"I would hate to race against him" - Lance Armstrong expecting Tadej Pogacar to continue dominance at the Tour de France

I agree with you.I personally think Vingegaard will beat Pog in the tour.He wasn’t really tested in the race.So it’s hard to make any assumptions on him doing the double.

It was the fastest Giro in history. He wasn't really tested, lolol

As I pointed out in a post you must have missed, do some thinking and calculations of the average speed he had and the “unknown” guy in 10th or 20th had, they also had the fastest Giro in history by a long way so it really had nothing to do with Pog as an individual.

Adding to that, having a capable rival doesn’t always increase average speed as strategies are then often completely changed. If you’ve ever raced, you’ll know that the constant changes in pace as riders try to shake off others make for a slower average than a group or breakaway riding at a constant pace.

You must be the .00001% who thinks he’s doping ! You should really get out more !

Oh, I'm just now realizing that I've accidentally wandered into the contest for the stupidest justification in some internet debate, which you desperately want to win again this year...

Where did you show up from ? The underside of a rock ? Bring on any proof but until then you’re just a hater !

How can he be doping? Nowadays the stage winners get tested, the race winner gets tested. I just dont see how he could be without getting caught out? Explain please if you know different?

Why is that important? Jamaïcain runners suddenly became great sprinters (but they haven’t found another Bolt), East Africans suddenly became great long distance runners whilst miniscule Luxembourg has historically had great cyclists (not really family related, same diets, climate and geographic location as the French, Belgians and Germans, no obvious reasons).

Cycling is a niche sport, it doesn’t take much for an untapped source to suddenly produce a string of talents. Slovenia is an ideal place for cyclists to evolve, clean, healthy, good climate, safe traffic, plenty of mountains. The current bunch all have one guy to thank who was obviously an ace at spotting potential and nurturing the right minds. If you compare to Luxembourg, it is “abnormal” they’ve consistently had 3-4 riders in the pro peleton over the last 20 years, most cycling jobs come with connections and networks, sons of, friends of, teammates of, rarely do scouts go testing in anonymous schools or clubs as they would in football or in the Chinese (and American) philosophy. It only takes one good rider somewhere for 2-3 others in his “entourage” to get a good chance of following.

Regarding doping itself, you overestimate the ability of doping to stay secret, Lance’s advantage was that he had developed a Trumpian system of faking, pressuring and avoiding the authorities, his doping was “well established” and “visible”, it just wasn’t possible to do much against it until enough people found the courage to go against his machine. There is no current rider who seems to have any form of authority over or collusion with doping inspectors so how they would avoid getting caught is a mystery.

Besides, there is one very important factor you ignore, anyone (except if it is a national program as we might expect from maybe Russia or N. Korea) developing a doping technique as successful as virtually guaranteeing GT wins or Olympic or WC gold medals, is not going to stay satisfied keeping it all reserved for one individual, they’d want to promote it to others (who’d get interested seeing the results) too. Lance’s doping was done by others too (not only in his team) just without the advantages he could count on and the psychological strategies he’d developed to deny.

Who else is using the current doping then, and why only in cycling, and if it is a Slovenian insider thing, how come they haven’t become known in any other endurance sports?

Maybe you should not only ask yourself questions but also think about answers BEFORE making accusations?

Quit hating ! He was racing against an inferior GC field !

Sorry man but Coleman is a snail in comparison, I have no idea why you compare him to Bolt.

At least the 100m record is an easier topic to discuss.

Coleman is past his best probably so let’s look at his best perfs from 5y ago, 200m is not even worth discussing, his 100m time is good enough for a WR from 20y ago and the difference between him and Bolt is still like the difference between him and what guys were doing 50!!! years ago.

Apart from Gatlin for a month or so in 2006, Jamaïcains have held this record for almost 20y now.

Bolt’s record is now 15y old and guys are slowing down not speeding up, don’t think anyone runs under 9.8 anymore. This is one of the most sought after records and it may stick for 50 or even 100y if some alien doesn’t come along, he made it look so easy I don’t think anyone realises how effing incredible that time is, it’s like 2024 hitting 5 degrees of global warming ;-)

Actually that's not uncommon - in small countries when an athlete is successful most kids look up to them and get interested.

No shock that’s. Lots of small countries excel in sports. Why so many great cyclists from Denmark? Why so many speed skaters from Holland? Why does Norway win so many winter Olympic medals?

And anyway, often it’s only periodic. Don’t see anyone on the way to replace Rogliç and Pog.

Finland had its glory days in athletics, Uruguay and Hungary in football, always suddenly and then never quite the same again.

That’s a lot of zeros but would still leave about 800 people if the global population was interested, way less than flat earthers.

Did you also realise you couldn’t manage without creating an ID just for saying this?