Tom Dumoulin on Tadej Pogacar's countless attacks: "He does it just to annoy Vingegaard. It has something to do with arrogance"
CyclingThursday, 18 July 2024 at 11:00
Stage 17 didn't bring too much action for GC favourites as is clear that the final standings will be decided in the last three stages. Hence it was finally time for breakaway show on Wednesday. However even with stage victory out of the equation, Tadej Pogacar still didn't miss the opportunity to make the stage harder for Jonas Vingegaard as he attacked on the penultimate climb of the day and then sprinted away to gain two seconds on the finish line.
Speaking to NOS, Tom Dumoulin, wasn't particularly impressed by Pogacar's act, which he considers rather pointless wasting of energy. "This is a pure bluff, it's a mere show of strength. Pogacar is three minutes ahead, he doesn't need to do this. He does it just to annoy Vingegaard. It has something to do with arrogance," he believes.
According to the Dutch former winner of Giro d'Italia, it's more of a mental war between Pogacar and Vingegaard. The Slovenian now finally seems to have an upper hand again and prefers to have everyone know it. "Pogacar can't stand the fact that he has been beaten for two years in a row. Now he has finally returned to being the boss and has the legs to hurt Vingegaard again. His thought is: now it's all coming back to you."
With four more days of racing ahead, Tadej Pogacar has a nice lead of 3:11 on Vingegaard. Meanwhile the third spot Remco Evenepoel was able to recover a bit of time in Superdévoluy and now stands a bit less than two minutes further from the Slovenian.
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- Sometimes I am, you’re right. Seems like a waste of time to live life on the toilet. Do you feel better now you’ve managed to unload some of your frustration on a completely anonymous poster?Mistermaumau17-05-2025
- Come on Loren, don't make me wash your mouth out with soap.awp17-05-2025
- I hope they are arrested, promptly.awp17-05-2025
- That's because you're full of shit, per usual.verve82517-05-2025
- I agree with Tom's stategy for UAE to take the offensive. As shown in his tt performance, Roglic is in excellent form. He's being patient, pacing himself, saving his energy for a few decisive stages. Look at how far down his teammates were on stage 7. He gave them the day off to save their legs too. Today they deliberately gave up the maglia rosa to Astana, who will defend it fiercely for the UCI points. Brilliant strategy, taking the pressure of the team until the crucial final week.velodan17-05-2025
- Good news. I’ve done two weeks of riding there between 1200-2200 and never once noticed being at altitude (but did see benefits upon returning) except on a hike after the two weeks feeling a little nauseous half an hour around 3400 but then nothing anymore all the way up to 4500. I once heard altitude sensations are less intense near the equator but can’t find much to support that.Mistermaumau17-05-2025
- I love to see Bernal back in front. I hope he can seriously go for the podium
DareDevil17-05-2025 - That is if the championships actually take place there this year.
MrCampy17-05-2025 - Wout is Right. They should be arrested. I mean they can't even protest right. The item holding isn't even Palestinian, its mesopotamia and used by many groups, well before the idea of a Palestinian Arab existed. I just hope the Italian police act but I wouldn't be suprised if they don't. It's time we all stand up to these terror supporters.HoopoeChai17-05-2025
- Not directed at you: Firstly, not going to trust a list that features Jay Vibe 28mins down. Secondly why if gaining 4 seconds over 500km is devastating do we criticise a superlative when Reusser gets ejected 20 seconds over 1km? Thirdly, is Matxin happy to tacitly leave his remaining riders to fight each other at the expense of team structure? I think yes. There’s a cat and there are mice and they can do what they like as long as the cat is away. I’m pretty sure the « selfish « attitude of Ayo is partly due to encouragement, after all, has anyone heard or witnessed him getting disciplined for any initiatives? It’s a little easy and cheap to focus attitude criticism on riders alone, there’s more to it.Mistermaumau17-05-2025
Not sure why this article popped a year after it was published. I've been saying this all of last season and all of 2025 season. Pogi has gotten arrogant. Last year was bad and this year he races with rainbow jersey so it may even be worse. I like to see that he's not had the success he wanted for 2025 tho. I was hoping that would bring him down a peg or two. One thing is certain for me tho and that's the fact that Pogi has now reached a level of arrogance and he plays nice to the cameras to make his "new" fans think he's awesome but those of us that have watched the sport for decades see right thru his act. He's fun to watch race but I've lost all interest in him after 2024 season.
I suspect they have clock syncing problems, two of the IDs have a post at an identical 24:52 (this time format already indicates one problem) on May 4th this year even though those posts don’t show in the chronology of Latest Posts, which indicates they also have time stamp and chronology problems too. The automated information on the internet (time, date, stock market figures, calculations, conversions, etc. are notoriously prone to programming errors and being overlooked. It doesn’t help that virtually no website has a dedicated no-reply link for users to report errors simply without having to navigate opaque hidden general contact addresses or menus.