Teams & Riders Tadej Pogačar discussion thread

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In many cases, I think Pogačar gets lucky because his opponents adopt the worst possible strategies. Take the last Tour of Flanders: if MVDP had stopped collaborating once Remco was dropped and instead waited for him since he was only seconds behind the two of them could have tag-teamed Pogačar. A 2-on-1 chase would have forced Pogačar to tire himself out before the finish.

Pogačar is incredibly strong, but he isn't unbeatable. In many one-day races, he could have been toppled with smarter tactics. Don't get me wrong: he is the strongest rider, no doubt. But he’s only able to pull off these 50–80km solo wins because his opponents are often tactically incompetent.

To be clear, I’m talking strictly about one-day races. In Grand Tours, there’s realistically no strategy that can stop him given the form he’s shown.

I agree with you 100%. He was indeed lucky in few one day races. I would say WC 24 is the most obvious one. Also i think there were maybe two races where he would get caught but would still win in a sprint. On the other side nobody really knows how strong and how much engine does he have AFTER dropping everybody on climbs. There is only one time when he got caught (Amstel) but he still outsprinted Remco and i think P-R really takes everything out of him. Other than that he proved at RVV 25, LBL 25, WC 25, EC 25, GdL 25, SB 26 and RVV 26 that after last important climb he never goes into red and he control chasing group always around 1 minute behind him. We really never saw in last 2 years how stong he is, if somebody actually stays with him over climb. I really think he has another gear even after that. Ayuso and Del Toro tried it last year and were cooked after Mount Kigali.