; he simply congratulated another rider for being better. We've seen many riders make excuses in this sport, this guy doesn't usually do it.



You may be very young, but if you've seen anything like Hinault, Eddy, De Vlaeminck, etc.
Those rider were saying outrageous things to each other

Normally he has great sportsmanship, especially with Van baarle.

 

[Cycling111]

Pogacar has a strong chance of reaching double digits monuments, only behind Roger and Eddy. 10 monuments against 5 from Hinault.

Hinault was very good, but I don't see the point in saying today that Pogacar is worse than him because he's second. Hinault, against the best Moser was out of the top 10 two years, and in his third year he had a worse result than Pog today.
He won his fourth year when Moser wasn't at his peak. Even so, he beat him in the sprint; he couldn't drope Moser.

Let's at least give Pog four attempts to decide if he's worse than Hinault in this race.
In the other classics, he's directly better. In San Remo better, in Lombardia much better, and in Liège 2-2, it's obvious he'll end up beating him. In the World Championships, he'll end up beating him, although I already consider him better because Hinault needed 6,000 meters of gradient, and Pog's performance in Glasgow was top-class due to the type of track.

The hardest part is beating Hinault in Grand Tours. He's already done it in one-day races at the age of 26, and anything he adds will increase the gap.
In GTs, he'll have a tough time, given that neither Vignegaard nor Remco are doubling the Giro-Tour. Back then, everyone competed twice as hard. We're asking him to have a palamares like in the 70s and 80s against riders who don't compete much. In Hinault's era, riders like Kelly competed everywhere. Van der Poel now goes on "vacation" until the Tour de France to compete in three stages.

 

[Tim Cahill]

VDP clearly broke the rules with illegal feeding in the final 14km — and both he and his team director were hit with heavy fines. This wasn’t a grey area or a misunderstanding. It was a conscious decision to cheat, hoping the consequences wouldn’t be severe.

The truth is, without that illegal feeding, VDP might not have finished the race the way he did. It gave him an unfair advantage, plain and simple. They gambled by breaking the rules — now they should face the full penalty: disqualification.

I know Pogacar is a true sportsman and doesn’t want to win like this. But this is about more than one rider or one race. It’s about the credibility of cycling. If rules aren’t enforced properly, it sets a dangerous precedent.

UAE should appeal. Not for the win, but for the integrity of the sport.

Some of your best work yet, I would like to see it, Mauro Gianetti stood in front of a jury like Atticus Finch going on about the integrity of the sport. Stone Cold's music hits as star witnesses Piepoli and Ricco, ice cream in hand, burst through the door.

I do agree that they should DQ him though. Not because I think it would be right, but for the most important reason of all, because it would be funny. Like some others on here I completely gave up on viewing the very top level of cycling as a sporting competition, and at this point I'm just down for seeing things get increasingly more and more absurd until we have another reset.

I think the illegal feed precedent was a 20 second penalty after the Richie Porte incident, but that was in a stage race. In my view they should absolutely throw the book at Van Der Cheat. I've never liked the bloke, The Pogster looked like he could've closed the gap easily as his opponent was clearly bonking, and any campaign to award him his rightful victory I'll support.

 

[Blobs]

But once I read VDP cheated, I am pissed. Disgusting cheater, lost all my respect to that guy. Cheater.

But you have no issue with Pogacar cheating earlier in the race.

 

[Oldman]

...soft tissue pounding around...

EDIT: Similar, otherwise very fit roadies fatigue quickly on mountain bike rides because their muscles and connective tissue aren't conditioned.

Watching Pauline Ferrand-Prevot was a masterclass in the subtleties of rough road riding. She was totally relaxed in her upper body and her big gear cadence helped that. It's hard for the GT guys to dedicate much exposure to a discipline they mostly try to ignore in 3 week races. Their arms are twigs after those efforts.

