Teams & Riders Tadej Pogačar discussion thread

[CyclistAbi]

For Pogi standards this was a flop, considering elevation meters involved. Still fourth place and i reckon realistic thinking on how RR should suit him better. On what went wrong, who knows, maybe health, maybe environment, maybe daily form. Or maybe he just shredded too much weight and lost the edge in such TT.

 

[rafa92]

I think if we look at the bigger picture some of us might relent on our critics of pogs display on the tt.
First, i think we have to consider that he is coming of a very difficult season with him being in shape starting from February which was magnified even by himself at the tour that he was on a mental burnout. Second, comparing his 2024 season to this season and affirming he was better last season is harsh. We have to consider 2024 was a much linear season in terms of prep & racing. It was all focused on stage races & grand tours which makes the training more smooth & easier for the body to adapt while this year it was different type of prep/gym work/ climb efforts for different types of races which takes its toll on the body at some point. Its like asking vdp to be that good on classics and to expect him to climb among the best on the mountains. Imo he has lost his motivation for the sport due to this year being a tiring one and we could see that when he ignored altitude training for this race despite knowing both TT & RR are raced on altitude in Rwanda. I think he needed a long time off the bike perhaps to completely stop after the tour & comeback next year. My conclusion from todays TT is that he looks like he doesn't have the watts in the legs & whats even more concerning was his way of climbing on all the climbs including the cobbled one in the final & i can't take positives out of it b/c even on his poor dauphine TT he was the fastest on the climb but lost the times on the flats. BUT its still POG u never know what he could do in a week time.

actually his dauphine TT is perfectly in line with this, also there he looked very bad on the climb, overall he lost 50 sec in 17 kms which is perfectly in line with the gap of the WC. What nobody seems to understand is that pogacar tends to underperform and struggle a lot on hilly TTs when he's not in top shape or has not done a long block of TT specific trainings (like he did between the dauphine and tour this year). You can see visually that he fights with the TT bike while climbing. The point, as pogacar himself has said, is that on a TT bike he's not a natural, but on a road bike he is and everything is different. I don't know if you remember what kind of dominance he displayed at the dauphine when on a road bike after an horrible TT. Montreal is a much better indication of the level he will have on sunday, there he looked totally in control while climbing at a very high level. In montreal he had much better numbers than in montreal 2024 (comparing strava files) and we all know what kind of level he had in zurich

 

[Lorzenz08]

Let see hopefully he will be good, but it is not very promising.

He is on an all time high since March 2024. This is a lot in this sport.

What I hope he understands is that he shouldn't half ass a season.

I would rather have him purposefully take an entire season light. Than try to get as much as possible and get mentally broken in the middle of the year.

 

[rafa92]

I have this feeling that pog will be underwhelming on climbs, when pog is not 100% he tends to underperform on climbs when he's on a TT bike. If pog is at 100% he's the best in the world on a parcours like this, but when he's not 100% he can do underwhelming performances in a TT like this, while on a road race he can win even if he's not at his best. I hope I'm wrong but he might pay that week he could not train and go to altitude before the canadian races

I wrote this post one hour before pog started his TT and it went exactly how I predicted, but I read too many comments of people that believe this has anything to do with the level that pogacar will have on sunday. Let me tell you, pogacar on sunday on a road bike with that kind of parcours will be a totally different animal, if remco does the best performance of his career he might stay with him but I doubt it

 

[Cycling111]

In the U23 category, another specialist won again, gaining a significant amount of time against climbers.

I think Ganna would have been on the podium at this World Championships.

The only World Championships that can be considered non-specialist is Bergen, given its finish.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

I think Ganna would have been on the podium at this World Championships.

Considering abysmal gaps behind Remco, probably yes. I would think bronze.

 

[Cycling111]

Bergen ITT

 

[rafa92]

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pog has still to decide which bike to use on sunday. You can see he's using the V5rs at the beginning of the video but then switched to the aero bike by the end

 

[yaf2]

actually his dauphine TT is perfectly in line with this, also there he looked very bad on the climb, overall he lost 50 sec in 17 kms which is perfectly in line with the gap of the WC. What nobody seems to understand is that pogacar tends to underperform and struggle a lot on hilly TTs when he's not in top shape or has not done a long block of TT specific trainings (like he did between the dauphine and tour this year). You can see visually that he fights with the TT bike while climbing. The point, as pogacar himself has said, is that on a TT bike he's not a natural, but on a road bike he is and everything is different. I don't know if you remember what kind of dominance he displayed at the dauphine when on a road bike after an horrible TT. Montreal is a much better indication of the level he will have on sunday, there he looked totally in control while climbing at a very high level. In montreal he had much better numbers than in montreal 2024 (comparing strava files) and we all know what kind of level he had in zurich

I wouldn't take montreal as particularly impressive coz of the field being weak and his teammate mcnulty caught him after riding 1 full lap on the circuit on the front. u might say he waited for him & i think he did once he knew mcnulty was closing but if he was super he would have been out of sight against simmons. For the TT i think u might have to re watch the dauphine tt as he was impressive on the climb so i can't agree with ur narrative of him not pushing good watts on the tt bike.

