"This start of the Tour de France is one I love" - Tadej Pogacar confident that he will quickly reach good form ahead of Tour de France
Cycling
Tadej Pogacar is on path to recover from the broken wrist he suffered at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but his run-up to the Tour de France isn't without it's changes from the initial plan. The UAE Team Emirates rider as good feedback on his expectations so far however.
“If you go for the overall victory like I do and you are not 100%, then I don't think you can enjoy it. But hopefully I will manage to be 100%," Pogacar said in a large press conference last afternoon. "Well, my wrist may not be completely back to normal then. Only you don't need your wrist to train your legs to 100%. I therefore have to wait and see how it goes in the Tour, but I suspect that I will enjoy it anyway.
The Slovenian revealed in the conference that he will, despite the tight schedule, be racing before the Tour de France, that will come at the Slovenian national championships. He is currently training at altitude in Sierra Nevada but will make a recon of a few mountain stages of the Grand Boucle in the period inbetween. "I prefer to finish a race before an important race and that's why I do the time trial and the road race at the Slovenian championship. I'm not really worried."
“I would start training on the rollers and then hit the road for two or three hours of training. Of course I ride with a splint. I now have a few of them: one for normal life, one for cycling and one - when the recovery is almost over - that still gives a little support for the wrist," he explains, giving an update on his injury. "I am working on it every day and I also feel better every day, without pain. After Monday's scans, we'll know if I haven't damaged the bone again by starting too early. I don't think so, because I'm not in pain. When it does look better, I can start to put a little more pressure on my hand each time.”
Work on his wrist is still ongoing, but he still has almost a month to build up form and improve his health. “Maybe during the Tour I also need a soft splint for a bit of support,” he admits. “I just hope that I get some mobility back, so that I can also break out of the saddle or practice my sprints before the Tour." So far, despite having returned to the road, his range of movement and efforts are still limited.
"I am looking forward to the first two stages in the Basque Country. Those are really beautiful rides, super tough," he comments on the Tour itself. "I prefer that to all kinds of flat stages in the first week. You immediately know who is good and who has the yellow jersey. Then it's not so stressful the days after. So it will be difficult for me to start the Tour fresh and immediately have to accelerate for two days. Two years ago we had a similar start, with two tough finals. Then I felt good and I like to hold on to that. This start of the Tour de France is one I love.”
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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