 

[Oldman]

He's too good a teammate to congratulate the team when they were completely useless

When van der Poel was with Philipsen and attacks him on the flat, which hurts him so much, Florian was there and he hasn´t helpnothing. He seemed to have no strength, but then he found the strength to stay with Pedrsen and Wout...
The rest of the team was a disaster, too many kilometers alone against two Alpecin riders and before that, completely alone. Vermeersch didn't offer any help at any point and then finished strong with Pedersen and Wout
Florian seemed weak in helping him when the group was at 15, but he found the strength to achieve his result. I was disappointed to see that attitude.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1911502326143078692

View: https://x.com/lucasaganronald/status/1911502326143078692


I don't understand how this guy has haters.
Like all great athletes, he has a certain arrogance to deal with pressure. Remco has it, and Vingegaard, although he shows it in a different way.
He has great sportsmanship when he loses.


Today, he could have made the excuse that he didn't have experience, but he didn't; he simply congratulated another rider for being better. We've seen many riders make excuses in this sport, this guy doesn't usually do it.



You may be very young, but if you've seen anything like Hinault, Eddy, De Vlaeminck, etc.
Those rider were saying outrageous things to each other

Credit him with an honest assessment, too. He wouldn't have beaten MvP in the sprint and he knew it. You could see that urgency to drop him in his efforts that ended up benefitting MvP. Rare personal honesty!
Can he overcome that and win? Most definitely; if it matters to him and some other race effort takes a back seat to winning PR.

 

[Cycling111]

I wouldn't be so sure about LBL and Rwanda.

The Rwanda route is more favorable than the 2024 route.


The difference with Remco in Lombardia has always been evident.
The rest are less competitive, Roglic because the long km affects him, and Vingegaard because he can't perform as well in one-day races. Ayuso, no matter how much he's improved, isn't at Pog's level.

Pogacar is a much bigger favorite this year than he was at last year's WC. I see him winning without needing to arrive too strong, like in Lombardia 2023. It's such a good course for him that he can do it without being at 100% as happened especially in Lombardia that year.

 

[Peyroteo94]

Hinault was very good, but I don't see the point in saying today that Pogacar is worse than him because he's second. Hinault, against the best Moser was out of the top 10 two years, and in his third year he had a worse result than Pog today.
He won his fourth year when Moser wasn't at his peak. Even so, he beat him in the sprint; he couldn't drope Moser.

Let's at least give Pog four attempts to decide if he's worse than Hinault in this race.
In the other classics, he's directly better. In San Remo better, in Lombardia much better, and in Liège 2-2, it's obvious he'll end up beating him. In the World Championships, he'll end up beating him, although I already consider him better because Hinault needed 6,000 meters of gradient, and Pog's performance in Glasgow was top-class due to the type of track.

The hardest part is beating Hinault in Grand Tours. He's already done it in one-day races at the age of 26, and anything he adds will increase the gap.
In GTs, he'll have a tough time, given that neither Vignegaard nor Remco are doubling the Giro-Tour. Back then, everyone competed twice as hard. We're asking him to have a palamares like in the 70s and 80s against riders who don't compete much. In Hinault's era, riders like Kelly competed everywhere. Van der Poel now goes on "vacation" until the Tour de France to compete in three stages.

If Pogacar continues to be the alpha dog in GTs for more 5 years, he will surpass Hinault.

 

[Froome]

The Rwanda route is more favorable than the 2024 route.


The difference with Remco in Lombardia has always been evident.
The rest are less competitive, Roglic because the long km affects him, and Vingegaard because he can't perform as well in one-day races. Ayuso, no matter how much he's improved, isn't at Pog's level.

Pogacar is a much bigger favorite this year than he was at last year's WC. I see him winning without needing to arrive too strong, like in Lombardia 2023. It's such a good course for him that he can do it without being at 100% as happened especially in Lombardia that year.

The rwanda route is not that hard has previously talked, looking at the profile of the route.

Lets see how evenepoel will be in LBL.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Some of your best work yet, I would like to see it, Mauro Gianetti stood in front of a jury like Atticus Finch going on about the integrity of the sport. Stone Cold's music hits as star witnesses Piepoli and Ricco, ice cream in hand, burst through the door.

