Teams & Riders Tadej Pogačar discussion thread

[canina82]

Not that i think that he couldn't go faster, he most likely could, but the sprint itself doesn't say much. Had plenty of time to "recover" and he is by a mile better sprinter than anyone in that group, not even remotely close.

Maybe. It was still a very dominant sprint.

 

[AmRacer]

Jonas has been beasting multiple WT stage races this year already while Pogacar has been hiding from stage races and only done 4 race days.

Pogi's wins >>> Jonas, but Jonas has a Giro to win.

 

[Extinction]

Different efforts though.
His sprint showed he was fresh, a pity he didn't go all out.

He didn't need to and there is no reason to gratuitously humiliate colleagues. Even he needs to be diplomatic now and then. Pog the magnimanious sovreign.

 

[Berniece]

Underwhelming performance. I will wait for the end of Romandie but if he shows another performance like this, Seixas will be my number one favorite for the Tour.

This is concerning for the tour

You guys are insane. He gained weight for Roubaix and MSR, and is still tired from LBL. Nothing is wrong. Would be nice to have an exciting TDF though, but the challenge will come from Vingegaard rather than Seixas

 

[hayneplane]

A little surprising not to see him simply waltz away but then once they hadn’t simply crumbled behind it was sensible riding to just ride a strong controlled pace and have a small group to ride on the flat to stay clear.

Sprint was highly impressive as I at least expected Lenny Martinez to be somewhat competitive yet it was around 5 bike lengths gap.

 

[mikks]

Some Pogi fans are truly bizarre. He just had one of the best—if not the best—spring campaigns in history. And now, after a single stage at Romandie where he admittedly underperformed slightly but still solid (he did win a stage, after all), it’s suddenly all doom and gloom. You are completely overreacting.

 

[BahamontesPhantom]

To be honest I’d quite like to see Vingo beat him at the tour, we can see then his mental abilities and whether he goes full tour next year to get number 5 or does he still try to juggle classics and tour ?

 

[Gratemans]

Some Pogi fans are truly bizarre. He just had one of the best—if not the best—spring campaigns in history. And now, after a single stage at Romandie where he admittedly underperformed slightly but still solid (he did win a stage, after all), it’s suddenly all doom and gloom. You are completely overreacting.

Might be a bit harsh, but I can't call them anything but inexperienced gloryhunters. They're used (and like to) see someone utterly dominating everywhere, all the time. I can't for the life of me understand why they're so obsessed with seeing that, but they apparently are.
And once he doesn't win by a huge margin, they are immediately panicking.

I'm not a particular fan at all, but to me it seems he just peaked towards the spring classics, and decided to get one more race in where there's more long climbs just to kinda get a feel for it again. Also, Gianetti promised the TdR organiser that Pog would ride it one day and why not now?
He has had very little actual racing hours up until now, so throw in a small multi-stage race, put in a block of rest after and start to work towards towards the Tour.
He certainly didn't give it his all today but he'll probably do so in one of the later stages. Or not. And if so, what's the problem? He doesn't win something he partakes in. It might get people here all riled up, but I doubt he cares one way or another.

 

[Lorzenz08]

Wait, did people really expect to see Pogi pulling ~7watts/kg for >20min when Roubaix was 2.5 weeks ago ? hahahaaa

Come on guys I know some casual are fans of Pogi but at least make some efforts..

If that was the case Pogi would never even make the effort to go to altitude training in Spain, at this point just enjoy your time in Monaco with your girlfriend, come out for the tour, and peace out 😉

 

[Shortcut]

Wait, did people really expect to see Pogi pulling ~7watts/kg for >20min after being in Roubaix shape barely 2.5 weeks ago ? hahahaaa

Come on guys I know some casual are fans of Pogi but at least make some efforts..

If that was the case Pogi would never even make the effort to go to altitude training in Spain, at this point just enjoy your time in Monaco with your girlfriend, come out for the tour, and peace out 😉

I think we are just having some new haters that are trying to act as really "concerned" fans. Like you said he is really not in right shape to do this type of races but only against Jonas and Seixas. But i still think they wouldn't drop him even today. I really wanted to see him racing at 80% and just play it smart. Just win a race and that is it. If he gets another stage and overall i would call it great. I think he is trying out, what would happen i he goes just easy when competition is not great.,Today it was so obvious he is just playing with them, he tried his best to not drop Lipo. I still think, if he finishes TdF without injury or sickness, he will do Vuelta. He really can just do training there like he did it today. If there is no Jonas or Seixas (it seems so) and after that also no Lipowitz, Pelizzari, Remco it is just to easy.