 

[BubbaChuck]

there is so much cycling talent in africa its ridiculos.random guys on hilarius bikes are driving besides pog easy.in europe everybody looks cooked in minute.

 

[Red Rick]

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pog has still to decide which bike to use on sunday. You can see he's using the V5rs at the beginning of the video but then switched to the aero bike by the end

I got to hand it to Tadej.

He deserves a "better music taste than Remco Evenepoel" award.

 

[rafa92]

I wouldn't take montreal as particularly impressive coz of the field being weak and his teammate mcnulty caught him after riding 1 full lap on the circuit on the front. u might say he waited for him & i think he did once he knew mcnulty was closing but if he was super he would have been out of sight against simmons. For the TT i think u might have to re watch the dauphine tt as he was impressive on the climb so i can't agree with ur narrative of him not pushing good watts on the tt bike.

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in montreal his level was higher than last year, the competition is similar and the gaps were much higher (mcnulty overperformed), plus just look at the strava files from 2024 and 2025. I have watched the TT at dauphine multiple times and on the climb he was awful compared to the climbing level he had just the day after on a road bike. I have no idea what have you seen, on the climb (the hard part) he lost 8 seconds to evenepoel in 600 meters. I would not call that impressive and still the days after he dominated everyone on climbs, literally gaining minutes on everyone else. The TT at dauphine is the exact same copy of the WC ITT in terms of his overall gap to evenepoel (adjusting for the lenght of the TT) and his performance on the climb. The days after he was pushing monster watts on the road bike so you will see that "my narrative of him not pushing good watts on the tt bike" will turn out to be true on sunday

 

[Salvarani]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1932903948744339783

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in montreal his level was higher than last year, the competition is similar and the gaps were much higher (mcnulty overperformed), plus just look at the strava files from 2024 and 2025. I have watched the TT at dauphine multiple times and on the climb he was awful compared to the climbing level he had just the day after on a road bike. I have no idea what have you seen, on the climb (the hard part) he lost 8 seconds to evenepoel in 600 meters. I would not call that impressive and still the days after he dominated everyone on climbs, literally gaining minutes on everyone else. The TT at dauphine is exact same copy of the WC ITT in terms of his overall gap to evenepoel (adjusting for the lenght of the TT) and his performance on the climb. The days after he was pushing monster watts on the road bike so you will see that "my narrative of him not pushing good watts on the tt bike" will turn out to be true on sunday

Lets hope so!

 

[Cycling111]

in montreal his level was higher than last year, the competition is similar and the gaps were much higher (mcnulty overperformed), plus just look at the strava files from 2024 and 2025. I have watched the TT at dauphine multiple times and on the climb he was awful compared to the climbing level he had just the day after on a road bike. I have no idea what have you seen, on the climb (the hard part) he lost 8 seconds to evenepoel in 600 meters. I would not call that impressive and still the days after he dominated everyone on climbs, literally gaining minutes on everyone else. The TT at dauphine is the exact same copy of the WC ITT in terms of his overall gap to evenepoel (adjusting for the lenght of the TT) and his performance on the climb. The days after he was pushing monster watts on the road bike so you will see that "my narrative of him not pushing good watts on the tt bike" will turn out to be true on sunday

It must be said that he did motorpace

We need yesterday's climb times and compare it to Vine and Del Toro.

 

[yaf2]

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in montreal his level was higher than last year, the competition is similar and the gaps were much higher (mcnulty overperformed), plus just look at the strava files from 2024 and 2025. I have watched the TT at dauphine multiple times and on the climb he was awful compared to the climbing level he had just the day after on a road bike. I have no idea what have you seen, on the climb (the hard part) he lost 8 seconds to evenepoel in 600 meters. I would not call that impressive and still the days after he dominated everyone on climbs, literally gaining minutes on everyone else. The TT at dauphine is the exact same copy of the WC ITT in terms of his overall gap to evenepoel (adjusting for the lenght of the TT) and his performance on the climb. The days after he was pushing monster watts on the road bike so you will see that "my narrative of him not pushing good watts on the tt bike" will turn out to be true on sunday

So u are comparing a 600 meter climb to 7 km climb to compare how good/bad his level was on the respective climbs? u saying he performed bad on 600 meter climb b/c he was on a tt bike & 2 days later performed goat level b/c he switched to the road bike? lol. Dude 600m & 7km is a completely different effort despite his level on the dauphine tt climb still being on par with his level on the same efforts on tour(him & ving were on same level in the short efforts in the 1st week of the tour). What i was concerned from yesterday's performance was that the climbs & the efforts on the route were perfect durations for his specificities yet he conceded a minute & half to jay vine👀. If it was a flat race i would get it but yeah..

