That makes it more suspicious though. You should experience way more fatigue from a grand tour, than 3 minutes of running or pole vaulting, and yet all season, he's as fresh a a pole vaulter.
It's not just the event that takes a physical toll though. Their training regimes are basically fine-tuned to get the athlete to an extreme physical peak that's totally unsustainable over time and requires a long period of recovery before peaking again. What makes Pogacar more suspicious is that cycling is a much more diverse sport than middle distance running or pole vaulting. Realistically, everyone in track and field has one or maybe two events they're targeting specifically throughout the year - either the worlds, the Olympics or some national or continental championship, so they're all both on and off peak at pretty much the same time.
In cycling, however, there are various extremely prestiguous events peppered pretty much from the end of February until the middle of October, and everyone's season looks completely different as they each target different races at different times. Yet Pogacar's last two seasons have looked like this:
2024
Early March to late May:
- Dominates two spring classics - Strade Bianche in early Match and La Doyenne in late April. Also throws in a podium finish at Primavera and a complete sweep of Catalunya in the middle of everything while he's at it.
- Takes a two week break from racing and then dominates the Giro for three straight weeks, picking up six stage wins, the GC and the KOM jersey.
July:
- Comes to the Tour and again dominates with another six stage wins and a resounding GC win.
Mid-September to mid-October:
- Wins Montreal, then races the Worlds two weeks later and just rides off on his own for 100km, winning easily, before winning Lombardia by three minutes another two weeks later.
Summary: A consistent peak of three months at the start of the season, then a one month break following another one month peak, and then a two month break before another one month peak. Absolutely insane, and unseen in cycling before.
2025
Early March to late May:
- Repeats his wins and Primavera podium from last year, but instead of racing Catalunya he decided to spice it up by racing races he absolutely does not have the build for and ends up winning Ronde van Vlaanderen and finishing second in Paris-Roubaix. Gets second at Amstel and wins at Fleche Wallonne too, because why not?
July:
- Looks like he could win it on one leg based on his performance so far. Dominated Dauphine in the warmup too.
August:
- Probably going to clean up at la Vuelta, if rumours of his schedule are anything to go by.
September/October:
- More rainbow jerseys and monuments to win, so you know he'll be dominating there too, the greedy little bastard.
If it does indeed play out like that from here, it'll yet again be three massive peaks that cover most of the season, allowing him to consistently be head and shoulders above everyone else, regardless of what type of race it is.
Alternatively he's not even peaking, he's just so good he can show up undercooked to races and still consistently crush the best, most ultra-prepared riders in the world in a manner that's never really been seen before, with the added benefit of not needing to go through the cooldown period that comes after pushing himself super hard in training.
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