 

[jmdirt]

Whoogh, he wasn't washed after all.

 

[jmdirt]

Some Pogi fans are truly bizarre. He just had one of the best—if not the best—spring campaigns in history. And now, after a single stage at Romandie where he admittedly underperformed slightly but still solid (he did win a stage, after all), it’s suddenly all doom and gloom. You are completely overreacting.

Uh, those aren't TP fans.

 

[canina82]

Some Pogi fans are truly bizarre. He just had one of the best—if not the best—spring campaigns in history. And now, after a single stage at Romandie where he admittedly underperformed slightly but still solid (he did win a stage, after all), it’s suddenly all doom and gloom. You are completely overreacting.

Expectations. I was expecting one thing and he gave us other thing.
I'm not worried because I believe this performance won't be repeated later in the race.

 

[yaf2]

You guys are insane. He gained weight for Roubaix and MSR, and is still tired from LBL. Nothing is wrong. Would be nice to have an exciting TDF though, but the challenge will come from Vingegaard rather than Seixas

Dude relax, it was a knee jerk reaction since we haven’t seen that level since 2023. Pog hasn’t treated us with a 6.3-6.4 w/kg for 27 minutes for the last 3 years & it should be understandable if a fan gets concerned right after. My initial thought was, have we underestimated the impact of weight for this long climb efforts & was concerned if it could make an impact on his prep for the tour since the gain in winter was on muscle & could affect performance when trying to get rid of it.

All in all he will be fine for the tour & is probably gonna win his fifth one but on the other end when u hear a certain phenom from France is improving 20 watts per month you start thinking this next two months of prep better be the perfect two months of prep for pog.

 

[Berniece]

Dude relax, it was a knee jerk reaction since we haven’t seen that level since 2023. Pog hasn’t treated us with a 6.3-6.4 w/kg for 27 minutes for the last 3 years & it should be understandable if a fan gets concerned right after. My initial thought was, have we underestimated the impact of weight for this long climb efforts & was concerned if it could make an impact on his prep for the tour since the gain in winter was on muscle & could affect performance when trying to get rid of it.

All in all he will be fine for the tour & is probably gonna win his fifth one but on the other end when u hear a certain phenom from France is improving 20 watts per month you start thinking this next two months of prep better be the perfect two months of prep for pog.

I think it's not even his weight, just tired from LBL

 

[yaf2]

I think it's not even his weight, just tired from LBL

No chance! Pog & ving are the best in the world when it comes to recovering due to their excelling lactate clearance capacity. They could do 5 back to back lieges & still perform on hautacam or ventoux. It was the de training on long climbs that affected the performance imo.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

No chance! Pog & ving are the best in the world when it comes to recovering due to their excelling lactate clearance capacity. They could do 5 back to back lieges & still perform on hautacam or ventoux. It was the de training on long climbs that affected the performance imo.

None of Pog's main rivals did Liege: it's different compared to the situation when everyone has similar effort (then recovery abilities decide). Recovering from a hard race like Liege is not about lactate clearance (this is the case shortly after an intense Z5/Z6 climb), it always takes some time.

Anyway, to me it's just one off. He showed in the spring to have very high peak aerobic w/kg so it's just a matter of time before he shows big sustained w/kg on longer climbs. Maybe he will show some watt bomb later this week. If not, there's still a lot of time until the Tour so no big deal for now.

 

[assisting]

To be honest I’d quite like to see Vingo beat him at the tour, we can see then his mental abilities

I think we've already seen that. '22 he made errors and lost to Vingegaard - who consistently performs at a very high level at the TdFd. But Pogačar did get stronger and took on the monster task to win 2 GTs in the same year. If that does not show mental strength I don't know what does.

and whether he goes full tour next year to get number 5 or does he still try to juggle classics and tour ?

To me, it looks like the Classics record matters more to him than another Tour win. It’s the biggest race, with the most stress over a prolonged period of time, and he has to meet the expectations of his team, sponsors, and the public. He’s also chasing historic records there, but I doubt he enjoys the experience. These three weeks are extremely hard and demanding—mentally and physically—and that takes a toll. It will be interesting to see how Seixas deals with the pressure in the future.

