Teams & Riders Tadej Pogačar discussion thread

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Jan 20, 2011
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I believe strongly he will go to Vuelta already this year. We will see after Romandie how strong Pogi is without any GT preparation at all. Roglic will also be at Romandie and he would be his ONLY opponent at Vuelta. He could win this year Vuelta with ease and there is no guarantee to win it like this in future with Seixas and other young guys coming. Not to go there just because of WC and GDL is even not such a good idea, he can still it even with Vuelta in his legs (like said riders are making race hard and i don't see this year Vuelta being hard at all) EC is not important race, GDL is not so important after already having record there, WC is something else, but like said, this is Pogi he could do both. It is just not the case for him like for others that everything most go perfect (like this MSR).
EC is in Ljubljana. It's important for him.
 
Jul 7, 2013
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Praises from the great Eddy himself:


Hopefully there'll be some refreshing comments from Roger!
"Back in my day he wouldn't have dropped me on Cipressa and I would attack and drop them on the Poggio!"
 
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Praises from the great Eddy himself:


Hopefully there'll be some refreshing comments from Roger!
I can't wait! Surely the Belgian newspapers will be on the phone to Roger soon?
 
Jul 7, 2013
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"Back in my day he wouldn't have dropped me on Cipressa and I would attack and drop them on the Poggio!"

In good old times top cyclists looked like rock & roll stars. Eddie was basically Elvis on the bike. Nowadays, the poor man's Eminem is the best they can show:

eddy-merckx-roger-de-vlaeminck_1301745Photogallery.jpg
 
Jun 17, 2024
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Where do we rank this performance from him based on his long list of crazy performances now. If we exclude his GT ones like PDB, Isola, Hautacam of the worlds and only Classics wice.

Where does this rank vs his WC 24, 25, Fleche performance and so on. Just cause he blitzed Cipressa last year too doesnt take anything away how rare, special and hard it is. Its hard to gauge imo it was wild but the list is getting long

 
Jul 7, 2013
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Where do we rank this performance from him based on his long list of crazy performances now. If we exclude his GT ones like PDF, Isola, Hautacam of the worlds.

Classics wice where does this rank vs his WC 24, 25, Fleche performance and so on. Just cause he blitzed Cipressa last year too doesnt take anything away how rare, special and hard it is. Its hard to gauge imo for me the list is getting long


Lombardy 2024 was ridiculous, to me maybe his best ever classic performance (alongside those WCs). I wouldn't forget Flandres 2023: by far his best classics performance before 2024 (and the first sign of the alien of 2024 onwards). It's really hard to compare this one as it's a completely different race from those: circumstances matter a lot, margins are close i.e. maybe if last year there had been pre-Cipressa turbulences (like this year) then maybe Pogacar would've won solo?
 
Jun 17, 2024
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Lombardy 2024 was ridiculous, to me maybe his best ever classic performance (alongside those WCs). I wouldn't forget Flandres 2023: by far his best classics performance before 2024 (and the first sign of the alien of 2024 onwards). It's really hard to compare this one as it's a completely different race from those: circumstances matter a lot, margins are close i.e. maybe if last year there had been pre-Cipressa turbulences (like this year) then maybe Pogacar would've won solo?
Word. just as I typed it i thought about Lombardia too and also his Strade one...Theres so many. Fleche 25 was absolute ludicrous too but maybe more a wtf moment and glimps of how different league hes in.

Yeah it differentiate a lot with the circumstances and honestly its hard to gauge properly the extent in many of em. Just speculating here personally I think he would.

Not faulting ur lombardia preference. To me maybe it was his WC 24 first but then his WC 25 was more impressive even in which fashion than 24 so. RVV too yeah especially when you contextualize it with the guy he stomps..
 

canina82

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Feb 20, 2026
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Where do we rank this performance from him based on his long list of crazy performances now. If we exclude his GT ones like PDB, Isola, Hautacam of the worlds and only Classics wice.

