"He didn't even have to get up to attack" - Armstrong and Bruyneel on Tadej Pogacar's unrivalled Liège victory
CyclingMonday, 28 April 2025 at 13:50
Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel analyzed on 'The Move' podcast the events of Sunday's Liège-Bastogne-Liège, which ended with an uncontested victory for Tadej Pogacar. For them, there was no match for the World Champion in what is the final of the spring classics.
First of all, they recalled in data that the last 3 years of the great classics have almost all been won by Pogacar himself, Mathieu van der Poel and Remco Evenepoel in something that is undoubtedly historical:
"In the last 3 years, of the 24 major one-day races contested, 21 have been won by 3 riders, Pogacar has won 9, Remco has won 4 and Van der Poel, 8. The exceptions are Mohoric and Philipsen Milano - Sanremo and Dylan Van Baarle the Paris-Roubaix. Beyond that these 3 riders have won every major race in the last 3 years."
Lance Armstrong no longer knows how to describe Pogacar's superiority over his rivals, so he uses other sports to put the Slovenian's barbaric performance at La Redoute into context: "It's not just these performances that are repetitive. It is what it is. Tadej Pogacar is not going to let others win, he's not going to wait any longer in the race to attack. Tadej is going to do Tadej's things".
"We can compare this with other sports. You have for example the London Marathon. Here are the cyclists of the world. In the London Marathon are the best marathoners in the world. This is the equivalent of winning the London Marathon by one minute. This is the equivalent of winning the Augusta Masters by 15 strokes. These are things you don't see. They are the best in the world. And every other week he does it."
Johan Bruyneel, for his part, analyzed what the Slovenian did even though some thought Evenepoel could be a contender: "I think it's more unique than any other sport in the sense that we have a guy like Pogacar who is the world champion. He's the world number 1 and he wins on all terrains and we all know how different some races are from others. In Liège he was the big favorite although it was said that Remco could match him because he was able to catch Pogacar in Amstel, but you saw a different Pogacar, a fully recovered Pogacar from Flanders and Roubaix".
"We had a test in the Flèche Wallonne and in this race he showed another level. He attacked where he wanted to. Normally in La Redoute you go behind and attack at the last moment two or three hundred meters from the top, and he went almost a kilometer and nobody was able to react. It was impressive to see that he didn't even have to get up once."
"It's crazy to see how dominant he is to anticipate the plan, because he still had teammates, he heard on the radio that Remco was behind and that motivated him to attack. I think that's a smart move. How frustrating it must be for the rest of the peloton to know that in these races Pogacar is in top form," said the Belgian.
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- Its appears that way. Repeated crashes take a toll on the bodyabstractengineer11-05-2025
- He cannot hunt down something that he has never been close to in GTsabstractengineer11-05-2025
- He's just not the same after the crash at La Vuelta. I hope the knee injury does not "Chris Froome" his career.
KerisVroom11-05-2025 - Well, I didn’t hear any strict instructions from management so why shouldn’t it be like Visma’s infamous Vuelta unless things heat up? Am sure they don’t regret sweeping the podium which was only possible because internal rivalry was at least as strong as external.Mistermaumau11-05-2025
- In principle, but he’ll always have that Planche des Belles Filles TdF loss in his mind nowadays so not sure he’ll be so keen on giving away anything anymoreif he doesn’t really have to. It’s a matter of weighing (dis)advantages and I’m not so sure the media obligations always outweigh the psychological effects that a win or domination bring, unless you’re bad at dealing with pressure which I doubt is the case with Primoz.Mistermaumau11-05-2025
- so sad...
maria2024202410-05-2025 - ahahahha.. but I think Roglic will be very happy to give you back the pink jersey (less interviews, less ceremonies, more time to rest).maria2024202410-05-2025
- Bummed for Wout. I hope he bounces back big tomorrowmij10-05-2025
He just rode away...either he TP has incredible ability OR the rest where knackered/not good enough... Tadej made that hill look Holland flat
My personal opinion is that UAE has a proprietary cocktail that isn't on the market and will probably never be on the market. It's happened before in sport. Look at BALCO and THG with the baseball situation. UAE could very well have their OWN scientists and chemists making a proprietary cocktail just for them. They have what I call "fk you money" which means UNLIMITED money. It's not out of the range of real possibilities. I've seen a few of your comments and decided to look and see what you've said in other articles. That led me to a few of your comments and I felt it would be ok to speak my opinion. Obviously my opinion doesn't go over very well with most but I've also seen people say "you are everything wrong with the sport" to you😂 and I thought maybe I can talk with this guy. You may not agree with me which is fine but the conversation needs to happen
Cheers
🤘🏻🇬🇧
Not remotely in the realm of possibility. Pharmaceutical companies spend billions (with a B) developing proprietary new drugs. There is absolutely no chance that a shadow company is exclusively developing a product for a few guys on one team in a minor sport that almost no one cares about. It sounds like you watch too many James Bond movies. Which might be better for you (and us) than speculating on something like this. UAE is doing what everyone else is doing, just a bit better. You have no idea what this is; nor do I; nor does anyone in this or any other comment section. If you don't like what you are watching, don't watch.
Comments such as this is what Tadej is referring to when he says that social media is the cancer of our society.. And this guy even insists that "the conversation needs to happen". Well then, take your case to WADA sir, where such conversations are in urgent demand.
Nobody has unlimited money. At the best the team would be throwing a million to universities for studies. they dont have the werewithal to fund a Doping research lab exclusively for them. Also in UAE the only outlier is Pogi. The others are getting beaten pretty normally, they dont last until the end of the race either when helping out. There is no domination like first three from UAE team
I believe I have a pretty good idea what they’re experimenting with. It’s something that won’t work with everyone but can work REALLY well with the right personality.
Speaking of “Holland” or Denmark flat, isn’t it interesting that they can produce good climbers?