"I was hoping for a nice duel with Remco" - Tadej Pogacar on Evenepoel's Liege-Bastogne-Liege absence, van der Poel's challenge and skipping brutal Fleche Wallonne
Cycling
Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel will write the latest chapter in their rivalry next Sunday at Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Ahead of the race, Pogacar was full of praise for perhaps his biggest challenger.
"What he does is fantastic. Not just this year, but every season. But this year it's just a little more. He chooses his races and performs at a super high level everywhere," the Slovenian says of his Dutch rival in his pre-race press conference, with quotes collected by In de Leiderstrui. "He rides incredibly well in the most important races. He is a rider for the biggest races. Would it be fun to race against him? Not entirely, because he is so incredibly strong. But he is a good competitor and that is of course nice."
The duo have been good friends off the bike for a while, semi-regularly spotted training together also. This Sunday though, both will out for victory. ''Let's go for a 100 kilometre solo. Why not?" Pogacar laughs. "Just kidding. This is no Paris-Roubaix or Strade Bianche. These are races where it is a little easier. The most difficult climbs in Liège-Bastogne-Liège are also deeper in the race. So it's very difficult to start early."
Aside from van der Poel and Pogacar himself, Mattias Skjelmose perhaps stands out as a candidate for victory. However, the Lidl-Trek leader was rocked on Wednesday as he was carried out of a brutal La Fleche Wallonne with hypothermia. "I'm glad I didn't participate in Fleche Wallonne. I was able to train in Spain in good weather. It was about twenty degrees, wonderful. Looking back, I don't regret not participating. It was terrible to see those guys like that. It was really painful, as I saw on television," Pogacar says. "I sympathized enormously with Mattias. He is a huge contender on Sunday, provided it is not too cold of course. Just kidding of course. It really sucked for him. It looked horrible. He is a good contender, provided he dresses well and warmly."
"I think it's a shame that Remco Evenepoel is not there. He has already won the race twice. In those two editions I was not there in the final. So at the beginning of this year I was hoping for a nice duel with Remco. He really loves this race and so do I," Pogacar continues. "It could have been very interesting. But cycling sucks sometimes. The more big names at the start, the more I like it. It's also good for my motivation. If boys from the top participate and you can win, the satisfaction of a victory is only greater."
Despite being pre-race favourite, Pogacar isn't taking anything for granted. "There are so many climbs and good names that you can really be surprised in Liège. You must always be alert and have a good team that can monitor. I think there are a lot of serious contenders," he concludes. "Take everyone from the top fifteen of the Amstel Gold Race or Flèche Wallonne. They are good climbers. So I will have to be very alert in the last 100 kilometres. Fortunately I have a good team."
Would be a huge surprised if Pogi did not win this race :-)
But considering the number of surprises in the last week or 2, again, maybe not :-)
So you won’t be watching? Or just peeking in case you’re wrong?
Ha! Nah, I'll watch until my fear becomes true. I'm not interested in a 5 minute lead by either TP or/and vdP and watch that for 2 hours. Have fun.
Exactly😅 @Mistermaumau. You can't please everyone anyway. The classics are great, if you are Pogi fan, and UAE. If you think Paris Roubaix, Flanders, Amstel Gold are boring, then you should watch something else. Watch ATP tennis directly from their website
Well, those are relatively new situations and frankly, if they can manage that, it doesn’t say much for the abilities of their rivals to co-ordinate and catch them back. I’m not sure at their speed but at my level, the difference between riding solo or in a bunch of say 3, 5, max 10 is at least 4-5 km/h so guesswork would lead me to say 6-7 for the pros. If they’re not willing to kill a 5m lead with a concerted effort against a solo rider, they don’t need to turn up in the first place coz THAT’S the reason it gets boring. Oh no, I forgot, it’s free, we’re not supposed to be asking for more and they’re probably not even trying to grow viewer numbers, things are cosy enough as they stand. I never watch anymore, just follow the commentary, some being more up to date than others. If it sounds exciting or interesting moves are made, I can then look up the replays later to scrutinise details :-) There’s no news as useful as old news, all the details and educational material without the rush or stress.
True. If there are people bored of watching cycling, then they chose the wrong sport lol
Some people are never happy, this season has seen some great races in the Classics but I guess you can not please all. Overall it`s been a superb Spring,if you thought Flanders, Par-Rou and Flech were boring you are watching the wrong sport.
