Teams & Riders Tadej Pogačar discussion thread

[Mina.S]

Honestly not sure why everyone is surprised that he had a “bad” TT he kind of routinely has bad TT’s. He’s even said they mess with him mentally because he’s won and lost things on a TT stage. Better to have one before the tour than at the tour.

I do think the bike is looking a bit unstable but he’s never going to publicly say anything.

Majka is back training. Looks like he will probably replace someone on the tour squad.

 

[Cycling111]

Honestly not sure why everyone is surprised that he had a “bad” TT he kind of routinely has bad TT’s. He’s even said they mess with him mentally because he’s won and lost things on a TT stage. Better to have one before the tour than at the tour.

I do think the bike is looking a bit unstable but he’s never going to publicly say anything.

Majka is back training. Looks like he will probably replace someone on the tour squad.

Adam Yates?

 

[Mina.S]

Adam Yates?

I think the team will get a change up. Not sure who. Could be Narváez but that’s just on what I’ve seen speculated

I think if pog is unhappy in the team and a bit under confident about the tour Majka is the correct choice.

 

[foxbat]

the fact that he was checking out the weight of visma's Cervelo, is telling.

 

[Savant12]

Give the man a better TT bike.

 

[Gratemans]

Give the man a better TT bike.

I get the "he did a full spring and shouldn't be at his peak yet right now" argument.
But it's also what Savant12 said I believe. It's beginning to look more and more like he won a crapload of races despite his material and team. (Where 'material' is specifically regarding the TT bikes)

 

[SHAD0W93]

What was wrong with the bike though? The whole thing looked unstable as hell.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1932813912778371303

View: https://x.com/festinaboy/status/1932813912778371303

It looked like he was going to crash throughout the course. It was annoying hearing the commentators talk about how well he’s cornering then you see him fighting the bike the whole way. I’m not to worried about it, I think climbing he’ll be in great shape. Pog and Vingegaard should have a field day the last 3 days.

 

[pelotonIQ]

Pogacar generally have no problems facing media on bad days. If yesterdays performance was because of a bad day he would have talked about it with the media but with footage going around of him examining Visma's TT bike to presumably compare with his own tells that he is not happy with something.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

My take is that, regardless of the issue in this TT, it has nothing to do with his form for the Tour, and anyone who thinks it reflects poorly on how he will do, will be proven worng.

 

[scribers]

UAEs idea of season focus is this *** show and that garbage bike with his parasail position?

Glad pogi gave us the stellar spring campaign because UAE gonna bung up the summer

 

[saunaking]

give me a farting break. last year visma TT were garbage, UAE killing it.
As if a year is going to change much..

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

Hey Moose, wanna take the new Colnago TT bike out for a spin, it's really an awes....

 

[jmdirt]

the fact that he was checking out the weight of visma's colnago Cervelo is telling.

I fixed that because I know what you meant:

 

[SHAD0W93]

I fixed that because I know what you meant:

Damn Visma’s colnago weighs less than I thought. No wonder they're flying, it’s like it’s not even there.

 

[HashRouge]

I still don't know how do you expect Pogacar being in best shape possible through TdF-Vuelta- WC- Lombardia?? And than also being in great shape one month before TdF? The same thing in Spring from UAE tour-LBL? He knows how to get better and what his goals are and he showed that already many times (he won Emilia just 1 time but Lombardia 4!) Than looking totally different in Canada classics last year and than perfect after that in Zürich... He lost 18 seconds against Tarling on flat TT this year (12km) and was flying one month later on Cipressa, so i am not concerned at all. This is only race this year where he can "afford" losing against Remco/Jonas.

They also made a good point on the LRCP. We don't have a huge reference point for Pog's form at this point before the Tour. In 2024 and 2023 he didn't do a pre-Tour stage race; and in 2022 and 2021 he did the Tour of Slovenia against middling opposition. Maybe this is normal for him, we don't know. It may just be that JV and Remco are hitting their peak slightly early, whereas Pog has just come down from altitude so a little bit off.
I have to say, I don't really understand the "just down from altitude so not at peak form yet", but I kept seeing it mentioned re WvA in the spring, so I assume there's some science behind it?

 

[Muren]

He will be fine to the tour. He is growing in form. He just lacks a few percent now and in a tt that can be costly.

If Remco and/or Vinge rides away from him on the climbs this weekend, then I will be worried, but I don't see it happening.

 

[ppanther92]

I actually said before yesterday that I think this year Vingegaard will be unbeatable at the Tour again. But that said, I am not worried at all for Pogacar. If at all, being not at 100% now is the far preferable way against two guys that have almost not raced this year.

