"Tadej Pogacar is doing Tadej Pogacar things" - Game over for Jonas Vingegaard at 2024 Tour de France says Lance Armstrong
Cycling
Lance Armstrong, as he does every day after each stage of the 2024 Tour de France, discussed with his colleagues on his podcast The Move, George Hincapie and Bradley Wiggins what happened during a historic queen stage on Sunday.
The Texan summed up Tadej Pogacar's superiority over Jonas Vingegaard and the rest of his rivals on the Bastille Day stage with brutal simplicity: "Tadej is doing Tadej things."
Hincapie explained that everyone in the peloton knew that Team Visma | Lease a Bike were going to set a very strong pace on all the climbs, in order to see if Vingegaard could drop Pogacar and that was what happened and in their opinion at least, completely sealed the Tour. "Today we knew Visma was going to pull from the start, everybody knew it in the peloton that they were going to do it, we can now sit here and criticize that tactic, but I like that aggressiveness," Hincapie analyses. "Pogacar is better, I think today Pogacar has won the Tour unless something weird happens."
Armstrong, for his part, believes UAE Team Emirates did the right thing. After several days of playing kamikaze, yesterday they let their rivals work so that in the end Pogacar destroyed his rival: "We've been very critical of the tactics and the aggressiveness, but today he raced perfectly," assesses the controversial American. "We're going to let them control, we're going to let them get their race going and what had to happen happened."
"We never saw Pogacar going to the limit with the attack," Hincapie adds.
Sir Bradley Wiggins is one of those who thinks that with the two stars of world cycling at 100% Vingegaard would beat Pogacar and that is why, the Slovenian decided to ride the Giro d'Italia this year. In the current circumstances, it is clear to him that it doesn't matter what tactics Visma uses because the Dane is a level below the Slovenian after his crash in the Itzulia Basque Country earlier this year however:
"I think Visma did what they had to do, they were in Pogacar's hands, they had to try something different. Even if Visma was 100 percent, the result was going to be the same, because this depends on Jonas being 100 percent, and he's not."
It makes sense that Vingo could do an even better ride without his life threatening injury 3 months ago. They love Pog they're always raving about him. You're just a Pog fanboy so you were hurt when they said Vingo could be even better at 100%. Why are you so sensitive? Everyone is allowed to have their opinions.
Just tell me you don't watch their podcast. It doesn't make sense that he's performing like this three months after his injuries unless he's at a 100%. Like I said, if that's his recovery pace you better start believing in miracles. It's more reasonable to assume that he recovered so fast (albeit how remains unknown) than it is to assume he's performing like this unrecovered.
How? Because until this year Visma was the best team with the best riders. Now, with Roglic and others gone or not at the TdF, JV is not as good as Tadej Pogacar. And let's not even begin to discuss the doping part of it. Because, yes, it is just as bad as it use to be. And anyone who thinks it isn't is just not facing reality
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- Yep I think he must still be recovering from that crash last year. He has done well to get over that, but I would bet it will take some time yet to get back to peak pre-crash fitness. This latest "off" will not have helped.Cyclingsbestfan17-03-2025
- Doesn't mean anything. In 2023 he was only 3rd at Paris-Nice but then won the toursomeeffingname17-03-2025
- MSR is the race that brings the Spring', proper for better or worse...
leedorney17-03-2025 - Not sure that’s the whole story otherwise babies would be a lit more susceptible to nose bacteria too. Obviously cyclist breathe far more than average humans which should help keep things cleaner, on the other hand if you don’t clean your nose well or use an infected finger … and then why bacteria and not viruses? I would prepare mentally for more testing if this doesn’t solve things. Teeth and gums are the most overlooked entry point for infectious agents. Ears and eyes can also be easily contaminated.Mistermaumau17-03-2025
- Yeah, sorry, some people forget a few facts like him being in a similar age category as Tadej, Jonas, Remco, Tom and that there are plenty of promising younger riders developing too so it’s really quite far-fetched based on current givens.Mistermaumau17-03-2025
- If they learnt from 2024 MVDP/JP strategy, yes, possibleMistermaumau17-03-2025
- Name another race with 20 different winners in the last 30 years. This is probably the single most influential fact that points towards Tadej, or will it be Mads, or a « newcomer »?Mistermaumau17-03-2025
- Nobody asked you and you have very little future prediction precedent. 20 years ago no-one predicted Slovenian cycling domination, Tadej, Trump, Manchester United replaced by City, the recent serial UK Tory leadership or the drastic demise of German Olympic performance. Unfortunately JJ probably won’t be around much longer so can’t be held « accountable » if wrong.Mistermaumau17-03-2025
- Also, note how fast a counter article appeared, either naturally or as part of a comm. strategyMistermaumau17-03-2025
- Not sure, remember where he is saying it and what this person did for him. Perhaps he was coaxed into saying something to stimulate US interest or provocative to improve you know who’s media significance.Mistermaumau17-03-2025