"I'm gone. I'm dead." Tadej Pogacar's words to the team car after being dropped on the Col de la Loze 😢 #TdF2023 | @TeamEmiratesUAE
"The Anti-Pogi-Tour: a course that suits him as little as possible" - Expert claims 2025 Tour de France route is a direct reaction to Pogacar's dominance
CyclingFriday, 01 November 2024 at 09:05
2024 was undoubtedly the year of Tadej Pogacar in cycling terms as the Slovenian dominated the campaign, adding two Grand Tours, two monuments and a world title to his palmares among other successes. If he is to repeat such a feat in 2025 though, the Slovenian may have to do so, fighting against course designers according to Thijs Zonneveld.
"The Tour organization must have watched with horror at the way Tadej Pogacar decided one race after another prematurely last year. If he was at the start, the winner was known," writes the Dutch ex-pro turned pundit in his column for Algemeen Dagblad. "Nightmare for the shareholders of the ASO of course: after a week and a half they see all the TV viewers zapping away to Heel Frankrijk Bakt or the World Swimming Championship with that new French poster boy. So it can't be otherwise that they have thought about the Anti-Pogi-Tour: a course that suits him as little as possible."
In particular, a return to some climbs where Pogacar has memorably struggled in the past, stick out to Zonneveld as he looks for evidence to back up his theory. "On the Ventoux, Pogacar was dropped by Vingegaard in 2021, on the Hautacam he was quartered by Wout van Aert in 2022 and the Col de la Loze is from Pogacar's collapse in 2023. They are simply looking for all the demons of the Slovenian prodigy once again," he explains.
"They hope to revive the duel between Pogacar and Vingegaard, but the Pogacar of 2024 was not the Pogacar of 2023, 2022 and 2021. He had no weak spots last year: he was better than his rivals on every terrain," Zonneveld continues. "Let's hope that his competitors, with Vingegaard at the forefront, pull a rabbit out of the hat this winter. Otherwise, the 2025 Tour de France will once again be a one-man show. With these proportions, it doesn't matter how many of Pogacar's demons they put in the Tour."
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- Avoiding him is a good strategy, you get more wins and then you can compete in the TDF relatively relaxed. Pit yourself against Pogi and not only there will be no wins, it will be considerable mental setbackabstractengineer21-12-2024
- If you hold onto then, you blowup in a minute and then you finish 5 minutes down like Ben O'Connorabstractengineer21-12-2024
- Based on what argument?Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Agreed except the length of climbs, pretty sure you can stretch that to about a km unless we’re talking about half a dozen in quick succession.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Lot of contradictory information floating around world cup contenders, someone should do some tidying up.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- A bit much to suggest that Pogacar is better than MvdP on most terrains. The only terrain Pogacar is clearly better is long climbs, on any other terrain they are pretty even except flat cobbles and short and steep climbs (max a few 100 mtrs) where MvdP is clearly better than Pogacar.Velovibes21-12-2024
- The likelihood of RE improving enough at this point to outclass TP or JV is less than zero.verve82521-12-2024
- That’s the most stupid thing I’ve read for a long time, did you not go to school and learn even the most basic physics? Aero depends on one thing only, drag, drag depends speed and the relationship is squared and apart from maybe at zero or the speed of sound or due to side winds that relationship is valid at all speeds, it dies not “suddenly” start at a magic number. Very simply, the faster you go the more the effect becomes important. If you think 25km/h is needed to have noticeable effects you’re delusional, athletic WR are cancelled as soon as winds top 2m/s that’s 7.2km/h, why because the assistance is already too important at that speed and the times prove it. You don’t even consider wind which can significantly increase the effective speed for aerodynamics and you underestimate speed of climbs, 6% is ridden more at 30 than 25km/h, a speed at which early generation high rims were considered to have more advantages than disadvantages. And finally, as in normal races you can’t just switch bikes according to terrain, it’s pretty pointless to discuss climbs as a separate situation, the aero will have justified itself plenty during the rest of the ride.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- If you look at how much TP progressed in that 1 1/2 years you can no longer say that’s nothing. If Remco improves as much he’s a challenger!Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Froome wishing to ride the Vuelta...he won't even be selected for the team!frieders320-12-2024