Teams & Riders Tadej Pogačar discussion thread

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Mar 20, 2022
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And visma says there is nothing much to anything Trine said.
Are you really thinking UAE is worried about a polka dot jersey? If they are (your opinion), they will not attack the last climb tomorrow and Pogacar will just cruise there.
 
Sep 4, 2017
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Bruyneel thinks uae doesn’t want pogi to wear the polka skin suit for the TT so divested it while they had a chance.

Of course this might change again tomorrow
The organisers will have the precise measurements of the top riders for sure so I don’t think there would be much difference between the team skin suit and the ASO procured ones as it would be too detrimental to the race organisers reputation to provide substandard gear.
 
Jun 19, 2009
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How big are those feet? Are we talking Michael Phelps size?
I wear size 44 at 5'8" tall. That leverage provides some nice snap in acceleration and a more complete power zone on smaller cranks for track racing. I can spin as big a gear as a bigger guy. Tadej looks like his feet are Yeti-size which might account for his sprint jump. Not your usual guy and we all search for what makes him tick?
 
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Oct 30, 2023
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Are you really thinking UAE is worried about a polka dot jersey? If they are (your opinion), they will not attack the last climb tomorrow and Pogacar will just cruise there.
Bruyneel and wiggans think uae are worried about the material of the suit for the time trial
 
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Oct 30, 2023
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The organisers will have the precise measurements of the top riders for sure so I don’t think there would be much difference between the team skin suit and the ASO procured ones as it would be too detrimental to the race organisers reputation to provide substandard gear.
They both specifically disagree with the quality of provided materials compared to the team’s engineering
 
May 3, 2015
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The organisers will have the precise measurements of the top riders for sure so I don’t think there would be much difference between the team skin suit and the ASO procured ones as it would be too detrimental to the race organisers reputation to provide substandard gear.
Simon Geschke talked about it today on Eurosport as well. Said that they even come to your room the evening before and tailor it with exact measurements (apparently possible to deliver it in time). He declined because he couldn’t care less about the ITT when he wore the polka dots but also said its not optimal to not have your normal skin suit, even if its just psychological and time consuming (to get the measures done).
 
Mar 26, 2023
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I wear size 44 at 5'8" tall. That leverage provides some nice snap in acceleration and a more complete power zone on smaller cranks for track racing. I can spin as big a gear as a bigger guy. Tadej looks like his feet are Yeti-size which might account for his sprint jump. Not your usual guy and we all search for what makes him tick?

Interesting. I wear size 35 and had no real idea of these specific advantages!
In the Instagram post below, he's washing his shoes, but I can't see what size they are and I don't really want to see what a Google search might turn up.

View: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C12HLw2M73Z/?igsh=MWdpbGtvaW8xeGhobQ==
 

CyclistAbi

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May 29, 2019
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Pogi plans to take yellow on stage 4 and go after 100th career win and there is just no way he doesn't want to do that wearing the World champion jersey. That is all there is to it.

But i must say the stunt they pulled with Wellens and on how peloton went with it, that was just beyond.
 
Oct 30, 2023
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What was the peloton going to do?

"No, we want pog to stay in polka dots because I like to laugh at him"

or

"We want Benjamin Thomas to go for it and hope he doesn't do the Cofidis wobble and knock out another star rider" (it's not clear he would wear it anyway considering tie breakers)

Net gain for the peloton: Wellens burns up a few Kj with the stunt. And Pogi doesn't smash their dreams later if they didn't play along.
 
Jun 19, 2009
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Interesting. I wear size 35 and had no real idea of these specific advantages!
In the Instagram post below, he's washing his shoes, but I can't see what size they are and I don't really want to see what a Google search might turn up.

View: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C12HLw2M73Z/?igsh=MWdpbGtvaW8xeGhobQ==
His feet look like a 46+.
When I was much younger our track running coaches would film our stride to improve motion economy and posture. I was always more forward, didn't tie up in 440 yd efforts and had a longer stride. 880 yds was my sweet spot.
It took an Old and Seasoned Irish coach (pint in pocket while we ran laps at night) that worked with serious milers in the Prefontaine days to point out how much air and distance I was getting from each stride. He looked at me like a horse trainer and said I was going farther at each step and asked the question: were you a hurdler? Yes; before I was recruited for mid distance!
When I reluctantly was forced to train for the 2 mile our coaches insisted I adopt a shorter stride for better endurance. I didn't. Just paced a bit behind and had a good last lap that could accelerate which made it easy to beat high school kids. They said my times could be faster and I was pissed because they wanted meet points and wouldn't let me run the half mile to qualify for the state championships. I hated that 2 mile race and refused to run it my last year. Coaches benched me and ended my interest in running.

Pogacar looks more like an all around athlete than most, along with MvP. Might be something to that.
 
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Jun 11, 2021
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It was an obvious win-win. Wellens gets a nice jersey, Pogacar doesn't have to do the extra media rounds after the stage.
The ITT probably was also slightly in mind but as others said, you can't control what will happen today so he might just end up in Polkadots again.
 
Mar 19, 2009
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Mostly pressure UCI to punish them on grounds of neglecting ethical behaviour.

I can imagine all sorts of unethical behaviour by UAE (and many other teams) but what exactly was not ethical about the Wellens stunt? Wellens talked to the parties interested in controll, obviously promised not to truly attack them and come back, and in return got an easy KOM point. So, what is the issue here exactly?
 
Apr 13, 2025
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Mostly pressure UCI to punish them on grounds of neglecting ethical behaviour.

What's so unethical about what they did?
I remind you that Roglic and other riders have given away the leader's jersey. In fact, Roglic is one of the riders who has given away the lead more than once. But that's not unethical.
We can't be changing our minds according to the rider.

Besides, yesterday no other rider wanted to fight for points. Why did Pogacar have to keep something that others didn't want yesterday? Everyone looked out for their own interests. Or only the rider wearing the jersey is obliged to respect the mountain classification.
 
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May 3, 2010
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I agree with the theory that he doesn't want to do the ITT in the non-aerodynamic polka-dot jersey.

That means he has to avoid reaching the top of the St-Hilaire first, which makes it less likely - but not impossible - to win the stage today.
 
Jan 29, 2020
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I agree with the theory that he doesn't want to do the ITT in the non-aerodynamic polka-dot jersey.

That means he has to avoid reaching the top of the St-Hilaire first, which makes it less likely - but not impossible - to win the stage today.
But if that's the goal he has to avoid dropping MVDP ànd avoid winning the stage today because that would automatically put him in the yellow jersey. (although I'm not sure what would happen if MVDP comes second because they'd be tied on time and both have a stage win)
 
Aug 13, 2011
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But if that's the goal he has to avoid dropping MVDP ànd avoid winning the stage today because that would automatically put him in the yellow jersey. (although I'm not sure what would happen if MVDP comes second because they'd be tied on time and both have a stage win)
They’d do a count back on the placements for the last 4 stages and whoever is lower will be 1st.
 

CyclistAbi

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May 29, 2019
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If Pogi takes yellow today then the theory on how he wanted to avoid polka dots for the TT doesn't hold water.
 

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