Lance Armstrong on Tadej Pogacar: "He is one of the 3 best cyclists of all time"
CyclingTuesday, 23 July 2024 at 12:54
Lance Armstrong has been one of those who during the Tour de France has jumped on the bandwagon of the wave of criticism towards Tadej Pogacar for being "greedy". However, the American has finally capitulated to the Slovenian after his latest Tour de France triumphs and has no doubt that he already has a place in cycling history.
"He's generational talent, we can say he's one of the top 3 cyclists of all time." He was thoroughly impressed with the time trial that closed the race in Nice on Sunday, making it clear on his podcast The Move who the strongest riders were in a historic race:
"I like to call the time-trials the race of truth and Tadej Pogacar has represented the yellow jersey, it seems with one leg, winning by one minute, taking a lot of risks, like everyone else. The other fact of this time trial is that the top 3 of the podium ended up occupying the first 3 positions in the TT. That speaks for how tough it was".
Johan Bruyneel, Armstrong's former sports director at US Postal and current commentator on his podcast, dropped some colorful facts about how historic the 2024 Tour de France has been:
"All the records have been broken, all of them, on all the climbs, and not just by the first one, sometimes by the first 3, sometimes even by the 7 or 8 and I think it's a dynamic that's going to continue, everyone is getting better."
He wanted to highlight, in addition to Tadej Pogacar himself, the great team of UAE Team Emirates with riders like Joao Almeida or Adam Yates performing at a sublime level:
"He has riders who have been podiums in grand tours like Almeida and Yates supporting him, First, fourth and sixth I think is a great result, in all the mountain stages, especially in the last 3 mountain stages they were very dominant compared to his big rivals, Visma. He had the best team and was the best rider, what can you do against that? 6 stages winning the Tour with more than 6 minutes with the second, and he could have had 7 or 8 ahead if he had pushed harder in some moments."
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- There are so many counterpoints, Bolt and Bubka were never boring, nobody complained about it either. Normal people also like to watch for reasons other than being surprised or pleased by results. Pro also stands for progress, none of these guys are aliens, they’re just ahead of their time but others catch up when they learn what made the difference. Besides, he doesn’t win as often or regularly as some in other sports, even team sports. And, he’s “easily” beaten when the course doesn’t suit him.Mistermaumau02-05-2025
- Even if ROGLIČ is there?Ride197402-05-2025
- "If someone else is better, then you help them." When? I've never seen him helping CONSISTENTLY a teammate. He runs in the back of the peloton, hidden, to avoid help (in UAE and in Spain team). If someone (Almeida, Adam) shouts and scolds him, then he goes ahead and pulls for few minutes/kms (simulation of help).
maria2024202402-05-2025 - I see a list of South Americans for this Giro again: Richard Carapaz, Daniel Martinez, Egan Bernal, Nairo Quintana, etc.Ride197402-05-2025
- I'm sure Ayuso will win and big too, cept theirs always a nemesis in some way..
leedorney02-05-2025 - Harper over Zana in the Giro? I do not think so.petosagan2302-05-2025
- When I play football (soccer) with friends, I know I'm not able to do what Messi does, even in his older age. When I play basketball with friends, I'm not Jason Tatum or that new college kid, Cooper Flagg. When one person wins nearly all the F1 races in a season, as happens so often, does that mean we've lost the magical closeness of Fangio to what driving on real roads used to be like? I expect to watch stellar athletes when I watch professional sports, and I know how hard they work to arrive at those skills and efforts. (My daughter was a semi-professional athlete, and now coaches. The training involved is unreal.) When I go for a ride through the local hills, I know I'm slow (I'm also past 50 by a chunk). My bike is slow, my legs are slow, I'm so much slower than I once was, and I love every moment of being out on 2 wheels. My enjoyment of the sport has nothing to do with how good the pros are. Any athlete treating this remotely like an amateur sport (in terms of weight training, nutrition, lack of altitude camps, and so on) will not succeed. Sky, then Jumbo Visma, then UAE, made the sport more precise, more focused, and harder to win. That's what the pro in professional means, doesn't it?RidesHills01-05-2025
- MSR no competition? From the Cipressa onward, that was the most amazing MSR finish I've ever watched! Same with Paris-Roubaix, which together with Flanders had the racing start much, much earlier than before. Perhaps by the finale things are decided, in some cases, but the racing has been incredible.RidesHills01-05-2025
- Anyone who isn’t, isn’t close to their limit. Limits are very different from one person to the next but unless you have a mental incapacity, you should always be scared at your limit, if you’re not, you probably won’t live long.Mistermaumau01-05-2025
- That’s most likely true yes.Mistermaumau01-05-2025
Lance is no1, then Merck, then Tad, for now...
