Teams & Riders Tadej Pogačar discussion thread

[James M]

When Pogacar wins Lombardia next Sunday (and thereby podiums), he will become the first rider in the history to podium all five Monuments within the same year.

 

[Peyroteo94]

When Pogacar wins Lombardia next Sunday (and thereby podiums), he will become the first rider in the history to podium all five Monuments within the same year.

Monuments+Worlds:
3, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1?

Best classics season ever without a doubt.

 

[hayneplane]

I don't agree. He is just lucky to have a much better team when they both ride for their national team. You turn this in a w/kg contest and Pogacar will rip Remco. GdL will be a prime example of that.

I thought Slovenia did a pretty decent job for Pogacar in the Euro RR considering it’s barely more than a CT level roster other than Pogacar and a far from in form Mohoric for whom the parcours were too climby anyway.

 

[hayneplane]

When Pogacar wins Lombardia next Sunday (and thereby podiums), he will become the first rider in the history to podium all five Monuments within the same year.

A few other notable landmarks he would reach with a win would be:
- joint record holder with Coppi for GDL wins but most in a row on his own
- 3rd rider in history to reach 10 monument wins
- 2nd rider ever to win 3 monuments in a season (Merckx managed this a mind bending 4 times in his career)
- Lowest cumulative position total in history for all 5 monuments in 1 season.

 

[YavorD]

Actually by the time Pogacar may be the record holder (or at least joint) for most wins on 3 of the 5 monuments, WC and Tour se France.

 

[James M]

A few other notable landmarks he would reach with a win would be:
- joint record holder with Coppi for GDL wins but most in a row on his own
- 3rd rider in history to reach 10 monument wins
- 2nd rider ever to win 3 monuments in a season (Merckx managed this a mind bending 4 times in his career)
- Lowest cumulative position total in history for all 5 monuments in 1 season.

Impeccable. It also speaks volumes about his current historic run from 2024 to now. Last year was the best season ever recorded, and now this season, (he might) be the first to ever podium all five Monuments within the same year.

 

[tigabara]

I don't hear a lot about National Olympic Committees planning on "how to dismantle domination" of Armand Duplantis, or that "the sport is dying" because of him. Not a lot of fanatics putting "underbelt jumper" stickers on him either. I don't see a lot of high jumpers crying or kicking bottles or changing jumping poles mid competition.
I see a lot of athletes trying to emulate his technique. A lot of people applauding him for "lifting the sport to higher levels".
Olympics are not "in danger of dying" because of Duplantis, on the contrary.

So why is it so different with Pogačar?

Yes. Yes...

A great example. There are indeed Aliens in certain sports. Marc Marquez, Michael Jordan, Michael Phelps, Messi, Usain Bolt, etc., etc.

 

[Oldman]

When Pogacar wins Lombardia next Sunday (and thereby podiums), he will become the first rider in the history to podium all five Monuments within the same year.

If he does win it maybe some folks on the Remco thread will figure out why he doesn't feel the need to pile on minutes when he has 75km to go. He's in a rare zone of strategic dominance that is more than just pounding everyone. He's got other competitors so reluctant to risk blowing up they just give up. This happened in the Giro last year, too. Geraint Thomas wouldn't even shrug, let alone get out of the saddle when Tadej passed him. It's not just this year.

 

[SHAD0W93]

Next season while unrealistic, I hope he races:
SB
MSR
RVV
PR
FW
LBL
TdR (just seeing if he can win coming down and racing it more reserved)
TDS
TdF
Quebec
Montreal
Worlds
GDL


If, and very big if, he doesn’t do RVV or PR he can do TofBC instead.

 

[Peyroteo94]

Next season while unrealistic, I hope he races:
SB
MSR
RVV
PR
FW
LBL
TdR (just seeing if he can win coming down and racing it more reserved)
TDS
TdF
Quebec
Montreal
Worlds
GDL


If, and very big if, he doesn’t do RVV or PR he can do TofBC instead.

I hope his schedule is like this:
SB
MSR
RVV
PR
LBL
TdS
TdF
Canadian classics (if he is fresh enough - Vuelta)
WC
EC (Slovenia)
GdL

 

[Peyroteo94]

Actually by the time Pogacar may be the record holder (or at least joint) for most wins on 3 of the 5 monuments, WC and Tour se France.

This is so true. I really hope he wins PR and MSR to really end this Goat debate. In fact I believe Pogacar will surpass Merckx if he wins MSR and PR (and reach 20 monuments).

 

[Krzysztof_O]

This is so true. I really hope he wins PR and MSR to really end this Goat debate. In fact I believe Pogacar will surpass Merckx if he wins MSR and PR (and reach 20 monuments).

MSR could become even more difficult if Remco joins (but under some circumstances it could also be favourable to Pogacar if the two cooperate in the finale).

 

[Peyroteo94]

“If Evenepoel thinks that way, he'll be unhappy a lot in the coming years. If it happens to you once, twice, or three times, I understand that you can be frustrated. But if you keep running into the same rider, for two years now, you have to accept that he's just better at the moment"

Basically he is telling Remco should avoid Pogacar.

