"Almost impossible to beat him on the climbs" - Not even Tadej Pogacar's biggest rivals have many hopes of taking UAE Tour win
Cycling
At the start of the UAE Tour we're able to see an incredibly luxurious sprinter field but not many top climbers or classics riders. Tadej Pogacar is the race's big headliner and without a doubt his presence overshadows the GC fight hopes - and some of his main rivals including Pello Bilbao do not see much of a way to beat him.
"I know this year is going to be really complicated to go for the victory, but we want to do something different to make a good challenge here," the Basque riders said in a pre-race press conference, where he joined a star-studded lineup featuring Pogacar; defending champion Lennert van Eetvelt; and sprinters Jonathan Milan, Tim Merlier and Jasper Philipsen.
"I would say, comparing with the numbers, it's almost impossible to beat him on the climbs. So the only possibility is to find a surprise during a difficult moment in the race. But even like that, I think it's going to be super hard."
In 2024 the Slovenian was spotless and unbeatable when terrain like this presented itself. If in 2025 we see the same version of the UAE Team Emirates - XRG rider, then the modest field in the UAE will have to settle for minor places. This being a big goal for Pogacar's team assures that he will likely come with good form, and on the summit finishes to Jebel Jais and Jebel Hafeet he will be the man to beat.
The time-trial on stage 2 won't make things any easier for his rivals, the opposite is actually the case. "It's a short time trial again. The difference between the best is not going to be huge, though, maybe in the fight for the podium it can be a decider," the veteran continued. "But I don't think it's going to be too important for the GC."
On stage 1 Bilbao finished 39th on the day, he and Rainer Kepplinger will look towards a strong time-trial so as to enter the mountain stages in a good position overall.
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🙌 @PelloBilbao1990 with the top riders at the press conference and meet & greet @uae_tour #RideAsOne #rideforGino pic.twitter.com/uojay4sy7k
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- Whatever happens tomorrow... it'll be a hell of a raceslappers6605-04-2025
- Exactly Tadej, the cancer of modern society. Full of good-for-nothing people who gain visibility and importance on social media mocking, humiliating (and worse things) to earn money. But it's the follower's fault, no followers, no "influencers".
maria2024202405-04-2025 - Great commentCaralladas05-04-2025
- i’m such a sucker for those group-hug, happy ending moments between competitors, largely because it’s so WASN’T that way in my younger, stronger days. (on that note, i have this hope that somewhere down the road, maybe fifteen or twenty years, a middle aged wout and mathieu will go for a pleasure ride together in flanders, and reminisce about the days when they were the young, strong monsters that stalked the cobbles.)OCexile05-04-2025
- Just like Dwars door Vlaanderen, the Ronde van Vlaanderen was/is NOT on MAX. Get your facts straight.Ben04-04-2025
- You might bounce more for the same power, but not the same speed. Sending 20 kgs over a jump at 20 kph will fly just as far as 10 kgs at the same speed. Again, Galileo demonstrated this.acem8204-04-2025
- So, you're saying that doing a bunch of small hops on a bike is easier if you're heavier? Why do people buy lighter bikes, then? Why do they generally feel better and faster? An appeal to "rhythm" is not helpful either, as the right "rhythm" might be on the lighter or heavier side of things, and as it varies, it's likely a wash either way. Then we are left with the physics truth that it takes less power to lift lighter things than heavier things.acem8204-04-2025
- No, weight doesn't affect the ability to go into the wind at all. It's all CdA vs power at that point. For example, it's "obvious" that a heavier object falls faster than a lighter one. But, absent wind resistance, it's not true (Galileo demonstrated this). An appeal to "obviousness" doesn't matter when the physics is clear. And yes, you have to be able to hold everything else constant, or you can't determine anything! So, imagine a 300 watt rider at 80 kgs with a CdA of 2.0, then imagine that same rider at 70 kgs with a CdA of 2.0. (Assume ideal tire pressure for both, same bike.) Which one can ride over a bumpy road fastest? The lighter one, as he doesn't have to lift as much. That's also why when they test bikes on 5 star cobbled sectors, the MTB goes faster than even a cobble-build road bike. Even though rolling resistance is higher on a flat road, and the CdA is junk, it smooths out the cobbles, allowing the person to not lift as much as they otherwise would.acem8204-04-2025
- I disagree. If you have lower weight, you will bounce more at the same speed, meaning that you will spend more time in the air and shorter time on the ground, as a consequence, when you are on the ground you have to produce more force for the same speedvappaxbipmv04-04-2025
- That’s not quite true, even steep climbs and sudden gradient changes can be considered as remaining tangential to the wheel whereas the occasional dip between cobbles a wheel drops into cannot, as such riding over cobbles can become like a permanent surmounting of small obstacles that hit back into your wheel slowing you drastically if you don’t have the right rhythm to “fly” on the mounds, here again the greater the momentum the less these obstacles reduce your speed. But, it is but one factor, you cannot decide on this alone. Like with natural surface ripple formation on desert tracks used by vehicles, there is an optimal speed range to efficiently pass over such surfaces, too fast or slow and your car gets shaken to pieces from the “harmonics” in the vibrations caused. Pretty sure the same applies to riding on cobbles.Mistermaumau04-04-2025