Teams & Riders Tadej Pogačar discussion thread

[scribers]

"They think Vingegaard has greater endurance" - Alberto Contador believes Visma's strategy of wearing out Pogacar & UAE is working

Alberto Contador shared his thoughts on Team Visma | Lease a Bike’s strategy of making the race brutally hard in an effort to wear down UAE Team Emirates - XRG during an extremely demanding Stage 6 of...

cyclinguptodate.com

@Peyroteo94 Contador thinks visma is beating the daylights out of pogi. What treasonous words are these???? This cannot stand!!

 

[Cookster15]

"They think Vingegaard has greater endurance" - Alberto Contador believes Visma's strategy of wearing out Pogacar & UAE is working

Alberto Contador shared his thoughts on Team Visma | Lease a Bike’s strategy of making the race brutally hard in an effort to wear down UAE Team Emirates - XRG during an extremely demanding Stage 6 of...

cyclinguptodate.com

@Peyroteo94 Contador thinks visma is beating the daylights out of pogi. What treasonous words are these???? This cannot stand!!

Likely Contador is simply wrong. No Giro in Pogacar’s legs this year - Contador of all people should understand that. And look at what Pogacar did after winning the Giro-Tour double last year.

I think Visma are risking blowing up their own rider with this strategy. But what else can they do? Particularly after the TT.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Tyler was an outlier. But like we say in Portugal, João is a "sofredor" so he can still fight to live another day in the Tour.

I hope so. The worst thing in cycling is to be taken out by a crash, especially when there's nothing you could do so avoid it.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Likely Contador is simply wrong. No Giro in Pogacar’s legs this year - Contador of all people should understand that. And look at what Pogacar did after winning the Giro-Tour double last year.

I think Visma are risking blowing up their own rider with this strategy. But what else can they do? Particularly after the TT.

There really is no other strategy. Death by 1000 cuts is still death, and any strategy that allows Pog to cruise in a stage, is a strategy that is certain to lose. I think he still wins, but I will be up on my chair screaming if that first 1 meter of space opens up behind Jonas' wheel on a mountain stage.

 

[scribers]

"What on earth were Visma thinking? It was just plain stupid" - Bjarne Riis "can't fathom" Tour de France tactics & blasts "amateur" riding of Wout van Aert

The tactics of Team Visma | Lease a Bike on stage 6 of the 2025 Tour de France have been much discussed overnight, with experts looking to work out exactly why they rode so hard towards the end of the...

cyclinguptodate.com

This Dane knows what’s up

 

[Oldman]

I rewatched today's stage and Wellens can be very important on stage 10. When he hits the front, only the aliens are able to follow him.
Pogacar looked tired.

Of really pointless questions and obvious JV tactics.

 

[Cycling111]

Of really pointless questions and obvious JV tactics.

But Vinnggaard was more tired in the time trial.

 

[Peyroteo94]

POG hosted at ImgBB

Image POG hosted on ImgBB

ibb.co

Pogachar to Vuelta

Giannetti said he will race the Vuelta. Matxin said nothing is confirmed.

 

[Peyroteo94]

"They think Vingegaard has greater endurance" - Alberto Contador believes Visma's strategy of wearing out Pogacar & UAE is working

Alberto Contador shared his thoughts on Team Visma | Lease a Bike’s strategy of making the race brutally hard in an effort to wear down UAE Team Emirates - XRG during an extremely demanding Stage 6 of...

cyclinguptodate.com

@Peyroteo94 Contador thinks visma is beating the daylights out of pogi. What treasonous words are these???? This cannot stand!!

He didn't say Vingegaard will beat Pogacar (he said before the Tour though), he just said Visma believe Vingegaard has more endurance than Pogacar and for that reason they are riding brilliantly.
Contador is trying to create suspense too, we all know what happened in social media, channels, etc after Combloux. They are trying to have hope in Vingegaard, he is almost like a saviour!

 

[Peyroteo94]

There really is no other strategy. Death by 1000 cuts is still death, and any strategy that allows Pog to cruise in a stage, is a strategy that is certain to lose. I think he still wins, but I will be up on my chair screaming if that first 1 meter of space opens up behind Jonas' wheel on a mountain stage.

100% this. This is the Tour, Visma can't just give up and wave the white flag. This is their plan, praying for Pogacar to crack, of course they are probably cooking Vingegaard more than Pogacar but they need to do something.
They have also a glimpse of hope with Almeida's crash and I think they will take advantage of that.
People may consider this a dirty move but I'm almost sure they will create chaos on stage 9 with an excuse of possibility of echelons but their only purpose will be to cook Almeida for good. Is it dirty? Probably, but this is the Tour and they need to take advantage of opportunities.

 

[ppanther92]

He didn't say Vingegaard will beat Pogacar (he said before the Tour though), he just said Visma believe Vingegaard has more endurance than Pogacar and for that reason they are riding brilliantly.

The statement is correct. Its very obvious Visma tries to win the Tour on recovery with Vingegaard, trying to make as many stages as hard as possible. Nothing controversial here, just the strategy they think works best.

