+1
16-06-2025 07:27
+5
10-06-2025 10:35
+0
03-06-2025 22:00
+3
03-06-2025 18:48
+2
03-06-2025 08:30
+12
01-06-2025 16:46
+11
01-06-2025 12:54
31-05-2025 19:54
31-05-2025 09:40
+4
30-05-2025 09:24
+1
Hill33
Maybe his DS instructed him not to go for the win, to save some energy for the Tour, so for once he was bored. Jonas may have also been told not to expend more energy than necessary, as he did not go all-out for the win. Apparently they even shared a joke, while effortlessly dropping the rest of the GC group.16-06-2025 07:27
+5
Hill33
And of course it also very much depends on the male cyclists' partners. It sounds like the health of Jonas's wife and second child were likely very important reasons why they did not wait anither couple of years.10-06-2025 10:35
+0
Hill33
I totally agree that the way UAE lost this Giro was terrible. Maybe Visma at the Vuelta is not the best comparison. (That Vuelta was more as if Pog had unexpectedly started this Giro but been too sick for two weeks to compete with Ayuso or surprise leader Del Toro, then over three stages raced back to almost take the lead)03-06-2025 22:00
+3
Hill33
The 2023 Vuelta was becoming a PR debacle for Visma, as Jonas followed Roglic on Stage 17 and almost wiped out Kuss's lead, just 8 seconds between Kuss and Jonas. But after listening to the fans they threw their weight behind Kuss and turned it into a PR success.03-06-2025 18:48
+2
Hill33
Pogi can also be good at devising his own winning strategy under stress, like in the sixth stage of the 2023 Tour, where he bounced back from a Stage 5 that was so bad he just wanted to go home to surprise and drop a top-form Vingegaard in the finale.03-06-2025 08:30
+12
Hill33
Yes, I do think he was getting very unhelpful orders. But I was still shocked and sad. At some point I was hoping he would pull the earpiece out and just ride till he was spent!01-06-2025 16:46
+11
Hill33
However awful UAE's tactics were, and however bad the fear of being cracked again by Carapaz were, it is still almost beyond belief that Del Toro stopped fighting. Very sad, he had shown such fighting spirit.01-06-2025 12:54
+3
Hill33
When Van Aert joined the breakaway, my first thought was 'I hope they're telling Del Toro to stay glued to Yates's wheel'. He stuck to the wrong wheel for some reason.31-05-2025 19:54
+3
Hill33
This was the year Pog missed his entire team altitude training for the Tour due to a complex wrist fracture! Sean Kelly correctly predicted Pog would 'run out of gas' in the last week due to his extreme lack of training, based on Kelly's own experience of this. Gianetti appointed Adam Yates as co-leader of UAE in that Tour because 'there are no miracles in cycling' - Pog had not been able to put in the training to win.31-05-2025 09:40
+4
Hill33
Everyone knows that Pog i s taking a risk by focusing on training exclusively for the Tour for only a few weeks instead of all year round, as Jonas does. But Plugge could easily mention this as simply a choice that Pog has made, which has been accepted up to now. Instead, he changes the narrative to insist that the real truth is Jonas is naturally better able to handle accumulated fatigue than Pog is. More psychological warfare than marketing.30-05-2025 09:24