The 3 GT and 7 one-week races.

[hayneplane]

This was my only point. Pogacar has an opportunity window based upon his age. People are now starting to discuss when his career might end and at what age. Nobody can predict when an athlete will decline.

And I disagree that one day races - even P-R - get harder to win when riders are older. It is actually grand tours that get harder to win as your recovery declines.

I don't disagree that winning PR can be a more difficult challenge for a rider of his ilk than winning a grand tour. But in setting the bar too high he might leave himself short elsewhere. Its his career and still the best since Merckyx so I respect that. But I am a numbers man and to me it would seem incomplete if he never won that ugly sister GT knowing what he has achieved already.

Hopefully he proves me wrong and wins P-R and also a Vuelta later. But that is just one reason why I will never be a Tadej Pogacar

If he was simply pragmatically targeting the gaps then the lowest hanging fruit would be to tick off the stage races this year including Vuelta while waiting out a year or two on full focus at PR and MSR when MVDP is either full time on the golf course or sufficiently past his prime to no longer be a big favourite.

It is to his credit that he relishes the battles with fellow greats. Both Pog and MVDP surely rank alongside Merckx and De Vlaeminck in the top 5 one day racers of all time.

 

[Cookster15]

I think you are mixing up 'outsider looking objectively' and many 'causal fans'.

An outsider who follows cycling properly, knows that a PR would be bigger than a Vuelta.
Some casual fans, especially from the USA or sometimes even southern europe, basically are barely aware of the existence of monuments/classics.

Nibali, Contador and Froome won all three grand tours in their careers. Nobody is going to say Pogacar is an inferior rider to those three. But the lack of a Vuelta in Pogacar's palmarès is looking glaring. The lack of a PR victory is not.

The lofty position of monuments is mainly held in western Europe. Non Europeans only acknowledge them through familiarity with European professional racing and the history of the sport. Sure western Europe is the centre of the cycling universe but cycling is also a more global sport these days which is why more money came into the sport. UAE are an example of that.

Absolutely PR is a more important (bigger) race than a Vuelta, no argument. But quantitatively you can't compare a 6 hour PR with a three week Grand Tour. For example, physiologically there is no comparison between Matt Hayman and Tadej Pogacar. Even if the GT is raced conservatively it still drains the body in a way a monument never can. That is why the Giro-Tour double wasn't achieved for 26 years after Pantani in 1998. When Contador won the Vuelta on three separate occasions nobody in this forum discounted the feats.

And this thread is about GTs and week long stage races. IMO the Vuelta has become a glaring omission in Pogacar's palmarès. PR is not because for a rider of his generational talents PR is a bonus cherry.

 

[Rou]

So now I'm reading here that freaking Paris-Roubaix is more important and bigger than the Vuelta. It's not even funny.
People need to get a grip of reality. Grand Tours are in a different stratosphere compared to monuments. Everything else is just fanboyism and coping.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

The lofty position of monuments is mainly held in western Europe.

...he says when discussing Pogacar, a rider not from western Europe, who very obviously cares more about the monuments than the Giro/Vuelta.

 

[Salvarani]

And this thread is about GTs and week long stage races. IMO the Vuelta has become a glaring omission in Pogacar's palmarès. PR is not because for a rider of his generational talents PR is a bonus cherry.

Correct, thats what the thread is about.

Glaring omission is such an overstatement and overdramatic way of putting it though.

PR is huge in terms of potentially winning all the monuments. A feat very few riders has managed.

He is trying to do both of what the thread is about and winning the monuments.
He is trying to do both each season, but cant do it all in one.

Targeting all the monuments... just means he cant do two GTs in the same season and right now the Tour is the biggest priority when it comes to GTs. The Vuelta will just have to wait. Thats his and the teams decision. Be critical all you want but thats the situation. But he is "only" 27. Have some faith. He will get to it and try to win it.

I dont really understand how one cant understand he is trying to balance all he wants to achieve and thats his decision.

