Tadej Pogacar and Mauro Giannetti

[Abedfo]

Velo e-newsletter: "How Pogacar Transformed His Body for the Cobbles"

It really does feel like we're living in the past. They ran an article on his carb loading magic last week. Hard to believe that at this point in the evolution of the sport it's just lifting a few more weights and eating some more carbs...

Is that a typo ? should it not read e-velo newsletter

 

[ashhutch1997]

Velo e-newsletter: "How Pogacar Transformed His Body for the Cobbles"

It really does feel like we're living in the past. They ran an article on his carb loading magic last week. Hard to believe that at this point in the evolution of the sport it's just lifting a few more weights and eating some more carbs...

Carbs, wide tires and tubeless tires!

 

[MountainGoatW]

Velo e-newsletter: "How Pogacar Transformed His Body for the Cobbles"

It really does feel like we're living in the past. They ran an article on his carb loading magic last week. Hard to believe that at this point in the evolution of the sport it's just lifting a few more weights and eating some more carbs...

That's very true, but you can see even here in the clinic that it works and the explanation is accepted like the most normal thing. People say his power/endurance and all year top form, crushing opponents at will on all terrain is completely normal and his clean or at maximum uses some grey area stuff. It's a WWE-circus these days.

 

[Abedfo]

Carbs, wide tires and tubeless tires!

How can you forget the aero socks and the all new aero BB's!!!!!

 

[ashhutch1997]

How can you forget the aero socks and the all new aero BB's!!!!!

That's another 100 watts!

 

[Samu Cuenca]

How can you forget the aero socks and the all new aero BB's!!!!!

I didn't know blood bags could come with an aerodynamic advantage, but nothing can surprise me anymore.

 

[AlpRaid]

Velo e-newsletter: "How Pogacar Transformed His Body for the Cobbles"

maybe he had chemo. that's worked in the past.

 

[onefortheroad]

It’s not all ‘eye test stuff’ though, is it? It’s ’what he actually does’ stuff. It’s 2026 and by now Pogacar wins every race he takes part in. That is objectively unprecedented. That’s evidence item number one. Then, related of course, there’s his consistency and immunity to fatigue. Number three is his ability, in this age of super specific cycling, to ride all race types and be not merely competitive but to destroy all his competitors. Which brings me to number four. An ability to win at will, and in any fashion, with relative ease, in whatever manner he chooses. Seated accelerations that leave everyone else behind as if they were standing still. And I ask again. Why does he not suffer from oxygen debt following brutal accelerations at high altitude? Why can he just keep going at those faster speeds without having to knock off the effort? That doesn’t need numbers, or calculations, it needs an explanation.

Totally agree.
For decades, cycling was a game of trade offs. But Pogačar is dismantling the specialists at their own game, all year round. He has the punch of a sprinter, the engine of a TT specialist, the lungs of a pure climber, rolling harder on the flats than the classicists who weigh more. Simultaneously...

Yet here we are. He doesn't just win. He chooses where to win, how to win, when to win, and by how much to win. Isn't just dominance, it's a middle finger to the rest of the World Tour. He has engineered away the "bad days".

In 2026, I expect a 100% strike rate. Any "crumb" he leaves behind (a minor stage or a secondary race) would be purely strategic.

 

[meat puppet]

Let's say a runner sweeps every WC, diamond league or equivalent level event from the track 3000m steeples (or 5k if the steeples is somehow deemed too much) through 10ks, halfs, marathons, to 100k trail ultras within a season. Smashing or equalling established performance records as they go along.

All of them are aerobic events, but with some specific requirements as far as musculature and the power/duration relationship goes. So quite possible on paper but rather rare in reality.

It's admittedly not even an eye test, but would you raise a brow?