 

[rafa92]

So u are comparing a 600 meter climb to 7 km climb to compare how good/bad his level was on the respective climbs? u saying he performed bad on 600 meter climb b/c he was on a tt bike & 2 days later performed goat level b/c he switched to the road bike? lol. Dude 600m & 7km is a completely different effort despite his level on the dauphine tt climb still being on par with his level on the same efforts on tour(him & ving were on same level in the short efforts in the 1st week of the tour). What i was concerned from yesterday's performance was that the climbs & the efforts on the route were perfect durations for his specificities yet he conceded a minute & half to jay vine👀. If it was a flat race i would get it but yeah..

I talked about that climb simply because in your post you said he looked great on the climb in the dauphine TT but that was simply not true. Plus even on a 600 meters steep climb pogacar is much stronger than evenepoel on a road race, he would definitively not loose 8 seconds in 600 meters.
"u saying he performed bad on 600 meter climb b/c he was on a tt bike & 2 days later performed goat level b/c he switched to the road bike". I'm saying this because it's exactly what happened. In the ITT he lost 50 seconds in 17 kms to remco (and he was much worse than remco also on the short climb) and he lost also to jorgenson. And in the mountain stages the days after he took minutes on everyone doing monster w/kg performances and was in total control. Have you seen a different race?
Let's wait sunday, and you will see what I mean

 

[Red Rick]

For me the real question does become why he does perform so well in time trials in GTs if he's so bad at them in the Dauphine, when the general form is actually clearly there.

 

[Berniece]

For me the real question does become why he does perform so well in time trials in GTs if he's so bad at them in the Dauphine, when the general form is actually clearly there.

Because then he "trained" on his TT bike, and apparently that's such a difference for him

 

[Krzysztof_O]

For me the real question does become why he does perform so well in time trials in GTs if he's so bad at them in the Dauphine, when the general form is actually clearly there.

Dauphine TT is hard to explain considering how strong he was just a couple of days later. Maybe he was experimenting on some TT setup or just a bad day? (he had some this year)

 

[rafa92]

For me the real question does become why he does perform so well in time trials in GTs if he's so bad at them in the Dauphine, when the general form is actually clearly there.

the only explanation I can come up with is that pogacar has to train very specifically to perform well on TTs, and particularly to climb at an high level on a TT. He's not a natural there and pogacar himself has said that for the TT bike he needs much more adaptation. But when he trains a lot for the discipline and he is at his best possible shape (so TDF shape) he can do great TTs. When he's even at 97-98% of his shape his level on a tt (especially if it's a hilly one) is much lower. There are now several examples of this: WC ITT both in 2023 and 2025, dauphine ITT in 2025 are the clear ones. Also remember that pogacar was the only top GC rider that did not use a TT bike in the peyragudes TT at the tour. This signals to me that compared to other riders pogacar is less comfortable riding a tt bike when climbing

 

[Peyroteo94]

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in montreal his level was higher than last year, the competition is similar and the gaps were much higher (mcnulty overperformed), plus just look at the strava files from 2024 and 2025. I have watched the TT at dauphine multiple times and on the climb he was awful compared to the climbing level he had just the day after on a road bike. I have no idea what have you seen, on the climb (the hard part) he lost 8 seconds to evenepoel in 600 meters. I would not call that impressive and still the days after he dominated everyone on climbs, literally gaining minutes on everyone else. The TT at dauphine is the exact same copy of the WC ITT in terms of his overall gap to evenepoel (adjusting for the lenght of the TT) and his performance on the climb. The days after he was pushing monster watts on the road bike so you will see that "my narrative of him not pushing good watts on the tt bike" will turn out to be true on sunday

Where was this time on this climb?

 

[Peyroteo94]

Dauphine TT is hard to explain considering how strong he was just a couple of days later. Maybe he was experimenting on some TT setup or just a bad day? (he had some this year)

I don't understand his performances in TTs anymore. He is not reliable.

 

[Jan the Man]

Because then he "trained" on his TT bike, and apparently that's such a difference for him

The oddity is that the general form is there and near peak Tour. His form in Dauphine other than the TT was exceptional. His level (other than TT performance) did not seem appreciably higher at the Tour than the Dauphine.

 

[Berniece]

The oddity is that the general form is there and near peak Tour. His form in Dauphine other than the TT was exceptional. His level (other than TT performance) did not seem appreciably higher at the Tour than the Dauphine.

In the Dauphine there was the valid excuse that he used a different position. And that didn’t work out. I understand why his time wasn’t that great.

Yesterday probably had to do with jet lag and lack of altitude training so having to adjust himself. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with his form. I can still see him win WC RR, EC RR and Lombardia

 

[Red Rick]

The oddity is that the general form is there and near peak Tour. His form in Dauphine other than the TT was exceptional. His level (other than TT performance) did not seem appreciably higher at the Tour than the Dauphine.

Lack of TT training wouldn't make much sense cause all GC riders just maintain TT training throughout the year to some degree. So unless Pogacar doesn't do this at all, it wouldn't make much sense.

I think the only thing that kinda makes sense is if he struggles with time trials if he hasn't done max efforts recently, so if he's done a few full gas efforts in a race his TT is gonna do better than if he hasn't, which is a sizable difference between the Dauphine TT and the Tour TT.

Or it's just always *** around with the TT position, as one does.