I do agree that they should DQ him though. Not because I think it would be right, but for the most important reason of all, because it would be funny. Like some others on here I completely gave up on viewing the very top level of cycling as a sporting competition, and at this point I'm just down for seeing things get increasingly more and more absurd until we have another reset.

I think the illegal feed precedent was a 20 second penalty after the Richie Porte incident, but that was in a stage race. In my view they should absolutely throw the book at Van Der Cheat. I've never liked the bloke, The Pogster looked like he could've closed the gap easily as his opponent was clearly bonking, and any campaign to award him his rightful victory I'll support.

I haven't studied the roadbook thoroughly, but after Itzulia we know they won't punish the culprits if there are any unfortunate mistakes in there. When the president winner does it, that means it is not illegal.

 

[Peyroteo94]

The Rwanda route is more favorable than the 2024 route.


The difference with Remco in Lombardia has always been evident.
The rest are less competitive, Roglic because the long km affects him, and Vingegaard because he can't perform as well in one-day races. Ayuso, no matter how much he's improved, isn't at Pog's level.

The problem in Rwanda (just like in Zurich) is his weak team. Pogacar only attacked with 102 km to go because his team wasn't able to control the race. Slovenia is a small nation and only relevant since Roglic became a professional cyclist. If Pogacar was from a big nation, he would probably win 5 WC in his career.
Just to give an example, Belgium's team in Rwanda:
Remco
Wellens
Nys
WVA
Veermersch
Van Gils
Van Eetvelt

Now, switch Remco with Pogacar. It's easy to know the outcome.
This is also why Sagan's feat in WC is way more impressive than what Freire or Merckx did. Specially Merckx since his team was by far the best.

 

[Cycling111]

Some of your best work yet, I would like to see it, Mauro Gianetti stood in front of a jury like Atticus Finch going on about the integrity of the sport. Stone Cold's music hits as star witnesses Piepoli and Ricco, ice cream in hand, burst through the door.

I do agree that they should DQ him though. Not because I think it would be right, but for the most important reason of all, because it would be funny. Like some others on here I completely gave up on viewing the very top level of cycling as a sporting competition, and at this point I'm just down for seeing things get increasingly more and more absurd until we have another reset.

I think the illegal feed precedent was a 20 second penalty after the Richie Porte incident, but that was in a stage race. In my view they should absolutely throw the book at Van Der Cheat. I've never liked the bloke, The Pogster looked like he could've closed the gap easily as his opponent was clearly bonking, and any campaign to award him his rightful victory I'll support.

Van der Poel followed the team car in Flanders after the accident. Ganna did the same today.
Jonathan Milan was relegated from the final stage of the Giro for following the car after a puncture.
Van der Poel was not penalized, Ganna neither.
They aren´t applying the same criteria in the classics as in stage races with several cyclists, it isn´t to benefit Pogacar

 

[bNator]

Normally he has great sportsmanship, especially with Van baarle.

Maybe if Van Baarle just had one of his relatives take the bullet for having a birthday, it could all have been avoided.

 

[Cycling111]

The problem in Rwanda (just like in Zurich) is his weak team. Pogacar only attacked with 102 km to go because his team wasn't able to control the race. Slovenia is a small nation and only relevant since Roglic became a professional cyclist. If Pogacar was from a big nation, he would probably win 5 WC in his career.
Just to give an example, Belgium's team in Rwanda:
Remco
Wellens
Nys
WVA
Veermersch
Van Gils
Van Eetvelt

Now, switch Remco with Pogacar. It's easy to know the outcome.
This is also why Sagan's feat in WC is way more impressive than what Freire or Merckx did. Specially Merckx since his team was by far the best.

Worse team help than today impossible .
If he has been able to control Roubaix without a team... all he need to do is destroy it like Hinault did at Sallanches and they'll finish one on one.
The Swiss route had less gradient; the Rwanda route , while not as hard as Sallanches,
is enough for a similar scenario

 

[bNator]

If Pogacar continues to be the alpha dog in GTs for more 5 years, he will surpass Hinault.

5? No way can even Pog get from 8 monuments won to 5 monuments won in just 5 short years, alpha dog or not…