 

[Divergence]

It’s not all ‘eye test stuff’ though, is it? It’s ’what he actually does’ stuff. It’s 2026 and by now Pogacar wins every race he takes part in. That is objectively unprecedented. That’s evidence item number one. Then, related of course, there’s his consistency and immunity to fatigue. Number three is his ability, in this age of super specific cycling, to ride all race types and be not merely competitive but to destroy all his competitors. Which brings me to number four. An ability to win at will, and in any fashion, with relative ease, in whatever manner he chooses. Seated accelerations that leave everyone else behind as if they were standing still. And I ask again. Why does he not suffer from oxygen debt following brutal accelerations at high altitude? Why can he just keep going at those faster speeds without having to knock off the effort? That doesn’t need numbers, or calculations, it needs an explanation.

What he actually does is indeed spectacular. But so is what, e.g., Newton did. Being by far the best is not and indicator he is cheating.
He does get fatigues, just less than the other because he knows how to train and mentally he is a monster. Just look at the Kwaermont times last week (the third time round was slower than the second for example).
Specialists and super specific cycling has always been spoken about because people found it hard to be consistently good and well prepared throughout the season.
I think there really is a new way the sport is done since the end of the Sky era and the introduction of Jumbo and Pog at the top of the cycling hierarchy. Just to illustrate my point, the Merckx era was full of amateurs and Eddy himself was just a bit more professional and better than the rest and his results were there. Then in the famous 90s people were juiced up to the gills but the way people trained was really bad. People would often fluctuate in form and weight and it was believed that you could peak for one or two months per season. Then with the SKY ere things started to get more professional but still the training was not good as evidenced by G's comments that they would often ride completely empty of nutrition (I guess trying to stimulate fat burning (such nonsense)).
All in all, Pog is an absolute killer on the bike, a pretty good physical specimen but where his true advantage lies is his mentality.

Genetic doping is included on WADA’s list of prohibited methods. In the run-up to the Olympic Games, France has had to pass a law authorising genetic testing as part of anti-doping controls, which naturally raises numerous bioethical questions. This has mobilised the National Assembly, the Senate and the Constitutional Council, which have other things to do with their time (I hope).
Why bother if this method is pure science fiction?

There was a post just below yours which addresses these questions well. I will just add that imho the "traditional" gene doping by using vectors to temporarily introduce new DNA in the cells (let us call it type A gene doping) (this is what the COVID19 vaccine is) has possibly been tried in sports (although I do not believe in high level sports) but as the poster I am referring to explained, we do not know the efficacy of this procedure. In any case, even if type A gene doping is used in the pro peloton why would Pog be the only one? In the 90s EPO and the other things were widely known, even for layman and it was also known that whole teams were using the stuff.
The CRISPR gene doping (let us call it type B gene doping) is a really new method, only done in a few clinical cases and I am quite sure it is not present in sports.

Nothing out of the ordinary...just plain old power numbers that are routinely seen in the pro peloton?

He has excellent numbers not ordinary.

Totally agree.
For decades, cycling was a game of trade offs. But Pogačar is dismantling the specialists at their own game, all year round. He has the punch of a sprinter, the engine of a TT specialist, the lungs of a pure climber, rolling harder on the flats than the classicists who weigh more. Simultaneously...

Yet here we are. He doesn't just win. He chooses where to win, how to win, when to win, and by how much to win. Isn't just dominance, it's a middle finger to the rest of the World Tour. He has engineered away the "bad days".

In 2026, I expect a 100% strike rate. Any "crumb" he leaves behind (a minor stage or a secondary race) would be purely strategic.

Climber and hill specialists are more or lees the same riders and have always been (with some exceptions). These are what we can call the good road cyclists.
TT specialists still exist, but we are seeing evermore that there is a trade off between being big and having a lot of pure power vs aerodynamics (just look at Remco).
Sprinters are still a category of their own and they should be nowhere near a road race imho. They have the track. Btw Pog is not a sprinter.

