CyclingUpToDate Podcast: "Why would you give oxygen to your new second place" - Was Tadej Pogacar really unable to beat Remco Evenepoel on Plateau de Solaison?

On this Monday's episode of the CyclingUpToDate Podcast, Rúben Silva and Gavin Quinn have discussed Tadej Pogacar's dominance at the Tour de France and stage 15, where Remco Evenepoel beat the yellow jersey on the Plateau de Solaison. But is there more behind this victory than what meets the eye?

On stage 10, Pogacar immediately extended his lead dramatically over Jonas Vingegaard on Le Lioran, with an explosive attack in a hilly finale. "From Pogacar's point of view, I believe it was a kind of psychological reminder, I guess, that he is still the boss of this race," Gavin Quinn argued.

Rúben Silva pointed out the consistency of the GC men, an incredible feat taking into consideration the race has been taken to the limit since day 1: "It's incredible how you look at the Tour with the point of view of someone from today, and these riders, they don't have bad days, and that is incredible, taking into consideration how difficult the Tour has also been".

"It's easy to forget that the heat has been unbelievable throughout the whole race. It's easy to forget that just a week ago, we were sitting here and discussing if some stages can be cut or neutralized because of the heat, and these riders just went through it".

"They continued to perform at their best. It really does actually show how nutrition and how heat trading is really improved, because if you put this sort of scenario 10-15 years ago, I think that we would have very different results when it came to this".

On stage 14, Pogacar repeated his triumph, winning in Le Markstein. "Tadej Pogacar said that he delayed his attack again a little bit because of Del Toro. When he did, he just flew away. And then in traditional fashion, once the climb ended and we were on flat roads, whereas logic would tell you that maybe you will lose some time for the riders chasing him in group... no, he increased it actually".

"That endurance, that resistance, in my opinion, is something that makes Tadej Pogacar not literally unbeatable, but his armour is unbelievable. And the harder you make a race, almost, the better it seems to suit him, which is a nightmare for the competition. Because that limits so much what you can do..."

On stage 15, Jonas Vingegaard crashed out and on the climb to Plateau de Solaison, Remco Evenepoel took the stage win ahead of Tadej Pogacar after the yellow jersey pushed the pace up the final climb. Our two writers disagreed on whether Pogacar had the legs or not to win the stage in the final sprint against the Olympic champion.

Rúben Silva believes the stage might have fallen on Pogacar's side if he wanted: "It more sort of felt like he had Evenepoel here. He's already won four stages, he's got the GC sealed, he just helped Del Toro on the podium... He would perhaps benefit a little bit, of course, from having Evan Paul take the stage win and not go crazy on the final week"

"Evenepoel's got his stage win, he's second on GC, he's just going to race defensively... And all of a sudden, Pogacar doesn't have to worry about what, at the end of the day, is his main rival from today onwards". Simultaneously, he praised the Belgian: "For Evenepoel, it's deserved. His climbing level was really, really high, incredibly high. If you look at the watts per kilo, I think it was 6.85W/Kg for 32 minutes... He's flying. He's absolutely flying. I am happy to see that".

The same way he sat on this interview following the stage, there's a lot of people that doubt him and his climbing abilities. He can do it. He's not the natural climber as Pogacar and Vingegaard can do it all year long at high level, he's a rider that gains weight more easily. He's a rider that's very well adapted to those shorter efforts when it comes to the uphill. We saw that early in the season".

"When he prepares for a Grand Tour in the perfect circumstances, and you've seen this in 2024, this rider is an absolute top climber. He continues to be everything else that he is, but he's also a world-class climber. It felt like it was deserved".

Gavin Quinn argued that Pogacar really did not have the legs to go through Evenepoel in that final sprint: "This is not a Pogacar playing around, having fun type of climb, this is still Pogacar working pretty hard. So when it came to a final sprint, like you said, 6.8 watts per kilo for 30 minutes is numbers you would be impressed if you've seen Tadej Pogacar do solo. So let's not imagine that Tadej Pogacar is an unbreakable super rider".

"He's still human. So I don't think Tadej Pogacar would knowingly or willingly gift a stage to a rider who isn't his teammate. Why would you? Why would you give oxygen to your new second place and a rider who's taking a victory ahead of you and is now at the second place and says, I'm the number two guy and he's looking upwards now. He's not looking upwards at Jonas Vingegaard. He's looking upwards at you. Why would you give that any degree of oxygen? Because we know UAE don't do this. They don't give oxygen. They don't give concessions to anybody, especially Visma".

"Maybe he's underestimating his mountain ability. I don't know, but I wouldn't give Remco Evenepoel. If I had the legs, I would not be awarding this to Remco Evenepoel".

Rúben Silva also put forward the point that perhaps it is a moment of transition, which may be looked at in the future as the start of Pogacar's period of being beaten uphill: "We're just so used to seeing him win, especially when it comes to an uphill sprint, that it's almost, you almost look at it and it just feels unfamiliar. It feels like something isn't right".

"It interferes with the race. I don't think it has directly done so, but when you put a rider, when you put the yellow jersey and directly influence his sleeping, have him sleeping four hours before one of the queen stages of the race, in between mountain stages..." Rúben Silva argues that this would've had a big impact on most riders.

Additionally, that UAE and Visma had very valid reasons to complain. "If you're a member of the team staff, and you team take dozens of riders and staff all across France, and they plan the race to the tiniest of details..."

"But ultimately, it's part of the sport, and it's a necessary evil, let's say, to do this, because yeah, credibility is everything, and if we do not have that, then we do not have trust in the anti-doping authorities, then we're going to end up questioning every performance. But it's good, ultimately, that we see above all that they're taking this very seriously, and they're taking it very strictly as well".