Teams & Riders Tadej Pogačar discussion thread

[hayneplane]

Mental strength is also a factor in all of this. Reading @mou's recent tweets with the article about psychological training is something Pogi is also working on in his arsenal. I never had contador as being particularly strong mentally, in fact it might be his worst skill set. And it shows in his doubts while appropriating Pogi's situation from his perspective. Tell yourself you can't do something and what you visualize is what you become. This is exactly what happened to Remco at LBL in my opinion.

Surely Contador was mentally strong to deal with the Armstrong situation/inter team rivalry and still win the Tour.

 

[scribers]

Remco couldn't visualize deeper training and stronger legs. That was his problem.

He’s now saying he had better numbers than when he won and it was a team problem. He got left in the dust and got off the back because the cameras were pestering him

 

[scribers]

I would bet on 15-17

I’m going with 21

 

[scribers]

Surely Contador was mentally strong to deal with the Armstrong situation/inter team rivalry and still win the Tour.

Contador was just too physically strong that year. And lance could have won that tour without Alberto on his team. (Clinic issues aside)

 

[Lorzenz08]

Vingegaard looking in a good mental space.

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[hayneplane]

Currently on 9 monuments, how many do you think Pogacar can win in his career?
Merckx's record on 19 looks a long way off.

I think he'll top out around 13 or 14. He's bound to hit the wall at some point and as history has shown us, a rider's dominance is pulled away quicker than we anticipate.

As it stands his performance and dominance curves are both extending exponentially and if you look at one of the riders he now shares 3rd overall on the monument winners list in Sean Kelly then Kelly had zero wins at the same age Pogacar is now.

Barring serious injury or total loss of motivation I think his floor is 14 and ceiling is 22 monuments.

 

[Bombarolo]

Exactly my point. Whenever a rider shows utter dominance, we live through the moment seeing nothing only their total supremacy. Take Vingegaard for example after his 2nd Tour win and that famous Combloux TT. The world of Grand Tour cycling looked pretty bleak for the rest of the competition, including Pogacar who was slipping into the role of bridesmaid. Jonas was talked about as a 10 time grand tour winner. Now, he might struggle to win another.

The thing is that Pogacar talent is just out of this world, really. I rewatched Vuelta 2019 highlights recently and in retrospective that performance was absolutely insane. A 20 years old being able to drop Roglic in his prime in a 3 week GT without having a single terrible day (i.e. losing more than 5 minutes). He was the youngest cyclist in the peloton and pretty much the best climber already in cold days. We are in uncharted territory here...
The losses in 2022 and 2023 probably made him realized he had to improve his training, diet, etc. in order to get better on longer climbs and especially high temp conditions, which made him pretty much unbeatable...

I never had any doubt that Pogacar could win the Tour again even after 2023 but i was thinking that he needed to focus on TdF only like Jonas. I was a bit wrong lmao.

 

[scribers]

I was wrong too. Before Mou blasted in here with his detailed insight on Pogi heading into 2024, I was devising all sorts of strategies that required multiple leaders to defeat Vingo.

 

[Tonton]

I don't mind the Merckx comparison if we discuss in terms of dominance.

I just note that one of these two legends had to deal with a feisty grandpa, and the other has to put up with the every-bit-as-feisty grandson.

That's where the comparison ends for me.

 

[scribers]

We can at least agree that pogi winning 5 tours is compulsory in the historical analysis? I mentioned elsewhere 3 or 7 same thing. But there are too many guys at 5 already.

10 monuments if all goes well by next winter is already mind-boggling. And Pog is just getting it rolling.

 

[Peyroteo94]

Eletricity was off during all day in Portugal. Good to know it was only here and not in all countries of Europe.

Teddy will have 1 week of rest and then one week of recons before heading to Sierra Nevada.

 

[Peyroteo94]

Vingegaard looking in a good mental space.

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He will be ready to challenge Pogacar. I expect to see a huge improvement compared to last year.

 

[Peyroteo94]

And when in the race (Roubaix) was that? As events unfolded (and how Pogi raced), I don't think you can blame Vermeersch for not giving his all.

I think he could try before Arenberg