 

[Abedfo]

Im actually scared for tomorrow. I'll do what I did last Sunday and let my partner see if he has won before I commit myself to watching a race rerun

 

[pastronef]

Im actually scared for tomorrow. I'll do what I did last Sunday and let my partner see if he has won before I commit myself to watching a race rerun

watch. if there's a race worth watching, whatever happens, is Roubaix

 

[pastronef]

in any case if it's Pog vs VDP I'll cheer Pog

 

[onefortheroad]

What he actually does is indeed spectacular. But so is what, e.g., Newton did. Being by far the best is not and indicator he is cheating.
He does get fatigues, just less than the other because he knows how to train and mentally he is a monster. Just look at the Kwaermont times last week (the third time round was slower than the second for example).
Specialists and super specific cycling has always been spoken about because people found it hard to be consistently good and well prepared throughout the season.
I think there really is a new way the sport is done since the end of the Sky era and the introduction of Jumbo and Pog at the top of the cycling hierarchy. Just to illustrate my point, the Merckx era was full of amateurs and Eddy himself was just a bit more professional and better than the rest and his results were there. Then in the famous 90s people were juiced up to the gills but the way people trained was really bad. People would often fluctuate in form and weight and it was believed that you could peak for one or two months per season. Then with the SKY ere things started to get more professional but still the training was not good as evidenced by G's comments that they would often ride completely empty of nutrition (I guess trying to stimulate fat burning (such nonsense)).
All in all, Pog is an absolute killer on the bike, a pretty good physical specimen but where his true advantage lies is his mentality.

There was a post just below yours which addresses these questions well. I will just add that imho the "traditional" gene doping by using vectors to temporarily introduce new DNA in the cells (let us call it type A gene doping) (this is what the COVID19 vaccine is) has possibly been tried in sports (although I do not believe in high level sports) but as the poster I am referring to explained, we do not know the efficacy of this procedure. In any case, even if type A gene doping is used in the pro peloton why would Pog be the only one? In the 90s EPO and the other things were widely known, even for layman and it was also known that whole teams were using the stuff.
The CRISPR gene doping (let us call it type B gene doping) is a really new method, only done in a few clinical cases and I am quite sure it is not present in sports.

He has excellent numbers not ordinary.

Climber and hill specialists are more or lees the same riders and have always been (with some exceptions). These are what we can call the good road cyclists.
TT specialists still exist, but we are seeing evermore that there is a trade off between being big and having a lot of pure power vs aerodynamics (just look at Remco).
Sprinters are still a category of their own and they should be nowhere near a road race imho. They have the track. Btw Pog is not a sprinter.

We are told Pogacar’s dominance is the product of superior training, perfect nutrition, optimal recovery… and of course a ferocious mentality. As if mentality were some magic override button for human physiology.

Somehow one rider now erases all limits from February to October against a peloton who follow the same science.
At this point the gap is so absurd it borders on parody. Either biology has been rewritten overnight or we are witnessing a performance profile that sits outside the boundaries the rest of the peloton is still governed by.

 

[E_F_]

watch. if there's a race worth watching, whatever happens, is Roubaix

It hasn't been worth watching the last few editions... In my opinion.

 

[SorelyBoy]

Defenders of Pogacar cannot be reasoned with. Their argument goes as follows:
1. He's not doping, he's the next step in human evolution. Practically an X-Man.
2. He's a really nice guy with nice hair and a nice smile and everyone loves him. What's not to like?
3. The rest of the peloton are a bunch of talentless hacks who drink coffee and eat croissants all morning rather than train.
4. Even if they do train, they're not doing it right because they're a bunch of talentless hacks.
5. Pogi trains better than everyone else ever ever in the history of the world. He does sit ups and stuff.
6. He eats better than anyone else too. Like vegetables and citrus fruit.
7. Porridge. With yummy fruit and honey.
8. He's not doing anything that special anyway.
9. It might not be reflected in the results but he definitely gets tired. At least once a year.
10. Like you have to admit, he looked tired on that final climb even though he left MVDP (doing 650w at the time) for dead.
11. Give us calculations. Show us the numbers. That UAE never reveal. Oh well, sucks to be you.
12. Ok, even if he is doping, everyone else does it so why should he handicap himself?
13. He's doping, sure, but let's just enjoy someone who dopes better and responds better than everyone else. What a time to be alive!
14. Those seated accelerations and 50KM solo attacks are totally normal looking, the other riders are just talentless hacks.
15. Who's Mauro Gianetti? Never heard of him.