Bakelants believes Evenepoel needs to take a mental step back: "Otherwise, he will be unhappy in the coming years"

The European Cycling Championships were the same story as the World Cycling Championships a week earlier: Remco Evenepoel dominated the time trial, but was no match for Tadej Pogacar in the road race....

www.idlprocycling.com

 

[Peyroteo94]

MSR could become even more difficult if Remco joins (but under some circumstances it could also be favourable to Pogacar if the two cooperate in the finale).

I believe it will be good for Pogacar. I can see Bora making the race harder for Remco (and this helps Pogacar).

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

I don't hear a lot about National Olympic Committees planning on "how to dismantle domination" of Armand Duplantis, or that "the sport is dying" because of him. Not a lot of fanatics putting "underbelt jumper" stickers on him either. I don't see a lot of high jumpers crying or kicking bottles or changing jumping poles mid competition.
I see a lot of athletes trying to emulate his technique. A lot of people applauding him for "lifting the sport to higher levels".
Olympics are not "in danger of dying" because of Duplantis, on the contrary.

So why is it so different with Pogačar?

I don’t think Duplantis is a good comparison even if his domination is similar or even bigger than Pogi.

First of all Duplantis are having in almost every competition a competition against himself and the world record. The question about Duplantis isn’t if he’s gonna win or not, it’s whether he’s gonna set a new world record. That a serious yes/no question every competition. With Pogacar it doesn’t make a difference if he wins with 30 seconds or 2 minutes and there is nothing to compare with to create excitement and that’s a huge difference.

A Duplantis jump lasts 30-45 seconds in the TV screen with a short buildup and celebration afterwards. A Pogi solo like WC and EC lasts more than an hour. I think that makes a huge difference as well, partly because it’s much easier to reach out to millions of non-athletics fans with a 10 second reel of Duplantis setting a world record..

Then I honestly think it’s a horrible comparison to say “Olympics are not in danger of dying because of Duplantis, on the contrary”, because the Olympics are not just one sport and Duplantis won 1 of 228 gold medals in the Olympics last year…

 

[Peyroteo94]

I don’t think Duplantis is a good comparison even if his domination is similar or even bigger than Pogi.

First of all Duplantis are having in almost every competition a competition against himself and the world record. The question about Duplantis isn’t if he’s gonna win or not, it’s whether he’s gonna set a new world record. That a serious yes/no question every competition. With Pogacar it doesn’t make a difference if he wins with 30 seconds or 2 minutes and there is nothing to compare with to create excitement and that’s a huge difference.

A Duplantis jump lasts 30-45 seconds in the TV screen with a short buildup and celebration afterwards. A Pogi solo like WC and EC lasts more than an hour. I think that makes a huge difference as well, partly because it’s much easier to reach out to millions of non-athletics fans with a 10 second reel of Duplantis setting a world record..

Then I honestly think it’s a horrible comparison to say “Olympics are not in danger of dying because of Duplantis, on the contrary”, because the Olympics are not just one sport and Duplantis won 1 of 228 gold medals in the Olympics last year…

But pole vault is always the same thing so it's easy to win when you are clearly the best.
In cycling, you can be the best climber but in TTs you are not and you lose. Duplantis to be like Pogacar, he should win Pole Vault, high jump, 100m hurdles and long jump for example.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

But pole vault is always the same thing so it's easy to win when you are clearly the best.
In cycling, you can be the best climber but in TTs you are not and you lose. Duplantis to be like Pogacar, he should win Pole Vault, high jump, 100m hurdles and long jump for example.

Yes. But I struggle to see the relation to my post
Duplantis is popular on TV because it’s not about him winning, its about the World Record. In cycling we don’t have records to compare against in the same way and therefore it’s only about winning and dominance in these sports are in many peoples opinion less interesting than domination in sports where the best have to fight against the World Record.

It’s great for the sports like cycling when the best rider is beaten at regular occasions to keep some level of uncertainty. Therefore it is great that Pogacar goes so hard for races like San Remo and Roubaix. If MVDP can beat him once or twice in the spring, if Remco could beat him once in a while outside TTs and if Vingegaard would drop him at a mountain stage once in a while, I think that would feel much more interesting even if he wins basically the same amount of races as he does know. But at the moment he’s just slightly too good for this to happen.

 

[Peyroteo94]

Yes. But I struggle to see the relation to my post
Duplantis is popular on TV because it’s not about him winning, its about the World Record. In cycling we don’t have records to compare against in the same way and therefore it’s only about winning and dominance in these sports are in many peoples opinion less interesting than domination in sports where the best have to fight against the World Record.

It’s great for the sports like cycling when the best rider is beaten at regular occasions to keep some level of uncertainty. Therefore it is great that Pogacar goes so hard for races like San Remo and Roubaix. If MVDP can beat him once or twice in the spring, if Remco could beat him once in a while outside TTs and if Vingegaard would drop him at a mountain stage once in a while, I think that would feel much more interesting even if he wins basically the same amount of races as he does know. But at the moment he’s just slightly too good for this to happen.

I think it's a silly comparison because Pole Vault is a very predictable event. It's always the same thing so it hurts more when an athlete is much better than everyone else. Cycling is a much more unpredictable sport (e.g. crashes, tactics, etc) even with this dominance.