Tadej Pogacar's attack was 2 hours 16 minutes 5 seconds long. During this time he rode 101.5 km with 1600m elevation at an average speed of 44.75 km/h. The last 51 km of them on his own. The green aliens are real! 🤯 #Zurich2024
"What he did was outrageous" - Alejandro Valverde calls Tadej Pogacar the best cyclist he's ever seen
CyclingTuesday, 01 October 2024 at 18:00
Praise has understandably been flying in from all angles toward 2024 world champion Tadej Pogacar after his incredible display in Zurich on Sunday afternoon. Legendary Spaniard Alejandro Valverde knows what it takes to win a Rainbow Jersey, but even the 2018 world champion was left open mouthed at Pogacar's 100km attack.
"It's true that there are some very good riders now and that we're living in a great era, with four or five great cyclists, but what Tadej has done is absolutely crazy," says Valverde to EFE on Tuesday, with quotes collected by ES Ciclismo, naming Pogacar the best cyclist he's ever seen. "Wherever he goes, he is a hit, and puts on a show. We have to be happy to experience what we are experiencing with him."
Despite his unrivalled brilliance in 2024, the somewhat monotonous nature of Pogacar turning up, dominating, and then leaving with all the plaudits has led to some online criticism of the predictable nature of the sport. For Valverde though, such criticisms are completely unfounded. "I don't see him as boring," Valverde insists. "It's clear that wherever he goes, he's the favourite and if he doesn't win, he's close to it."
"Many people say he's abusing himself because he wants to win everything, but the thing is that he has to win everything while he can, because there will come a time where he won't be able to," Valverde continues, speaking from experience. "We all know who Pogacar is. What he did was outrageous. To break away 100 kilometres in a 270 kilometre race, with such demands, and to be practically a minute ahead of all the favourites is crazy. We have to congratulate him for that display!"
"Tadej has to take advantage of his good years and enjoy them because you can see how much he enjoys himself on the bike, winning and losing," Valverde concludes.
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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