who are the other 2??
Merckx is #`1 and probably Bernard Hinault is #2. 2nd is debatable but it has to be based on the level of competition. You could say that Merckx didn't have a tough level of competition but his record of many wins over one day races, many he won two to six or seven times. Including Milan–San Remo seven times, Tour of Flanders twice with four podiums in his off years, Paris–Roubaix twice with two 2nd places, Liège–Bastogne–Liège five times with a second and third, Giro di Lombardia twice with two 2nd's a one third, Paris–Nice three times with four other podium spots when he didn't win.
Merckx also won eleven Gt's, five Tours, five Giro's and one Vuelta, I think Merckx has to be #1.
Hinault had ten Gt's, five Tours, three Giro's and two Vuelta's, the only one day race that Bernard won and Pogi hasn't is Paris–Roubaix.
Indurain you can't count because he was in the pre test epo era and based on where he was placing until he exploded and started winning Tours, well, it's obvious what he was doing.
The other guys before Merckx, the competition and courses were just not anywhere close to modern cycling, even if you call modern cycling the 1980's forward.
Of course, this is Armstrong saying this so he probably thinks he was #2 with his 78 vo2 system lol
armstrong has a lot in common with both Merckx and Hinault. all of them have huge egos, and all were dopers. merckx caught 3 times. Hinault got suspended because he refused to submit urine.
Everyone is using something, including the top three in this last Tour. No one holds 500 watts for 45 min. Sorry, that doesn't exist, don't kid yourself.
a big, powerhouse of a rider like van der poel can come CLOSE to that. but all the muscle mass it takes to produce those numbers means that you shouldn’t be able to climb high mountains well at all. van de poel CANT. ganna can’t, etc. But 500 watts from a 135–145lb rider is harder to see.
Lance is slower than the top three in this years Tour, his timed runs display this. Lance weighed, at the start of each Tour, about 150 lbs, by the end of the first week he was always down in the 140's. in 2004 during the Alpe d'huez TT he averaged 495 watts for almost forty minutes. When you see guys climb a mountain with that much power you know there is something not quite right.
Athletes in just about every sport are performing at higher levels than ever, so great performances do not automatically cause me suspicion.
What *does* give me pause is the increase in his performance from previous years. Yes, he's still young enough to make natural gains, but we are not talking about a junior still growing. He is a 99.9% physically mature athlete who has gone to from historic to unprecedented in less than a year. I mean, just last fall he finished 2nd at TDF and 3rd at WC on a course that suited him. Now he is untouchable even by the same riders who were beating him, or least pushing him just a few months ago.
Every athlete in every sport that I have seen make that kind of leap after reaching maturity did so artificially. I go way back, all the way to Ben Johnson in sprinting, Barry Bonds in baseball, Michelle Smith in swimming, and of course Lance Armstrong in cycling. I'm not accusingTadej of anything, not least because I believe he is rigorously tested. But from his 80km solo at Strada through his demolition of the greatest GC field in TDF history, it has been....a lot. And the fact that it comes after switching coaches just adds to the uncomfortable feeling. I hope it's all legit, though, and will not join the "they'are all doping" crowd without more than this.
FYI...You did just join them!!!