Teams & Riders Tadej Pogačar discussion thread

[canina82]

True. But for Pogacar to win, they don't just need to reduce the peloton, they need to put pretty much everyone (including MVDP) on ropes before Teddy attacks. Last year, their crucial failure was positioning.

And on Saturday, they can't do a worse job before Cipressa than 2025 MSR. I still think they will fail but it's not their fault Narvaez and Wellens had severe injuries.

 

[James M]

about selecting people for positioning etc its not that easy for UAE since everyone and their grandma look at them and the onus is on them to make the selection and you cant do that with many big guys on ompaa loompa %.Catch 22.

 

[James M]

Very good team. They need to put a hard pace before Cipressa. Maybe reduce the peloton to 80 riders before Cipressa.

Good theyre trying something different, especially with key people injured. I still expect it to be close to mission impossible, but you cant fault anyone for trying.

If the goal is to brute‑force everyone off the wheel on the Cipressa which it seems, that process needs to start on Berta anyway. They will clearly try that this year. The peloton will already be significantly thinned out there now.

 

[Savant12]

Not having Narvaez is major loss for Pog trying to drop MVDP. The others don't have that punch. Yes, they can set a hard tempo but they did that last year and MVDP looked very good holding on; he looks even better this year.

 

[vappa]

Don't think any team would be interested to help UAE set a hard tempo before Cipressa.
They are better of to save their helpers in order to be close(r) after Cipressa and chase Pogacar.

I

UAE only has to pull hard a bit more than half of the flat between Berta and Cipressa because teams will start fighting for position and entrance into the climb and increase the pace then anyway

 

[canina82]

Not having Narvaez is major loss for Pog trying to drop MVDP. The others don't have that punch. Yes, they can set a hard tempo but they did that last year and MVDP looked very good holding on; he looks even better this year.

Cipressa has 4% gradients. It's very shallow for Pogacar to drop MVP (specially when MSR is so flat before Cipressa).

 

[vappa]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2033860163665309816

View: https://x.com/teamemiratesuae/status/2033860163665309816?s=46

Embarrassing after embarrassing after embarrassing…

I think they will go all out with Felix on Berta, McNulty takes over and does the first part of flat, Vermeersch leadout into Cipressa and forst few hundred meters then Christen and Del Toro and nuclear attack. Will it be enough, we don't know

 

[canina82]

I think they will go all out with Felix on Berta, McNulty takes over and does the first part of flat, Vermeersch leadout into Cipressa and forst few hundred meters then Christen and Del Toro and nuclear attack. Will it be enough, we don't know

McNulty is for Cipressa before Christen and Del Toro.

 

[yaf2]

I think they will go all out with Felix on Berta, McNulty takes over and does the first part of flat, Vermeersch leadout into Cipressa and forst few hundred meters then Christen and Del Toro and nuclear attack. Will it be enough, we don't know

If you want to use berta use it to hurt or at least put the lactate on vdp, & grobschartener isn’t the one who can do that. IMO if your plan is to make the race as hard as possible, use either christin or deltoro to go all out on berta which would hurt vdp & wait at the top for everyone to comeback. Uae isn’t responsible to control the race from berta to cipressa so they just need to reorganize themselves for the position battle of cipressa.

 

[ChasingPotatoes]

The main issue I see with this team is they lack firepower for the first 250k.
Any other team should try to go in the early break and any other team should put the burden on UAE to chase.

 

[vappa]

The main issue I see with this team is they lack firepower for the first 250k.
Any other team should try to go in the early break and any other team should put the burden on UAE to chase.

The burden will be on Alpecin because they have a favourite - MvdP

 

[Krzysztof_O]

The main issue I see with this team is they lack firepower for the first 250k.
Any other team should try to go in the early break and any other team should put the burden on UAE to chase.

Yup, no Wellens and Narvaez complicates things on Cipressa and earlier: they won't be able to nuke those climbs like they would like to.

 

[Jan the Man]

The burden will be on Alpecin because they have a favourite - MvdP

Agreed MdvP is the favourite, Alpecin will control for him.