Being over ridiculous about this freaking Vuelta is getting out of hand in my opinion. Not targeted at you.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

TBF nobody really cares about the vuelta. Roubaix is probably a bigger race

 

[AmRacer]

TBF nobody really cares about the vuelta. Roubaix is probably a bigger race

Tour de France, Giro and P-R 🙄

 

[Cookster15]

TBF nobody really cares about the vuelta. Roubaix is probably a bigger race

People seemed to care about the Vuelta when Contador was winning it? Of course Roubaix is a bigger race.

 

[Tanakka]

So now I'm reading here that freaking Paris-Roubaix is more important and bigger than the Vuelta. It's not even funny.
People need to get a grip of reality. Grand Tours are in a different stratosphere compared to monuments. Everything else is just fanboyism and coping.

No, you didn't read it: you made it up.
Some might argue such thing, but all people had written here was that for Pog's legacy winning PR would've been more important than winning the Vuelta.

Lets push it one step further.
What do you think would be bigger in Pog's situation:
A) winning PR and MSR and therefore having won all 5 monuments?
B) winning Vuelta + one more Giro?

But... but... Vuelta > PR, and Giro > MSR.
Right?!? Right?

Dude, there's no way you are not able to get it.

 

[Potomac]

If it was me , I would rather win P-R than the Vuelta.

 

[Potomac]

But back to the original question in the first post of this thread.

Pogacar will do it.
None of the other riders listed will do it.

 

[AmRacer]

But back to the original question in the first post of this thread.

Pogacar will do it.
None of the other riders listed will do it.

I think Jonas will mange it next year. He will tick off Giro and two one-weeks this season.

 

[Peter von]

But back to the original question in the first post of this thread.

Pogacar will do it.
None of the other riders listed will do it.

yeah he does seem the type to go for races like Tour de Suisse just for *** and giggles. He'll do Vuelta sooner or later, sounded like he was close to going in 2025 but caught a virus late in the Tour and needed extra time for recovery, one year he will feel fresh enough coming out of the Tour and get it done, possibly due to injury earlier in season or during TdF.

Vingegaard won't do Suisse because of Crit. Daup. is better Tour-prep; so i don't expect him to go for bingo on the week-long sheet. Unless if Visma and ASO enters some sort of conflict and they have their stars do non-ASO races in an attempt to force a sharing of TV-money, but that is in the less likely to happen category.

 

[Tanakka]

yeah he does seem the type to go for races like Tour de Suisse just for *** and giggles. He'll do Vuelta sooner or later, sounded like he was close to going in 2025 but caught a virus late in the Tour and needed extra time for recovery, one year he will feel fresh enough coming out of the Tour and get it done, possibly due to injury earlier in season or during TdF.

Vingegaard won't do Suisse because of Crit. Daup. is better Tour-prep; so i don't expect him to go for bingo on the week-long sheet. Unless if Visma and ASO enters some sort of conflict and they have their stars do non-ASO races in an attempt to force a sharing of TV-money, but that is in the less likely to happen category.

This year appears to be a good year to do TdS:

it's only 5 stages (it used to be 8*) and the TdF this year is back-loaded: will big stuff even happen before stage 14 / the 18th of July?

Tour de France 2026

www.procyclingstats.com

*in 2025,
around 2004-2019 it was 9 stages,
back around 2002 it was 10 stages

 

[AmRacer]

This year appears to be a good year to do TdS:

it's only 5 stages (it used to be 8*) and the TdF this year is back-loaded: will big stuff even happen before stage 14 / the 18th of July?

Tour de France 2026

www.procyclingstats.com

*in 2025,
around 2004-2019 it was 9 stages,
back around 2002 it was 10 stages

One reason Pogi rides it this year.

 

[vappaxbipmv]

This year appears to be a good year to do TdS:

it's only 5 stages (it used to be 8*) and the TdF this year is back-loaded: will big stuff even happen before stage 14 / the 18th of July?

Tour de France 2026

www.procyclingstats.com

*in 2025,
around 2004-2019 it was 9 stages,
back around 2002 it was 10 stages

I mean, it's entirely possible that Pogacar attacks on Tourmalet and takes good time at the finish and we get the classic "Tour is over" after stage 6