Teams & Riders Tadej Pogačar discussion thread

[Krzysztof_O]

No, Roglic was useless.
Pogacar is by far the biggest favorite but he has a horrible team waiting for him. The race will be very attacked after Mont Kigali and Pogacar will not have a team to control the race.

Rogla did a monster 20 seconds pull before Pogi's attack. The first time I saw Rogla working for Pogi.

 

[Red Rick]

Remind me, was Roglic of any use last year when Pogacar won? Can't really remember him, but Im sure he was riding that day.

He did one pull a minute before Pogacar attacked, and then he dangled at the back of the group with like 2 laps to go.

Roglic' was clearly toasted by the end of last season, and if he gets a free run to prepare I think he'll do better.

 

[BubbaChuck]

as a slovenian strange thing happened.pog basically said im done.never had serius injury in his life and he is 26,lol.but than luka doncic decided to get in shape and play for next decade.hope similar happens to pog,but doubtful.hope ist national thing,i dont know modesty or smth.

 

[Miha81]

He did one pull a minute before Pogacar attacked, and then he dangled at the back of the group with like 2 laps to go.

Roglic' was clearly toasted by the end of last season, and if he gets a free run to prepare I think he'll do better.

They want Rog to do WC ITT and Pog to do ride road race (with Rog to pull for him). So it will be similar setup as 2024 WC most likely with Rog being in much better shape than last year.

 

[Cycling111]

Less than a minute. Pogacar attacked shortly after Novak retired.

The Slovenian team is very weak this year. Tratnik was the most important domestique last year, and this year he's terrible.
I think it's very difficult for Pogacar to win this World Cup. It's impossible for Slovenia to dominate a World Cup; they didn't do it last year either, but Pogacar surprised everyone. There won't be any surprises this year.


Slovenia has two places for the Rwanda time trial. I think Pogacar will compete this year.

 

[Peyroteo94]

Rogla did a monster 20 seconds pull before Pogi's attack. The first time I saw Rogla working for Pogi.

No he didn't. That's hardly a monster pull.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

No he didn't. That's hardly a monster pull.

I was semi-joking. He did a short pull though.

 

[Peyroteo94]

If he doesn't race the Vuelta, I hope he goes to both TT and RR in Kigali.

 

[Pogacsa]

The road race features 5400 meters of climbing (at a minimum altitude of 1400 meters), and I fully expect the race to be in pieces well before the Mount Kigali circuit. So not sure that a weak team particularly matters on such a course. We saw in Zurich last year that the race had boiled down to about 20 riders with three whole laps to go (and Pogi was only a minute ahead of them) and I think there will be fewer, earlier in Rwanda.

It will also be quite a weak field. No MVDP, for example. Pogi just needs to keep an eye on Ben Healy, Remco and a few others.

 

[Peyroteo94]

The road race features 5400 meters of climbing (at a minimum altitude of 1400 meters), and I fully expect the race to be in pieces well before the Mount Kigali circuit. So not sure that a weak team particularly matters on such a course. We saw in Zurich last year that the race had boiled down to about 20 riders with three whole laps to go (and Pogi was only a minute ahead of them) and I think there will be fewer, earlier in Rwanda.

It will also be quite a weak field. No MVDP, for example. Pogi just needs to keep an eye on Ben Healy, Remco and a few others.

Pogacar can't control 20 riders going at 100-120 km to the finish line.

 

[Miha81]

If he doesn't race the Vuelta, I hope he goes to both TT and RR in Kigali.

He won't do ITT as Rogla was already approached to do it according to national federation. I think he is not interested .

 

[Berniece]

I don't think it will be hard for Pogacar to win the World Championships. Sure, his national team isn't the strongest, but he doesn't really need them. Stronger teams from other countries will make the race hard without turning it into chaos.

Take Belgium, for example — Wellens and Van Aert aren't racing, so it's basically just Evenepoel as their sole leader. That situation actually works in Pogacar's favor. All he has to do is mark Evenepoel and wait for the right moment to make his own move, while Belgium does the work of keeping others in check.

I wouldn't be surprised if other countries take a similar approach. For Pogacar to lose, several top riders would need to go all-in and attack early — but most riders don’t dare to do that. In the Tour de France, there are multiple stages where breakaways can succeed, so riders take more chances. But the World Championships is just one race — one shot — and that makes people more cautious.

 

[Cycling111]

He won't do ITT as Rogla was already approached to do it according to national federation. I think he is not interested .

They have two places, so both can participate.

If they only had one, I don't understand this preference for Roglic at this point either.

 

[Peyroteo94]

He won't do ITT as Rogla was already approached to do it according to national federation. I think he is not interested .

I think they have 2 spots. Even if they didn't, it would be so stupid to choose Roglic instead of Pogacar

 

[Red Rick]

The road race features 5400 meters of climbing (at a minimum altitude of 1400 meters), and I fully expect the race to be in pieces well before the Mount Kigali circuit. So not sure that a weak team particularly matters on such a course. We saw in Zurich last year that the race had boiled down to about 20 riders with three whole laps to go (and Pogi was only a minute ahead of them) and I think there will be fewer, earlier in Rwanda.

It will also be quite a weak field. No MVDP, for example. Pogi just needs to keep an eye on Ben Healy, Remco and a few others.

