Lance Armstrong warns Tadej Pogacar that greed for victories could turn out to be "the biggest mistake of his entire career"
CyclingSaturday, 20 July 2024 at 15:22
Tadej Pogacar's fourth Tour de France 2024 stage victory on Friday at Isola 2000 has caused quite a stir in cycling. Lance Armstrong even took a swipe at the upcoming Tour de France winner on his podcast The Move. The American ex-pro believes winning too many stages could come back to bite the Slovenian later.
"What we saw here is the biggest mistake of his entire career. I promise you that," Armstrong is very fierce. "The other teams don’t like this, the fans... Then you can say that the people back home in Slovenia like it, yes, but you are also riding against the Belgian Remco Evenepoel, against Jonas Vingegaard from Denmark. Two big countries in cycling. You are riding in France, with the French media. This is a huge mistake on his part."
"Then I hear the reactions: it's a race. Yes, that's true, but it's also a political campaign," the American continues. "Don't give people a reason to hate you. And I like to repeat that. Don't give them a reason to hate you. And if that's too much? Then don't give them a reason to dislike you. And even more important: Don't give them a reason to doubt you. Don't give them a chance to question your greatness. And he did do that, that was his biggest mistake."
Armstrong wants to add something to that later in the podcast. "I am really a fan of Tadej Pogacar," he says. "As a fan and supporter I said: don't do this, don't do this. I wanted the best for him. He could have caught Jorgensen and taken a stage. I have had many of these situations. On the Mont Ventoux I let Marco Pantani win the stage, but he was not happy with that. That felt like an extra blow to him. That didn't feel good either. But Pogacar has to look at the final podium in Nice. That is the real victory."
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santiagobenites08-05-2025 - I wouldn't call 24 seconds destroyed. At the end she was suffering and Reusser was slowly reeling her backabstractengineer08-05-2025
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That's true enough, but he, like so many short-sighted tyrants, is forgetting that he's bullying them in a best-case scenario for him/worst case for Jonas/Visma. In future conflicts, I suspect he's going to pay because he has shown that he'll throw his own people under the bus (Landa today) in favor of his own interests--not a strategy that inspires loyalty. Visma , meanwhile seem to have built a team culture that creates a team better than the sum of its individuals. And Pogi has made it into a feud. What are the odds Visma is ever going to have worse luck than this year? Pogi's day of reckoning is coming.