The change of coach came at the right time (end of 2023) to justify Pogi's abnormal development.
This provided a suitable narrative to justify this abnormal increase in performance.
I'm not denying that a change of coach can improve performance. Of course it can. But it's highly unlikely that his performance improved by around 10% at this level.
Are they seriously trying to take us for fools by telling us that Pogacar did not do any heat training before Sola and no proper altitude training? That is the most ridiculous fairy tale I have heard in recent years. Almost every amateur knows about the benefits of heat training and altitude training, and San Millan apparently knew nothing about it?
Then why is he still active and working with UAE riders if he's such an amateur? That's completely contradictory.
The change of coach came at just the right time to silence critical voices. At the same time (end of 2023), Twitter user Mou also began to explain Pogis' performance with the change of coach. Strange coincidence, isn't it?
The UAE machine runs like clockwork, even on the internet. Whether it's deleting negative comments about Pogacar or journalists etc. who invented the GOAT nonsense. or reacting to negative comments.
I don't even think it's a coincidence that seated attacks became less frequent as more and more critical comments pointing this out appeared. The critical voices grew louder, and shortly afterwards he began to get out of the saddle more and more. UAE is doing damage control and critical voices are helping them sometimes.
It's wrong to say that Pogacar has always been so consistently strong. Have you already forgotten ‘I'm done, I'm dead’? Have you already forgotten how red he turned? Before 2024, Pogacar was still a ‘normal’ athlete who showed signs of fatigue. Nothing like that can be seen anymore. Now we have to look at a Pogacar who is always in peak form, who doesn't even sweat when he crosses the finish line first and who can do whatever he wants. Even on flat courses where he should actually be at a disadvantage against the big FTP machines like MVDP.