Pogacar was always going to win these kind of sprint, especially without some other fast guys. But I'm not sure he really is the strongest right now, both Vlasov and Yates look really sharp to me. We'll see, but I won't be surprised if he doesn't win on Jebel Hafeet.
Of course, Pogacar is the best all-rounder and climber. And he is explosive too. And he has a sprint when arriving in a smalle bunch. But that has nothing to do with the topic. The balance between (to many climbs), hilly stages and TT. The conclusion is that there is no balance. Even Pogacar would have it less easy if there were more time trials.
Mmm. Merlier in decent shape is a cannonball that can beat them all. Don't count him or good ol Cavendish out.
Merlier is up there in terms of speed but his consistency and recovery aren't as good. The same is true for Cavendish right now although he may be suffering from his crashes.
View: https://mobile.twitter.com/qst_alphavinyl/status/1496827222983913474
And that is your opinion. For the organizers there is more balance. Less TT and less hard mountains. That's what they call balance.
It's not balance, it's the fear of having someone killing the race and thus loosing supposed interest but that generally leads to races that suck because having just sprints for the bonus seconds or the break 10 minutes upfront with the peloton at walking pace are the absolute worst.
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