 

[ppanther92]

I still don't know how do you expect Pogacar being in best shape possible through TdF-Vuelta- WC- Lombardia?? And than also being in great shape one month before TdF? The same thing in Spring from UAE tour-LBL?

Exactly

 

[Rackham]

Whomever was going to underperform (relatively speaking) in this Dauphiné was always going to have a valid explanation: peak in July, not in June.

That said, the fact it's seemingly Pog who was lesser yesterday was a slight curveball in preconceived narratives because he's viewed as a top performer all year round.

It's made the weekend's upcoming mountain stages slightly more interesting tbh.

 

[Gigs_98]

One thing I was thinking is that Pogacar might have more of an eye on the Vuelta than Vingegaard which would explain why you would come to the Dauphine a little undercooked. Froome is a good example of a rider whose performances at the Dauphine became progressively less impressive the more focus he put on achieving the Vuelta-Tour double culminating in 2017 when he was pretty bad at the Dauphine yet finally won the double.

But those explanations are always easy to make after we already know the result. The fact that this TT was so far off from the expectations should be worrysome. It reminds me of post ban Contador who always went into the Dauphine with all his fans predicting victory and once he got his butt smacked all the fans pretended that a later peak was just part of the plan. Right now none of us have enough insight to know if this TT will worry Pogacar or if he is just peaking later, but I certainly feel less onfident in him now than I did a day ago.

 

[BubbaChuck]

pog said he is stuck with tour for years.than you have jonas,who lives for tour.wit that menatlity ist gonna be hard.forget about bike,what was pog doing there,lol.he was cooked on climb and it looks heat demolished him.and its gonna be hellon tour,cause july is gonna be extra spicy.

 

[Rechtschreibfehler]

pog said he is stuck with tour for years.than you have jonas,who lives for tour.wit that menatlity ist gonna be hard.forget about bike,what was pog doing there,lol.he was cooked on climb and it looks heat demolished him.and its gonna be hellon tour,cause july is gonna be extra spicy.

The climb might have cost him a few seconds, but he lost the majority of the time before the climb. After the first time check he lost an additional 8 seconds to Vingegaard and 18 more to Remco. It was a really strange TT by him. But the climb wasn't the real issue.

I've thought a bit about it and come to the conclusion that the best explanation is probably a combination of peaking later, which is why he said before the race he needs to get out of his mind that he needs to win the Dauphiné, pacing and having a worse bike or maybe trying a new position.

The mountains will tell us more if he should be worried or not.

 

[Red Rick]

One thing I was thinking is that Pogacar might have more of an eye on the Vuelta than Vingegaard which would explain why you would come to the Dauphine a little undercooked. Froome is a good example of a rider whose performances at the Dauphine became progressively less impressive the more focus he put on achieving the Vuelta-Tour double culminating in 2017 when he was pretty bad at the Dauphine yet finally won the double.

But those explanations are always easy to make after we already know the result. The fact that this TT was so far off from the expectations should be worrysome. It reminds me of post ban Contador who always went into the Dauphine with all his fans predicting victory and once he got his butt smacked all the fans pretended that a later peak was just part of the plan. Right now none of us have enough insight to know if this TT will worry Pogacar or if he is just peaking later, but I certainly feel less onfident in him now than I did a day ago.

I mean, Contador literally got like 50th at 3 minutes in 2013 in the Dauphine ITT. This is just extreme expectation leading to extreme overreaction. For reference, Vingegaard got 7th in the (admittedly flat) TT in the 2022 Dauphine, losing 1s/min to Roglic rather than Evenepoel, and then in 2023 he lost a hilly ITT to Mikkel frigging Bjerg.

I also don't think the Vuelta has much to do with this, and it's more that he raced more heavily this spring and so probably needed to tune it down a bit more than the likes of Vingegaard and Evenepoel.

And maybe there's simply an argument to make that Pogacar's TT is simply overrated in the sense that it's the most type of race where he's most likely to drop a turd when he's not in tip top condition. But then the same applies to Vingegaard.

 

[Rou]

The first ITT in the Tour is 33 kms. If they don't improve the setup Pog is risking 2 mins to Evenepoel there. I don't think that's a problem. The problem is that Jonas would put 60 secs on him.
Pog can have the best legs of his life but it wouldn't matter. If they put him on this junk TT bike again he will lose buckets of time.

 

[Netserk]

I think 40" to Vingegaard and 1'20" to Evenepoel is a more reasonable upper-bound. My expectation is that he will be ready in the Tour (both legs and bike) and be at least 30" better than that.