Geraint Thomas' interesting story on Tadej Pogacar's Liège-Bastogne-Liège - "We were riding 420 watts, do you want to have a conversation now?"
CyclingFriday, 02 May 2025 at 14:03
Geraint Thomas is always a very vocal voice, and having been present at the recent Liège-Bastogne-Liège, he has a lot of insight from within the peloton on INEOS Grenadiers' tactics, Tadej Pogacar's jokes and even Jonas Vingegaard's 'mystery'.
"There was no chance that he would be beaten. I heard him say afterwards that the people who said he had gotten worse after the Amstel Gold Race don't know anything about cycling," Geraint Thomas recently said. "I think they do know something about cycling, but not about Pogacar. The speed he rode... unreal". There was no beating the World Champion on a good day, and he won La Doyenne the same way he had done 12 months prior.
And early in the day already, Thomas could see how Pogacar was racing. "Liège starts uphill, you know? There was a fight going on for the early breakaway and we were riding more than 400 watts. 'Hi G Thomas' I heard and I looked back: it was Pogacar. Then he starts riding next to me and talking to me, about a new Richard Mille watch or something that he was going to look at the next day," he shares. "I thought: we were riding 420 watts, do you want to have a conversation now? I feel okay, but I just had to focus on breathing. He is really on another level".
INEOS, as has been the case a few times this year, has raced aggressively, using it's riders to attack the hills early with Bob Jungels and Tobias Foss. "We hoped that people would join us. Me and Bob rode past each other and he asked me: what are we going to do, are we going? I honestly wasn't looking forward to it, but maybe they would get some strong men with them and UAE would have to work harder that way. But nobody joined us. Then I suddenly saw Foss blasting through the gravel".
However no-one tried putting Pogacar and UAE under pressure, even with INEOS taking the initiative and trying to set up a chaotic race that would benefit the outsiders. "I don't want to discredit my teammate, but I did say on the radio that it might not be the most efficient way to waste our strength. It just didn't work. We also had to remember that the podium was also very nice for us and that we could have used those strengths towards the Redoute".
"If you watched it on TV, it probably wasn't that nice. It couldn't have been nice. What happened now? There was a breakaway and two of our guys went after them. They were all caught, then Pogacar attacked from the saddle and that was it".
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In the podcast Thomas also talked about Jonas Vingegaard, who has been absent from competition since mid-March when he crashed out of Paris-Nice. The Dane had five weeks where he could not train perfectly, but is currently in the Pyrenees exploring stages of the Tour. He will only be back to racing in June at the Criterium du Dauphiné, following his traditional preparation towards the race.
"I like the mystery surrounding Jonas Vingegaard, who is going to do the Dauphiné and Tour. They have their plan and they keep it behind closed doors. Let them speculate and such, we are there if necessary. Cycling needs that too, a good Vingegaard," he argues. "Why should he tell people what he is going to do? Primoz Roglic is like that too, they just keep it to themselves. That's cool".
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Senna196023-05-2025 - Neither did Fignon, LeMond, etc.
ScottG23-05-2025
I could talk about what movie to watch next while riding at 40 watts, but I couldn't even say the word "movie" while at 400.
Yeah 2 syllables is probably going to put your breathing into the red, keeping conversation to strict yes/no answers and grunts for agreement or acknowledgment is the trick ;-)
Kind of disappointing to discover the subject of discussion was an exclusive (I suppose) watch. What is it with guys with leftover cash that they feel a watch will do for them? Haven’t worn one since mobile phones, as outdated as cuff-links, which are actually way more classy than the oversized watch models that became the thing over the last 10-15y, looks as silly as a SUV in a traditional parking space.
There's nothing like showing off your status with an oversized, overpriced watch that makes your wrist bleed when you ride over the cobbles.
Yes, but it seems fans of such toys, like SUVs think that status is appreciated by far more people than is the case. I think very few are actually impressed by anyone feeling the need to show status this way, it reveals insecurity more than anything else. At “best” it allows for peer regrouping in the safety of a bland homogenous uncritical fake culture. Then I prefer to help parents in law with financial difficulties ;-)
The Richard Mille watch on his wrist, worth around 250 Thou dollars, is there by virtue of UAE Team Emirates being a partner of the watch company. MVDP is also is an endorser. I also learned that Mathieu was driving around on a Lamborghini, of which he was also an endorser. When you get paid for endorsing a product, it is more an acknowledgment of your star status, rather than personal taste. Tadej's convo on watches with Geraint is probably shared experience.