Where does this rank vs his WC 24, 25, Fleche performance and so on. Just cause he blitzed Cipressa last year too doesnt take anything away how rare, special and hard it is. Its hard to gauge imo it was wild but the list is getting long

Just for curiosity, should we rank just based on his performance or we should look also to the "surprise factor"?
E.g. I think his best performance ever was in 2025 WC but looking also to the "surprise factor", 2024 SB or 2024 PdB. I wasn't expecting these performances.
But after what I saw in Zurich, Kigali wasn't a surprise to me and his performance was brutal, probably the best ever in a WCRR.
 
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Personally I might rank it first even above all his GT-performances and Lombardia. The watts he pushed were insane and the technical aspect (descending + sprint) was also top notch.

The gaps were small and he did not drop Pidcock, but it is often difficult to get your head around how important drafting is at these speeds. The performance differential between him and Pidcock was at least the same as to Evenepoel in Lombardia.
 
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canina82

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Word. just as I typed it i thought about Lombardia too and also his Strade one...Theres so many. Fleche 25 was absolute ludicrous too but maybe more a wtf moment and glimps of how different league hes in.

Yeah it differentiate a lot with the circumstances and honestly its hard to gauge properly the extent in many of em. Just speculating here personally I think he would.

Not faulting ur lombardia preference. To me maybe it was his WC 24 first but then his WC 25 was more impressive even in which fashion than 24 so. RVV too yeah especially when you contextualize it with the guy he stomps..
Combloux after his awful TT was pretty insane too. Most of us were shocked by how easy he dropped (and distanced) Vingegaard.
 
Jun 17, 2024
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Combloux after his awful TT was pretty insane too. Most of us were shocked by how easy he dropped (and distanced) Vingegaard.
I wasnt even 1% suprised by that from what we saw prior that year from him and you know I wasnt amigo.;)

Just for curiosity, should we rank just based on his performance or we should look also to the "surprise factor"?

But after what I saw in Zurich, Kigali wasn't a surprise to me and his performance was brutal, probably the best ever in a WCRR.
Just your own preference personally i meant by performance.

Why whoever from Seixas, Del Toro or anyone who eventually when he retires takes the crown. We wont see anyone remotely close to win in the fashion weve come acustomed to with him imo, its a completely different league.
 
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Jun 17, 2024
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but it is often difficult to get your head around how important drafting is at these speeds. The performance differential between him and Pidcock was at least the same as to Evenepoel in Lombardia.
Absolutely. The drag differential on Cipressa is ridiculous how much they benefit vs him there its laughable.
 
Jul 7, 2013
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Personally I might rank it first even above all his GT-performances and Lombardia. The watts he pushed were insane and the technical aspect (descending + sprint) was also top notch.

The gaps were small and he did not drop Pidcock, but it is often difficult to get your head around how important drafting is at these speeds. The performance differential between him and Pidcock was at least the same as to Evenepoel in Lombardia.

Wasn't this MSR similar to last year MSR performance wise? Only that last year he made more furious attacks (and more start/stop ) to drop MVP. I would think they are similar except MVP not being a factor at the end (which likely changed the outcome).

Edit: I think I get the difference: last year drafting was less important and conditions for attack better due to very favourable wind.
 
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Feb 7, 2026
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Wasn't this MSR similar to last year MSR performance wise? Only that last year he made more furious attacks (and more start/stop ) to drop MVP. I would think they are similar except MVP not being a factor at the end (which likely changed the outcome).

Edit: I think I get the difference: last year drafting was less important and conditions for attack better due to very favourable wind.
This year he was faster on both climbs and the wind on Cipressa was less favorable. On Poggio he got a big assist from the motorbikes, but a 10 second difference on a sub 6 minute climb is still half a world.

I will still make a post about the watts in my climbing thread, but I am not quite finished yet.
 
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