+1
22-08-2025 22:59
+0
14-08-2025 17:44
+3
13-08-2025 11:51
01-08-2025 04:45
28-07-2025 03:41
+7
28-07-2025 03:34
+5
28-07-2025 03:33
+6
28-07-2025 03:31
+11
26-07-2025 03:54
+2
18-07-2025 22:24
+1
RidesHills
Vingegaard has a great engine for long climbs like in Grand Tours, but even his performance in Il Lombardia and Liége (where he competed earlier in his career) showed that he wasn't the right person for these shorter climbs on longer stages. I wonder how he'd do on the Mt Ventoux race.22-08-2025 22:59
+0
RidesHills
Just because the doping wasn't as effective as what came later doesn't mean it wasn't effective for its time. Look at EPO - all that craziness and those deaths, and people are now riding faster because they've decided to be professional about endurance, recovery, nutrition, carb loads, aero, and more. Doesn't change that EPO was an evil drug that nearly destroyed the sport. And Merckx? He doped, got caught multiple times, but those were different times. In this era, he'd have been suspended or banned, and would never had had the wins he does. That's nothing against him, it's just a comparison of ages and consequences for doping in each.14-08-2025 17:44
+3
RidesHills
Pogacar is statistically speaking (starting 2021) a more successful classics rider than van der Poel, has succeeded in plenty TTs that matter, sets record times on climbs, and lately has started winning the rare sprint. And he hasn’t been caught doping. The question has always been whether he can sustain this for 5 seasons. The difference is that a professional peloton is harder to ride in, and attritional tactics like happened at the Tour seem to bore and annoy him, making him less interested in hanging around another 5 years. He will likely end up like Hinault, retiring while still going strong.13-08-2025 11:51
+1
RidesHills
I’ve never quite understood how he did it, just running that engine on and on, but there he was, so essential to the Soudal QuickStep squad. Always amazing.01-08-2025 04:45
+3
RidesHills
If the tour hadn’t been decided by today. It would have been decided today. Imagine Wout van Aert having to protect his team leader Vingegaard, imagine a drained Vingegaard trying to do on day 21 what he was unable to do in week 1, defeat Pogacar in a classics stage. Today was a classics race, and van Aert was fabulous. He was in that position only because they neutralized the times and Pogacar had won the larger race many many days ago. Context matters.28-07-2025 03:41
+7
RidesHills
Ah, Simon Yates, so quickly forgotten?28-07-2025 03:34
+5
RidesHills
It’s telling that only on the last day, on a classics style day, they broke Pogacar. Jorgensen and van Aert managed an appropriate 1-2, and Wout pulled it off. Good for them! But when it was Vingegaard on those classics days, in week 1, they never managed to beat him.28-07-2025 03:33
+6
RidesHills
I think this is the first time I have really seen him tired, as in bone exhausted, since he came on the scene. The Tour organizers built a path to remind him of past losses, he won, but it took him out. For all those who say he is d0ping in some fashion: look at the man, he won, and yet he’s broken.28-07-2025 03:31
+11
RidesHills
Seeking merely a stage victory while sitting on the wheel, while second, while promising to try it all for the win. Perhaps there a reason Pogacar has been bored and tired of it all these last few days.26-07-2025 03:54
+2
RidesHills
That's confidence. And also probably a desire to not have people shouting in your ear makes things calmer, which could help with the focus.18-07-2025 22:24