Healy, Evenepoel (if he doesn't get fat again), maybe Hirschi, Skjelmose.

Team strength should not matter one iota, and if anything he could probably already just go at like 80k to go if he likes and then Roglic can just be the anchor to the gruop behind him. Alternatively, you use Roglic as the barometer for fatigue and attack when he runs out of gas.

I don't think it will be hard for Pogacar to win the World Championships.

It should be the least competitive WCRR in my lifetime, and the question is really by how many minutes he wins it and how many finish.

 

[Peyroteo94]

Healy, Evenepoel (if he doesn't get fat again), maybe Hirschi, Skjelmose.

Team strength should not matter one iota, and if anything he could probably already just go at like 80k to go if he likes and then Roglic can just be the anchor to the gruop behind him. Alternatively, you use Roglic as the barometer for fatigue and attack when he runs out of gas.



It should be the least competitive WCRR in my lifetime, and the question is really by how many minutes he wins it and how many finish.

Team strenght will be very important. I don't even know why you say that. Slovenia can't control a break on hard terrain, what is going to happen if they go with 150-110 km to the finish line? They will probably gain 3 minutes without much effort. Can Pogacar go again like he did in Zurich? Probably not.

 

[Red Rick]

Team strenght will be very important. I don't even know why you say that. Slovenia can't control a break on hard terrain, what is going to happen if they go with 150-110 km to the finish line? They will probably gain 3 minutes without much effort. Can Pogacar go again like he did in Zurich? Probably not.

Breaks are easier to control on hard terrain cause they just die by themselves. You have one job and that's to not get lapped. In addition because it's so hard, you can just spend your team earlier.

Also, there's no need to pretend everyone on UAE apart from Ayuso won't just ride for Pogacar again

 

[Peyroteo94]

Breaks are easier to control on hard terrain cause they just die by themselves. You have one job and that's to not get lapped. In addition because it's so hard, you can just spend your team earlier.

Also, there's no need to pretend everyone on UAE apart from Ayuso won't just ride for Pogacar again

In what world? Just look to GTs, it's much more easier to control breakaways on flat terrain than hilly terrain.

 

[Pogacsa]

Imagine Pogi reaches the descent of Mount Kigali with some riders 5 minutes ahead of him. Who could hold him off on this course? Only Remco, Healy and riders who won't be there in any case.

So he just has to follow them.

As Red Rick says, this is potentially going to be a very damp squib of a race

 

[Berniece]

Team strenght will be very important. I don't even know why you say that. Slovenia can't control a break on hard terrain, what is going to happen if they go with 150-110 km to the finish line? They will probably gain 3 minutes without much effort. Can Pogacar go again like he did in Zurich? Probably not.

He'll probably join the attack, and some riders from other countries but who ride for UAE will also be there. And miraculously they'll just keep taking turns together with Pogacar.

Actually they don't even have to be from UAE. Riders will just happily take turns.

 

[Valv.Piti]

The time trial is quite hilly, hilly enough that Pogacar will have a chance to win against Remco even without the most specific training. Roglic can do very well if he's in good shape as well on that course obviously.

 

[Cycling111]

In these types of Worlds, numerical superiority is very important.
Olano won in Colombia 1995 because he had Indurain with Pantani.

Spain had the same situation against Rui Costa, but Valverde failed tactically. That world championship should have gone to Purito, another rider with numerical superiority, but only a big mistake by Valverde prevented it.

It's very difficult to control that type of WC alone. Remember Pantani.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Imagine Pogi reaches the descent of Mount Kigali with some riders 5 minutes ahead of him. Who could hold him off on this course? Only Remco, Healy and riders who won't be there in any case.

So he just has to follow them.

As Red Rick says, this is potentially going to be a very damp squib of a race

So, are we saying Pogačar can make up five minutes in a 100 k solo on some mid riders or does he still have some cooperative helpers? I think strength in numbers is being underestimated quite a bit here. Pogačar went on a 50 k solo after cooperating with Sivakov for 30 k last year and beat Ben O‘Connor by 34 seconds with the advantage of G2 syndrome. This year has some more vertical meters but not as many as to be able to make up five minutes unless the rider at five minutes is either solo or there are only semi-pros from the early break up there. Of course he won‘t actually be five minutes behind but he‘d need a lot of help if he actually was.

 

[Peyroteo94]

The time trial is quite hilly, hilly enough that Pogacar will have a chance to win against Remco even without the most specific training. Roglic can do very well if he's in good shape as well on that course obviously.

Roglic doesn't have a chance. He is not that good anymore.

 

[Peyroteo94]

So, are we saying Pogačar can make up five minutes in a 100 k solo on some mid riders or does he still have some cooperative helpers? I think strength in numbers is being underestimated quite a bit here. Pogačar went on a 50 k solo after cooperating with Sivakov for 30 k last year and beat Ben O‘Connor by 34 seconds with the advantage of G2 syndrome. This year has some more vertical meters but not as many as to be able to make up five minutes unless the rider at five minutes is either solo or there are only semi-pros from the early break up there. Of course he won‘t actually be five minutes behind but he‘d need a lot of help if he actually was.

Exactly this. I'm pretty sure Ben Healy will be a nasty headache in this route