Teams & Riders Tadej Pogačar discussion thread

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I’ve already said , Pogacar as a pure climber may possibly be better.
Against a 69 Merckx I don’t think Pogacar will beat him though.
And absolutely not , 8 grand tours vs 3 grand tours , no. Merckx raced against many proven grand tour winners and world champions, Pog races against Vingegaard, a , relatively poor tter, and next best is Remco , a guy who cannot even have a consistent season of cycling.
Merckx competition was simply better
No, the competition is way much better and specialised today compared with Merckx era.
 
No, the competition is way much better and specialised today compared with Merckx era.
But how is it though? If that were true you would have at least 4 or 5 guys specialising in the tour and being able to consistently finish in the top places. But there isn’t anybody, apart from Pog and Vingo?

If anything the Armstrong era was more specialised in that respect, you had Lance, Ulrich , Basso, Mancebo, Valverde…now the top two is pretty much set. The rest of the top ten can be basically anybody. It isn’t more specialised at all and if it is, it’s a terrible job of being specialised
 
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im just playing,off course eddie is goat.if pog had same mentality,he would put half of peleton on therapy.
Pog absolutely can be compared to Merckx, I would like it if it happens , but he needs another 3-4 years of the same dominance , and it hasn’t happened yet.

Merckx is rightfully goat, there aren’t many sports where a guy is basically on a pedestal all by himself, I can’t think of any actually where a guy is so far away from everyone else,.
As another poster says it’s a compliment to Pogacar ability to be starting to be compared to him.
 
Merckx in 69’ his first tour win, and the last one where he could climb at his peak due to injury, won the tour by 18 minutes from 2nd place Roger Pingeon, Pingeon had won the tour in 67’ and beaten Ocana to the Vuelta in 69’.
Merckx won 7 stages including the team time trial, won all three individual TT’s and came second in the prologue.
He won the mountains, points and combativity classifications.
In the same year he won San remo, Paris-nice, flanders and liege.

Pog can dream of such dominance
So Tour, 3 monuments and a major one week race.

Pogacar can surpass that this year by winning Lombardia and World RR.
 
he isnot so farway anymore.pog goat status is easy to argue simply by fact we are talking about ancient era.its like comparing jordan to will or russell numbers.
Pog hasn’t shown to be the best tter of his generation or able to sprint with the best. Merckx could do it all, Pog has ‘only’ shown that he’s the best climber, he doesn’t dominate everything else, as Merckx did
 
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The way you talk about him, it's like you watched him
No just think he was a special athlete as I’ve just said I think he’s almost unique among sports for what he did. Maybe in darts and snooker there’s someone the same, but not in proper athletic sports.
And this with a long term injury that could never be resolved.
Again it’s a compliment to Pog that he can be compared to him
 
just a shame he can be dominated by a cyclo cross rider at Roubaix and can’t win a San remo, would be nice when it’s all said and done if Pog can win at least one to compare to eddys 7, and those 5 giros.

At least Pog can beat his only rival at the tour, most of the time , when he’s not getting cracked.

Pou -pou and joop would dominate this era
 
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I don’t think of any of them raced on bread and water, but if they did

A top ten of something like
Eddy
Hinault
Anquetil
Bartali
Coppi
Pog
Indurain
Lemond
Fignon
Vingegaard

Perhaps not in that order , but something like that, maybe
 
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How is Vingegaard in the top ten? Is this in terms of career success or like a random rating of 'talent'?
It was between him and Bobet for tenth, I’m not sure if he even is a better climber than Gaul or Bahamontes, but it’s late, the list was a very quick one.
I also give Vingegaard points for coming back from his injury so well last year.
 
And yes based on a rating of talent, I’ve already said I think Pog could eventually be up there with Merckx, (maybe) and ving has pushed him at times and beaten him.
But you can put in quite a few riders in the 8th -10th places and everyone can have a different opinion. Zoetemelk , Bobet, Ving, Froome , Contador could all be there