The dedication Pogačar showed with his meticulous preparation for this year’s spring campaign, to adapt his body for these types of races to win something he hadn’t already, proves to me that this is where his personal priority lies. His team seemingly did not want him to race P-R initially, but he did it anyway. I doubt he would focus on the Tour if he does lose it again. It will be interesting to see at what level Vingegaard will be after the Giro. I don't see it as a given, that Pogačar wins again, but he should be the main favorite if he stays healthy.

 

[Berniece]

No chance! Pog & ving are the best in the world when it comes to recovering due to their excelling lactate clearance capacity. They could do 5 back to back lieges & still perform on hautacam or ventoux. It was the de training on long climbs that affected the performance imo.

So Pogacar had issues recovering from Roubaix last year in AGR, but 2 days after a hard LBL he has no issues?

 

[yaf2]

None of Pog's main rivals did Liege: it's different compared to the situation when everyone has similar effort (then recovery abilities decide). Recovering from a hard race like Liege is not about lactate clearance (this is the case shortly after an intense Z5/Z6 climb), it always takes some time.

Anyway, to me it's just one off. He showed in the spring to have very high peak aerobic w/kg so it's just a matter of time before he shows big sustained w/kg on longer climbs. Maybe he will show some watt bomb later this week. If not, there's still a lot of time until the Tour so no big deal for now.

It’s irrelevant if his rivals did liege or not it’s the watt / performance u should look at. We’ve seen last year after an almost classic 10 days of brutal racing he was pushing exceptional watts on hautacam & peyregudes. As I said before, if you don’t do a training on long climbs for almost a year it’s logical that you are climbing with lipowitz & Martinez. This guys are 3 minutes in arrears to pog in every mtf come july.

 

[BahamontesPhantom]

I think we've already seen that. '22 he made errors and lost to Vingegaard - who consistently performs at a very high level at the TdFd. But Pogačar did get stronger and took on the monster task to win 2 GTs in the same year. If that does not show mental strength I don't know what does.


To me, it looks like the Classics record matters more to him than another Tour win. It’s the biggest race, with the most stress over a prolonged period of time, and he has to meet the expectations of his team, sponsors, and the public. He’s also chasing historic records there, but I doubt he enjoys the experience. These three weeks are extremely hard and demanding—mentally and physically—and that takes a toll. It will be interesting to see how Seixas deals with the pressure in the future.

The dedication Pogačar showed with his meticulous preparation for this year’s spring campaign, to adapt his body for these types of races to win something he hadn’t already, proves to me that this is where his personal priority lies. His team seemingly did not want him to race P-R initially, but he did it anyway. I doubt he would focus on the Tour if he does lose it again. It will be interesting to see at what level Vingegaard will be after the Giro. I don't see it as a given, that Pogačar wins again, but he should be the main favorite if he stays healthy.

Yeah I suppose we already did.
I wondered what he would do if he didn’t win the tour this year to make it 5.

 

[yaf2]

So Pogacar had issues recovering from Roubaix last year in AGR, but 2 days after a hard LBL he has no issues?

What are u talking about? Even vdp recovered from an illness & an Rvv to perform at his best a week later in roubaix. Again a complete shift from different type of racing + attacked from far out on a head wind that day(AGR). A guy with recovery issues can’t do the greatest performance in cycling history 15 days into a grand tour(plateau de beille).

 

[Daywalker600]

Ermahgerd! Pogi didn't put 10 minutes into others and made a solo run for 120km, his career is over!!!! C'mon guys! Don't act like a couch football commentators!

 

[Berniece]

What are u talking about? Even vdp recovered from an illness & an Rvv to perform at his best a week later in roubaix. Again a complete shift from different type of racing + attacked from far out on a head wind that day(AGR). A guy with recovery issues can’t do the greatest performance in cycling history 15 days into a grand tour(plateau de beille).

I disagree. His weight isn't the issue here. He was just tired after LBL.

 

[canina82]

It’s irrelevant if his rivals did liege or not it’s the watt / performance u should look at. We’ve seen last year after an almost classic 10 days of brutal racing he was pushing exceptional watts on hautacam & peyregudes. As I said before, if you don’t do a training on long climbs for almost a year it’s logical that you are climbing with lipowitz & Martinez. This guys are 3 minutes in arrears to pog in every mtf come july.

I think he is better than what he showed yesterday. But there is no doubt a peak Pogacar would go 2' faster.