"A Tadej Pogacar appears every 20-30 years" - UAE Team Emirates coach Iñigo San Milán
Cycling
Tadej Pogacar is close to a one of a kind talent, and without a doubt one of the faces of the emerging generations. His qualities are undeniable and his coach Iñigo San Milán talks of how it is to work with him.
"Surrounded by people who trust me, even when I don't win. The only negative is reading some things in the press that make me feel bad, but it doesn't put pressure on me," Pogacar admit in an interview with TopCycling.pt. "Although it's nice to feel some pressure. Even with you (journalists, ed.) it's good to talk sometimes."
In Spain, preparing for the upcoming season, the Slovenian prepares for another important year where he will aim to win the Tour de France aswell as several races in the spring including the Tour des Flandres and Milano-Sanremo.
He denies that 2022 was a disappointing season after not being able to win the Tour: “One of the best seasons he could imagine," he said. "Second place is not a defeat, I won three stages and the white jersey, throughout the year I won many races, I was close at Milan-Sanremo and the Tour of Flanders. The Tour is not everything, you have to compete all year round”.
However despite many big wins, Pogacar just barely missed out on several others. His fourth and fifth places at Milano-Sanremo and Tour des Flandres respectively saw him perform in classics which used to largely favour other types of riders. Alongside the UAE Tour, Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adriatico and Liège-Bastogne-Liège - all races where he should be a main favourite - those will be ambitious plans for the spring.
“Jonas was very strong on the climbs and in the time trial. He was in perfect shape, he did everything well and so did the team. They were better this time," he commented on his second place at the Tour. 2023 is likely to see a similar battle, however with the scale tilting more towards UAE's side as Jumbo split their forces between the Tour and Giro.
Pogacar's coach Íñigo San Millán admitted that he was heartbroken with the defeat at the Tour. "They must happen because they make the sport bigger. For us UAE it wasn't pretty, I have to guarantee it won't be repeated”.
"Physiologically a Tadej Pogacar appears every 20-30 years, he is the most impressive cyclist I have seen. He's a monster, he's competitive. At the same time he is calm, does not get nervous. In theory, he should have room for advancement.”
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- Avoiding him is a good strategy, you get more wins and then you can compete in the TDF relatively relaxed. Pit yourself against Pogi and not only there will be no wins, it will be considerable mental setbackabstractengineer21-12-2024
- If you hold onto then, you blowup in a minute and then you finish 5 minutes down like Ben O'Connorabstractengineer21-12-2024
- Based on what argument?Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Agreed except the length of climbs, pretty sure you can stretch that to about a km unless we’re talking about half a dozen in quick succession.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Lot of contradictory information floating around world cup contenders, someone should do some tidying up.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- A bit much to suggest that Pogacar is better than MvdP on most terrains. The only terrain Pogacar is clearly better is long climbs, on any other terrain they are pretty even except flat cobbles and short and steep climbs (max a few 100 mtrs) where MvdP is clearly better than Pogacar.Velovibes21-12-2024
- The likelihood of RE improving enough at this point to outclass TP or JV is less than zero.verve82521-12-2024
- That’s the most stupid thing I’ve read for a long time, did you not go to school and learn even the most basic physics? Aero depends on one thing only, drag, drag depends speed and the relationship is squared and apart from maybe at zero or the speed of sound or due to side winds that relationship is valid at all speeds, it dies not “suddenly” start at a magic number. Very simply, the faster you go the more the effect becomes important. If you think 25km/h is needed to have noticeable effects you’re delusional, athletic WR are cancelled as soon as winds top 2m/s that’s 7.2km/h, why because the assistance is already too important at that speed and the times prove it. You don’t even consider wind which can significantly increase the effective speed for aerodynamics and you underestimate speed of climbs, 6% is ridden more at 30 than 25km/h, a speed at which early generation high rims were considered to have more advantages than disadvantages. And finally, as in normal races you can’t just switch bikes according to terrain, it’s pretty pointless to discuss climbs as a separate situation, the aero will have justified itself plenty during the rest of the ride.Mistermaumau21-12-2024