Ben you are a bad boy! You are just being controversial to get a rise out of folk. Judging by the replies your tactics work.
So, are you now being bad or just controversial too? And more importantly, what does it bring. Boredom is very revelatory. You know that Einstein definition of craziness?
Would have been great to have Remco and Roglic in the mix too. But it will still be a great race. And happily both of those guys are healing up for a great TdF
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- There's no reason we can't live in the real world while enjoying the doped up sport.Veganpotter12-04-2025
- Tadej definitely wasn't terribly out of the ordinary as a junior. Just goes to show what great coaching and a proper "supplement" regiment can turn someone into.Veganpotter12-04-2025
- Nice one. Not 100% officially a placebo but in my early days of group training in Mallorca I and another guy were reputed to ride without food (and once I paid the price for it having to be pushed back to base). On one particularly long outing things started getting difficult and the other guy mentioned he could really do with something to eat, one of the jokers offered him a home-wrapped snack, the latest nutritional supplement on the market and he started flying, showing and boasting all the way home how good he was feeling. At dinner, in front of 40 or so of his mates it was then revealed it had simply been a premeditated prank with a cheap doggy biscuit. Don’t know if anyone later ever considered experimenting with dogfood doping, was just happy not to have been selected as the victim.Mistermaumau12-04-2025
- Veganpotter, I’d take that as a compliment, like not knowing how to manufacture a bomb :-)Mistermaumau12-04-2025
- Most of us really overlook the reality of what happens physically when a bike tire goes over cobbles, we are too focused on experience, feeling and intuition to actually look at what should be a microscopic slow-motion analysis. I think it would help many to better imagine what is happening by comparing the situation to differing boat types advancing on wavy waters. You start with typical boats and play around with wave height and amplitude and then you progress onto more advanced designs, motorboats, catamarans, hovercraft, jetskis, gliders on different types of waves. Nce you can eliminate most of the wave and just skim the tops, the wave topography reduces to something minimal, this is the grail of bike design for cobbles, tough because no cobbled sector has exactly the same pattern. Does anyone know if wheel size is UCI regulated or is there a margin?Mistermaumau12-04-2025
- Alsene, I tend to agree but it’s incredibly complicated to calculate who has what advantage in which particular situation as the variables are largely interrelated. As you note, the rolling resistance alone is affected by numerous criteria, all things equal it is easy to change one variable to determine whether the heavier or lighter rider has an advantage, however, when EVERY rider is free to play with ALL variables (tire pressure, bike stiffness, wheel seperation and dozens more), many of the advantages/disadvantages melt into a smaller overall a/d much harder to determine when there is not an enormous weight difference (we have riders from mid 50 - mid 90kg but most are much closer together). In the meantime each team has optimised the set-up for each rider so differences are nowhere near what they used to be 30-40 years ago but obviously there is and always will be some but without highly advanced scientific research (which no-one is likely to provide for free and investing teams will keep for themselves) I feel there is now little point in people like us trying to make any factor or point the determining one, none will ever outweigh the gains from drafting and strategy :-)Mistermaumau12-04-2025
- Firstly, it’s not them, it’s their doctors and consultants and people contacting them trying to sell their wares. Secondly, now that there’s money in the sport, they can afford it, and peddlers see lucrative opportunities to separate them from their earnings, not very complicated to follow, in fact, wasn’t the whole modern thing started by someone having access to an oversized sponsor budget as there was a good marketing alignment of nationalistic and feelgood stories?Mistermaumau12-04-2025
- Yeah, let’s just discuss important matters while the world goes to bits ;-) Enjoy your entertainment but stay responsible!Mistermaumau12-04-2025
- There are the Enhanced Olympics for that, funnily enough, no matter how much money is being promised, it doesn’t seem to be attracting many athletes except a few almost has-beens. In any case, all those in favour should be consuming too, with a disclaimer they won’t seek medical help once things go awry.Mistermaumau12-04-2025
- You have a very limited understanding of physiology if you think PEDs don't work. Some absolutely work better than others but not many will benefit you the moment you take it...methamphetamines being one of the PEDs the can help you right when you take them.Veganpotter12-04-2025