Vingegaard vs Pogačar - The Duel

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Dec 2, 2020
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I don’t think the way this ended can be summed up to Pog’s hunger knock like some seem to be doing. His fueling was clearly giving him problems but Vingegaard was already taking back time soon after the initial attack and they still both put up big numbers on both main climbs, and he was still 2nd fastest on Pertus; this was not a bonk like any of his previous ones.

It’s also expected for a rider to fade when going all out on long attacks, we just don’t see it from him and we don’t see him maximally challenged often. It’s the whole picture, can’t be reduced to a technicality that he just messed up calories or missed a bottle.

He will probably ride more conservatively in remaining stages and Vingegaard will have to attack on his own or rely on combined team pressure from anyone not UAE.
 
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Aug 10, 2023
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Two unexpected things happened in this rivalry today:
1. Tadej put in his patented suge, BUT he kept looking backward.
2. Jonas beat Tadej in a sprint to the line. He's never done that before.
 
Apr 30, 2011
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Those Pertus numbers make sense. Absurd w/kg by Naichaca weren't consistent at all with VAM numbers.
VAM is a bit deceiving, it has 9 vertical m of descent in the middle, according to the cyclingcols stats. Starts at 929 m, finishes at 1309 m, but with a total (gross) vertical gain of 389 m.
 
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Sep 10, 2016
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Hm, live it looked like 35 seconds at the bottom and 45 at the top. 8 more seconds does indeed make it sound more impressive on a rather short climb, but I'm still not convinced I watched peak Pogacar today. But maybe I'm also just not used to seeing someone other than Vingegaard relatively close to him because Remco and Roglic weren't around in 2022 and 2023.
The gap Between Pogacar and Vingegaard was hovering around 8 seconds for a while, before Vingegaard then closed it quite quickly, so I think Pogacar sat up and waited, and then they chilled a bit before the sprint, so Pogacar could like have gone 10 seconds faster, if he was alone and going full gas. That would bring it close to 30 seconds faster than Remco/Roglic. Whether that's peak Pog or not, I don't know.
 
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Aug 23, 2012
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He will probably ride more conservatively in remaining stages and Vingegaard will have to attack on his own or rely on combined team pressure from anyone not UAE.
Yeah, it allows UAE to conserve their team strength, might force Visma to burn matches on riders they would rather preserve for one or two big hits in the third week and Pogi is really well suited to winning stages and time even if the pace isn't the highest ever.

Also i don't think UAE should worry too much about Visma riders in the break, allow Sivakov or someone to sneak along if possible, but don't worry too much about what Laporte or Wout can do for Vinge.
 
Jun 25, 2015
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The gap Between Pogacar and Vingegaard was hovering around 8 seconds for a while, before Vingegaard then closed it quite quickly, so I think Pogacar sat up and waited, and then they chilled a bit before the sprint, so Pogacar could like have gone 10 seconds faster, if he was alone and going full gas. That would bring it close to 30 seconds faster than Remco/Roglic. Whether that's peak Pog or not, I don't know.
Before this Tour,we haven't seen all these 4 guys in top shape racing against each other. Remco and Roglic should be very, very close to peak Pog and Vingegaard, as I think was demonstrated yesterday. One thing that Remco can do is take back huge chunks of time in flats or false flats even if he's dropped uphill. He's going to be even better at that with more experience.
 
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Jan 11, 2010
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Yeah, it allows UAE to conserve their team strength, might force Visma to burn matches on riders they would rather preserve for one or two big hits in the third week and Pogi is really well suited to winning stages and time even if the pace isn't the highest ever.

Also i don't think UAE should worry too much about Visma riders in the break, allow Sivakov or someone to sneak along if possible, but don't worry too much about what Laporte or Wout can do for Vinge.
I guess you didn't watch the Granon stage, where Laporte was the one opening the gap on the descent which isolated Pogacar :) I agree Wout isn't the Wout from before but he can still be pretty useful as well.

UAE have always had the better climbing team compared to Jumbo (Visma). But it's a matter of how you use these climbers. So far they've just used them to set a high pace all day and then launch Pogacar... which is fine, but as we've seen yesterday, it's probably better for Vingegaard than it is for their own leader.
 
Jul 7, 2013
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So they are going for top2 in the 4th consecutive Tour, impressive. However, for this rivalry not to become too one sided Pog has to win this year!
 
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Jan 11, 2010
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Before this Tour,we haven't seen all these 4 guys in top shape racing against each other. Remco and Roglic should be very, very close to peak Pog and Vingegaard, as I think was demonstrated yesterday. One thing that Remco can do is take back huge chunks of time in flats or false flats even if he's dropped uphill. He's going to be even better at that with more experience.
I still expect Remco to collapse on one of these real mountain stages coming up. We've only had one and a half proper mountain stage. You can see that Pogi and Vingo don't really see him as an actual threat, which was most evident on the gravel stage, where certainly Vingo didn't seem concerned with distancing Remco at all.
 
Apr 30, 2011
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So they are going for top2 in the 4th consecutive Tour, impressive. However, for this rivalry not to become too one sided Pog has to win this year!
In the words of Plugge, the first pancakes are for the kids. Pogi got to win two Tours, the rest are for Vingegaard.
 
Aug 23, 2012
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I guess you didn't watch the Granon stage, where Laporte was the one opening the gap on the descent which isolated Pogacar :) I agree Wout isn't the Wout from before but he can still be pretty useful as well.

UAE have always had the better climbing team compared to Jumbo (Visma). But it's a matter of how you use these climbers. So far they've just used them to set a high pace all day and then launch Pogacar... which is fine, but as we've seen yesterday, it's probably better for Vingegaard than it is for their own leader.
Granon was special and that Jumbo team is not this Visma team. And at the end of the day if Pogi could follow Jonas's wheel it doesn't matter that much who Jonas has out in front. I know they've been burnt in the past, but they have also killed themselves several times(especially last year) to avoid repeats.

Indeed!
For what they are doing so far they really shouldn't have left Majka in the Giro, but it was a good team selection if you expected to fight against a peak Vingegaard you had to attack creatively.
 
Mar 28, 2014
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Jonas will go crazy on Plateau next Sunday, it's the hardest MTF. The result of that stage will tell whether there will be a race or not.
 
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Before this Tour,we haven't seen all these 4 guys in top shape racing against each other. Remco and Roglic should be very, very close to peak Pog and Vingegaard, as I think was demonstrated yesterday. One thing that Remco can do is take back huge chunks of time in flats or false flats even if he's dropped uphill. He's going to be even better at that with more experience.
It was? Vinge rode Remco and Rogla off his wheel and gained 45s on them on a 4k climb. I like Rogla and Remco, but I'm not sure I would call that close.