Tadej Pogacar and Mauro Giannetti

[sir fly]

no, its not, Slovenia is NOT part of the Balkans, shame on Dutch schools if they taught you so

Geographically it partially is.

Culturally - entirely.

 

[SafeBet]

Can you please stop derailing this thread and discuss geo-politics in the appropriate sub-forum?
This is already the hottest thread in the forum and it's hard to keep track of all the messages. It becomes a nightmare with all of the off-topic of the past few hours.

 

[topt]

Geographically it partially is.

where the hell did you draw this map from, Slovenia is NOT part of the Balkans, for God sake

 

[Escarabajo]

Pogacar riding the Colombiere in the big ring is gold!!! Epic

Pogacar makes Froome look like a clean rider. And I am not kidding. Pogacar jumps in history over Froome part of Contador all the way to Armstrong!. His nervous laugh. He doesn't know how to act. It is like "what should I do now?, cry, grab my hair, call my girlfriend, I don't know!!!!"

 

[Luthor]

Can you please stop derailing this thread and discuss geo-politics in the appropriate sub-forum?
This is already the hottest thread in the forum and it's hard to keep track of all the messages. It becomes a nightmare with all of the off-topic of the past few hours.

The only defense Pog fans have right now is to derail discussions or trying hard to say that everyone is doping.

 

[sir fly]

where the hell did you draw this map from, Slovenia is NOT part of the Balkans, for God sake

Yes it is.
South of Sava river all the way to Soča everything belongs to the Balkan peninsula.
And I don't even want to get into culture and politics (might tell some joke instead).

Edit:
Balkan's also known as a piece of Middle East in Europe.
Is there better proof than cycling WT?

 

[Norks74]

Only the ignorant ones…

They only have ignorant people in those countries?

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Poggy's performance reminds me a little of that special ride by Landis a decade or so ago. A revenge.

 

[Escarabajo]

IRL you generally can't make public accusations against someone without evidence, unlike here.

Well maybe they play stupid and tell him that his performance reminds them of the great Riis in Hautacam in the big ring! Epic!

 

[Cookster15]

where the hell did you draw this map from, Slovenia is NOT part of the Balkans, for God sake

Happy for you guys to share your knowledge of geography but do you have any comment on Pogacar’s level? This is the Clinic not National Geographic.

 

[Norks74]

For me Slovenia is South-Eastern Europe.
I don't know why this is important for the clinic, but that's the way it is for me. Same as Albania. Greece is southern Europe.
I don't think there is a clear definition for that.

Okay, I looked it up at German wiki and there seem to be several ideas about that, but you can see the map here, which is a proposition by the "Ständiger Ausschuss für geographische Namen"
(Standing Committee on Geographical Names):

Osteuropa – Wikipedia

de.wikipedia.org

It says Slovenia is Middle Europe but they also say Poland and Hungary are, and in my opinion those are clearly Eastern Europe.

Thinking about it, there is only one country for me that's Western Europe, and that's France.

Where do you draw the line?! Crazy how we are getting our knickers in a twist about this. Let's stay focused on the sheer madness that we saw today rather than where certain countries are supposed to be described geographically.

 

[Norks74]

Happy for you guys to share your knowledge of geography but do you have any comment on Pogacar’s level? This is the Clinic not National Geographic.

Amen

 

[sir fly]

Clarifying whether Slovenia belongs to Balkans is clinical.

 

[Brumdog66]

To be fair, someone has to be the best ever

 

[luckyboy]

How have no mods come in here and cut all these worthless off-topic posts and put them somewhere else?

Do any of you know what this topic is about? Spoiler alert: it's not about European geography...

 

[Norks74]

Clarifying whether Slovenia belongs to Balkans is clinical.

Hopefully not be dissected right now? Man....the arguments me (UK) and the missus (SVK) have had over the years as to what's this and what's that...... I'm still here now rubbing my eyes at what I saw today. Amazing!!

 

[Norks74]

Poggy's performance reminds me a little of that special ride by Landis a decade or so ago. A revenge.

It's 100% in that league. 2006. Gobbling up the rest of the field, flying uphill. Wheeeeee! 'It's so easy, so fuc*ing easy..' LOL!!

 

[lenric]

Pogacar riding the Colombiere in the big ring is gold!!! Epic

Pogacar makes Froome look like a clean rider. And I am not kidding. Pogacar jumps in history over Froome part of Contador all the way to Armstrong!. His nervous laugh. He doesn't know how to act. It is like "what should I do now?, cry, grab my hair, call my girlfriend, I don't know!!!!"

Froome in the 2018's Giro was more radioactive than this.

 

[Mr. 64%]

On Danish TV2's website, Riis is quoted "I don't know what to say, cause it didn't look normal..."

 

[Parker]

I won't judge him until he does the Tour of Poland. One with no mountains, won by a sprinter. That's the true test of a GC rider.

 

[Escarabajo]

To be honest with outliers like Pogacar, I doubt it's just about being within the wiggle room of tests and having a marginal gains type program.

This doesn't look like they're roughly on the same stuff and he's just doing it better.

I keep hearing this stuff that everyone is doing it anyway, on his defense, but we know that wasn't true in the case of Armstrong. Later we found out that there were many other things. Contador would have probably won more Tours had the German lab not ratted him out.

 

[sir fly]

On Danish TV2's website, Riis is quoted "I don't know what to say, cause it didn't look normal..."

Makes sense.
For a Dane it's normal to ride in the big ring, but where the hell a Slovenian learnt to do so?

 

[senna6541]

Strange performance by Pogacar. As and MVDP fanboy, it was good to see him get dropped proper today. Otherwise I'd have to start doubting him too.

 

[Ripper]

Yes. Thanks for providing a snippet of something worthwhile rather then arguments about whether Slovenia was under the iron curtain. Hopefully this speculation can be built upon here .

Hey Cookster, what hrotha said is a pretty good summary. To what you noted in an earlier post, I actually think with the right skillful physician in place, right equipment, etc., you can manage things with the biopassport just fine. Altitude training camps are nice and helpful (for explaining some fluctuation)! Of course, you still need talent. In fact you need a combination of talents, the typical athletic kind, and the kind that make you a good responder.

You just don't know with someone like Gianetti. SD was doing some crazy stuff, not subtle at all. It will be interesting to see what comes up in the next few years.

 

[Cagalitroso]

no, its not, Slovenia is NOT part of the Balkans, shame on Dutch schools if they taught you so

Look kiddo, I understand that you get very angry because people are questioning your local Lance boy(btw that is the reason of this section if you dont like it dont come) and to be fair everybody must be presumed innocent until the contrary is demonstrated, no matter how Pantani-esque the performance may be, but you have to stop with the charade , you are embarrassing yourself.

Go,read Slavo> https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jii/4750978.0006.202/--spectre-of-balkan?rgn=main;view=fulltext

Yes, you dont like to be grouped with those "serbs/croats/macedonians" yuk!!, the same way the Serbs dont like to be grouped with the Moldovans, but guess what? Tough luck, everybody considers a FRY country as culturally Balkan and "eastern-european" . People will group Ljubljana with Zagreb, Belgrade, Kiev or Lublin not with Madrid, Amsterdam,Milan or London. When people in the "west" were dealing with John Mayor, Mitterrand or Felipe Gonzalez you have to somehow directly or indirectly deal with Milosevic and before him with Tito, it doesnt get more "Balkan " than that.

BTW I dont know what is your desire to be grouped with the "west" or with a fictional mittel-Europa (as if you have more in common with the Hungarians, Austrians and Germans than with the Croats and Serbs) , be proud of who you are , instead of wishing to be in the same group with the Italians and the English.