THREAD The best photos from this year’s men’s and women’s Liege Bastogne Liege monument, part 2. 1. The portrait of Tadej Pogačar. (📸: visualsofharry)
"He is really doing Merckxian things" - Tadej Pogacar one of the greatest ever according to Tom Dumoulin
CyclingWednesday, 24 April 2024 at 10:59
In the latest display of his brilliance, Tadej Pogacar powered to a stunning solo victory at Liege-Bastogne-Liege on Sunday afternoon. According to Tom Dumoulin, the Slovenian has his chapter in the annals of cycling history confirmed.
"We have had quite a nice spring," the former Giro d'Italia winner reflects for NOS. "Just like last year, a number of riders stood head and shoulders above the rest. If they go, the rest actually don't stand a chance. This resulted in beautiful solos by Mathieu van der Poel in the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. And yesterday with Pogacar at Liege-Bastogne Liege."
"I saw that Pogacar has already won more than fifty WorldTour victories," Dumoulin continues, in awe of the UAE Team Emirates leader's recent performances. "If he continues like this, he will go down in the history books as one of the best cyclists ever. And for me, he already is. He is really doing Merckxian things."
The fact that Pogacar didn't just win at Liege-Bastogne-Liege but was so dominant, is a testament to the immense level of the 25-year-old. "Pogacar is not half or one percent better in the hills, but just five percent. He can choose when he goes. He ensures that his team controls the game, then he can save energy until he goes full steam ahead on the Côte de la Redoute. But he could also have said: you know what, I'll leave a climb earlier. Or a climb later. It doesn't really matter to him," Dumoulin concludes. "As a former athlete, I can enjoy those solos. But of course they don't really give you exciting races. That may be a bit of a shame, but it also has its charm. They are top athletes in top form, you look at the highest of the highest.”
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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
- If you look at how much TP progressed in that 1 1/2 years you can no longer say that’s nothing. If Remco improves as much he’s a challenger!Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Froome wishing to ride the Vuelta...he won't even be selected for the team!frieders320-12-2024