 

[Red Rick]

Likely Contador is simply wrong. No Giro in Pogacar’s legs this year - Contador of all people should understand that. And look at what Pogacar did after winning the Giro-Tour double last year.

I think Visma are risking blowing up their own rider with this strategy. But what else can they do? Particularly after the TT.

There is 0 reason to think Pogacar was negatively affected at all by racing the Giro last year, that's the sort of cycling logic Pogacar has ignored for the last 5 years.

 

[Barkintheeye]

There really is no other strategy. Death by 1000 cuts is still death, and any strategy that allows Pog to cruise in a stage, is a strategy that is certain to lose. I think he still wins, but I will be up on my chair screaming if that first 1 meter of space opens up behind Jonas' wheel on a mountain stage.

Yes, the one little kink in Pog’s armor is recovery and Visma is trying their best to exploit it. Don’t think it will work but at least they are trying and it also makes stages more enjoyable.

 

[Cookster15]

he just said Visma believe Vingegaard has more endurance than Pogacar

Haven’t learned much from 2024 then. It’s like they are trying to talk themselves into the impossible. They would be best persisting with more of stage 6.

There is 0 reason to think Pogacar was negatively affected at all by racing the Giro last year, that's the sort of cycling logic Pogacar has ignored for the last 5 years.

Of course. But we are discussing Visma’s belief Jonas has more endurance? Based upon what? Are we back to 2022 and 2023 because those Tours were made obsolete in 2024. Not just what happened in the tour but what happened afterwards - he kept destroying everyone. Worlds, GdL etc.

 

[YavorD]

There is 0 reason to think Pogacar was negatively affected at all by racing the Giro last year, that's the sort of cycling logic Pogacar has ignored for the last 5 years.

Exactly.
There's no evidence to suggest that the Giro had negative impact on him.
In fact, based on his performance last year we have more evidence to support a theory that the Giro had positive impact.

 

[Red Rick]

Haven’t learned much from 2024 then. It’s like they are trying to talk themselves into the impossible. They would be best persisting with more of stage 6.

Of course. But we are discussing Visma’s belief Jonas has more endurance? Based upon what? Are we back to 2022 and 2023 because those Tours were made obsolete in 2024. Not just what happened in the tour but what happened afterwards - he kept destroying everyone. Worlds, GdL etc.

It does seem like a bad plan. But bad plans are sometimes the best ones you've got. It's either this or nothign else, and we can already just go home.

 

[Peyroteo94]

There is 0 reason to think Pogacar was negatively affected at all by racing the Giro last year, that's the sort of cycling logic Pogacar has ignored for the last 5 years.

You don't know how good can he be without the Giro in his legs.

 

[Peyroteo94]

Haven’t learned much from 2024 then. It’s like they are trying to talk themselves into the impossible. They would be best persisting with more of stage 6.

Of course. But we are discussing Visma’s belief Jonas has more endurance? Based upon what? Are we back to 2022 and 2023 because those Tours were made obsolete in 2024. Not just what happened in the tour but what happened afterwards - he kept destroying everyone. Worlds, GdL etc.

Like @Red Rick said, it's their only option. One thing very important is how they will use Matteo. I think they will wait for UAE on Hautacam, but they shouldn't. If they wait, it's very possible Pogacar will be 4 minutes ahead after the MTT and will no longer care about Matteo.

 

[dercuforever]

You don't know how good can he be without the Giro in his legs.

I'm not sure Giro was harder than altitude stages training for him.

 

[Red Rick]

You don't know how good can he be without the Giro in his legs.

I think we can judge from Pogacar's and UAE's own behavior that they raced the Giro believing it wouldn't hurt him much in the Tour.

And in general, when someone does by far their best performances, I don't think you can say with a lot of confidence he would have been much better with a different schedule, especially if he's done that different schedule with worse results.

 

[YavorD]

You don't know how good can he be without the Giro in his legs.

Neither do you.
For what we know, you're just guessing.

 

[Peyroteo94]

I'm not sure Giro was harder than altitude stages training for him.

Detraining is also a possibility

 

[Peyroteo94]

I think we can judge from Pogacar's and UAE's own behavior that they raced the Giro believing it wouldn't hurt him much in the Tour.

And in general, when someone does by far their best performances, I don't think you can say with a lot of confidence he would have been much better with a different schedule, especially if he's done that different schedule with worse results.

We will have an answer in 5 days on Hautacam.

 

[Peyroteo94]

Neither do you.
For what we know, you're just guessing.

Like I said, we will know in 5 days. Until now,I can just look to his Dauphine's performance and say he was better than in the Giro 2024.

 

[Miha81]

It does seem like a bad plan. But bad plans are sometimes the best ones you've got. It's either this or nothign else, and we can already just go home.

Honestly I do not see other option for TJV if they want to win it all. At this point they can only try and distrupt the UAE tactics as much as possible and hope for some crack in the armour.

It will be interesting to see what Almeida injury means for the mountains. He is full of hearth but what will the body say and will he be able to somehow ride through it and contribute? This can be a massive blow for UAE.