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Yep, the signs were there that he had the potential to put significant time into Roglic in the TT. Roglic's history of fading in final week TTs, combined with Pogacar's own excellent and still improving TT results.
Nonsense. If Pogacar would have taken yellow, or even got within a handful of seconds, too soon, then he would have been left incredibly vulnerable given his weak team. The plan to take the yellow jersey as late as possible does actually make sense for UAE (unlike for Jumbo). Especially if they had the numbers all along to think that putting a minute or more into Roglic was a possibility.
Like Froome defended his 2017 Tour lead, or Contador defended 2010 Tour lead and 2008 Giro lead?
No-one is retroactively saying anything; people have been criticizing Jumbo's tactics throughout the race. And it's not even as though Roglic had to do something crazy himself. He had a much, much stronger team, and Jumbo did nothing with it apart from try to strangle the race and try to gain a handful of seconds late on. Their use of Dumoulin in particular was stunningly poor and one dimensional.
Retroactively? I've been saying this the whole Tour. So other riders took the same risk and it didn't blow up in their faces, so what? That doesn't mean it was safe. You can drunk drive and get back home safely.
Contador was getting dropped by Ricco almost every time the road went uphill in 2008 Giro, so the two situations are not really comparable.
Thinking the yellow jersey changes everything is just magical bs thinking. If Pogacar takes yellow by 10 seconds Jumbo isn't suddenly gonna take back 8 minutes with Dumoulin or pull massive attacks, they'll just get the better ITTer to the ITT and they'll still fancy their chances that it's good enough.
Pogacar also put way more time into Roglic uphill than vice versa
He could've came closer to Roglic then, if he didn't wanted the jersey, just to be even more sure, don't you think? Or were their tactics to make sure Jumbo and Rogla thinks they had this in the bag, like Rogla would ride faster if he knew Pogacar is that strong, right? And how exactly they could know how much time Pogacar can take, which numbers can tell you that?!
Sure, they couldn't be certain of anything; but if they knew that Pog was putting in great numbers on his TT bike this year it makes sense. They also know that Roglic has a history of underperforming in last week TTs.
As I said Roglic could have lmited his losses to less than 40 seconds even if he was not strong enough to follow Pogacar on Peyresourde ( and he was very strong, so maybe he could have ), and he could have tried to extend his advantage on Glieres. And maybe he could have gained more on Loze if they were aggressive. Also Jumbo did nothing on Lusette ( which probably did not cost them anything as Roglic very probably could not have gained anything on Pogacar though, but still ). Pogacar was very strong but with a better tactical riding from Jumbo/Roglic I think Roglic could have won the race.
First: Pogacar could've took time in the mountains if he was stronger no matter Jumbo strength, but he wasn't.
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