+8
30-11-2025 14:14
+20
27-11-2025 00:03
+3
24-11-2025 20:27
+1
24-11-2025 02:58
+2
23-11-2025 17:50
17-11-2025 02:46
+0
17-11-2025 02:42
+7
17-11-2025 02:35
+4
15-11-2025 21:24
15-11-2025 21:15
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+8
RidesHills
How old is the decision of the Vuelta coming after and not before the Tour? Not that old. It’s been 30 years, a nice experiment, but moving it back to April would be a return to tradition. Now, moving the Giro? Different story. But if the Vuelta could move in 1995, so can the Giro. Point being, it should be fluid. I think they should do it, and Pogacar’s reasoning is sound.30-11-2025 14:14
+20
RidesHills
Healy is a great character and a truly fun rider to watch. He’s a guy who finds the cracks in the system and finds a way through. Not always, but often enough. Really like the guy.27-11-2025 00:03
+3
RidesHills
Sure seems like Pogacar is going to try. Again. Imagine him on the podium for 11 in a row, winning 9 of them! It seems to absurd to say that, but is it impossible for the man?24-11-2025 20:27
+1
RidesHills
I don’t actually have a clue, but at some point there’s going to be a flat tire or crash that will affect the race. Maybe Mads Peterson. Honestly, if any pair can do it again, it’s them. They’ve won 14 of the last 16, which is absurd.24-11-2025 02:58
+2
RidesHills
I really doubt that the two of them will win all 5 monuments a second year in a row. There's a reason it never happened before. I just can't imagine it happening again. Then again, if I'm proven wrong, I'm good with that, too.23-11-2025 17:50
+2
RidesHills
Fabulous race, excellent tension, and Mason was great to watch. A disappointing second, of course, but so close to first. For a fan it was fun to watch until the very end - the sprint past the pond on the last lap, wow that was a great moment.17-11-2025 02:46
+0
RidesHills
When comparing all-rounders like Merckx, Hinault, Pogacar, as well as Coppi, Binda, or Bartali, a measure might be how many grand tours, monuments, and world championships they won, in total. Merckx stands at the absurd 33. Coppi and Pogacar are at 17 total. Hinault is at 16 - more grand tours, fewer monuments than Pogacar. Binda is at 14, Bartali at 12, and at 11 we hit de Vlaeminck, not an all-rounder, so there ends the ranking of the top 6. The crazy thing is that Pogacar has won all of these major races from 2020 to 2025, 6 seasons. Give him another 6 seasons at this pace, and he matches Merckx. Making comparisons while one person is an active rider, or saying "well, the 27 year old hasn't surpassed the major wins of the retired guy" makes no sense at all. Category error, but I guess it gets the clicks.17-11-2025 02:42
+7
RidesHills
It's not hating to point out that Merckx was doping and was caught doping multiple times. In the post-EPO era, he'd have been banned for a year or two or four and would have nothing like the palmares that he has.17-11-2025 02:35
+4
RidesHills
If we look at the major wins of grand tours, monuments, and world championships, then de Vlaeminck is sitting on a total of 11, all of them monuments, and Van der Poel is sitting on a total of 9 (8 monuments and a world championship). If we add cyclocross, well, we have stats there, too. (Pogacar, tied with Coppi at 17 total grand tours, monuments, and world championships, is way beyond de Vlaeminck by now.) Sometimes I think that what's happening is a guy was astonishing in what is by now his long-gone youth, and has waited decades for someone to surpass him, got used to the idea that nobody would (other than his buddy Eddie who was never normal anyway), and now this upstart Pogacar and this narrow-focused Van der Poel show up, doing things de Vlaeminck and Merckx never dreamed of (like winning 14 of the last 16 monuments between just 2 people) and suddenly he has to recognize that his decades of being on top might not mean what they used to mean. That has to be hard on anyone.15-11-2025 21:24
+0
RidesHills
An aside based on your last sentence: A friend recently pointed out that the second fastest people on the planet up all these astonishing climbs were... the sprinters. Even in the grupetto, they're climbing like no normal human can.15-11-2025 21:15