Pro Cycling 2022

Very impressive so far from Pogacar, he's ridiculously complete. Looks hard to beat but let's see whether Vingegaard has the edge on the big climbs.
 
Jev said:
Very impressive so far from Pogacar, he's ridiculously complete. Looks hard to beat but let's see whether Vingegaard has the edge on the big climbs.
Click to expand...

Yeah, no wonder he is a massive favorite to win the GC. But it was good to see Roglic was there towards the end as well. Jumbo-Visma still has a strong team, so they might be able to do something in the mountain stages later.
 
Mike Smalling said:
Yeah, no wonder he is a massive favorite to win the GC. But it was good to see Roglic was there towards the end as well. Jumbo-Visma still has a strong team, so they might be able to do something in the mountain stages later.
Click to expand...

Yeah, sure. Eating minutes.
 
Jumbo are the PSG of cycling teams. So much talent and power but no brains. What was the point of that WVA breakaway? Why is Roglic constantly in shit position entering hills/difficult stretches and as a bonus launches waaaay to early giving Pogacar a perfect leadout?
Just weird tactics all around. Shame that Vlasov had that crash but magnificant job by him and Bora to get back on and lose basically nothing.
 
So what are people thinking today? Another dominant Pogacar showing, or will we see Vingegaard take flight, smash the rest of the peloton and claim the yellow jersey?
 
Gonna be a very boring day until the last 10 minutes. I reckon it will depend if Bora is willing to pace otherwise the break will take this because UAE is dogshit.
 
Urska Zigart will be waiting at the top. Pog to go bonkers.
 
My first thought was that surely we'll have an early breakaway going for victory today, considering the ridiculous pace we saw yesterday. Then again, I thought the same thing before yesterday's stage and that turned out differently, so what do I know?

As @RobinLFC says, it seems Pogacar will be eager for victory since this climb is special to him and his family is waiting at the top. I'm not sure he has the team to chase down a break though. Honestly I would prefer if not a single other team wants to chase and they all leave it to UAE. Pog is phenomenal but other teams seriously need to stop helping him. No one is going to beat him in a fair fight, so just let his team suffer. It depends on who's in the break though.
 
What. A. Finish. Vingegaard is fecking strong but Pog is simply godlike. I don't know what to say anymore. Spare a thought for Kämna, this is just cruel.
 
Heart is still racing after that :lol: That's what the TDF is all about!

Clearly Vingegaard is the strongest on the Jumbo-Visma team and second strongest in the Tour. Pogacar is just too good. Barring an accident he will easily win the GC.
 
Mike Smalling said:
Heart is still racing after that :lol: That's what the TDF is all about!

Clearly Vingegaard is the strongest on the Jumbo-Visma team and second strongest in the Tour. Pogacar is just too good. Barring an accident he will easily win the GC.
Click to expand...
Don't get that vibe at all. Pogacar is better in most terrains but on the big climbs where the tour is won and lost, I have a sneaking feeling Vingegaard is slightly better. He looked the stronger climber today and very nearly had Pogacar dropped but then Pog has that finish. This was more of a Pogacar mountain than a Vingegaard one so let's see what happens when they get to the long, arduous climbs that take them all the way to the clouds. Think Vingegaard has a genuine chance here.
 
Jev said:
Don't get that vibe at all. Pogacar is better in most terrains but on the big climbs where the tour is won and lost, I have a sneaking feeling Vingegaard is slightly better. He looked the stronger climber today and very nearly had Pogacar dropped but then Pog has that finish. This was more of a Pogacar mountain than a Vingegaard one so let's see what happens when they get to the long, arduous climbs that take them all the way to the clouds. Think Vingegaard has a genuine chance here.
Click to expand...

I really hope you are right, and Vingegaard certainly looks strong. But Pogacar is just really, really good in the 'real' mountains as well. I remember him smashing everyone up Luz Ardiden in the last mountain stage last year. On top of that, he will probably take a decent chunk of time in the next time trial.

We'll see what happens. It is set up nicely for the rest of the Tour, but he is a massive favorite in my view.
 
Jev said:
Don't get that vibe at all. Pogacar is better in most terrains but on the big climbs where the tour is won and lost, I have a sneaking feeling Vingegaard is slightly better. He looked the stronger climber today and very nearly had Pogacar dropped but then Pog has that finish. This was more of a Pogacar mountain than a Vingegaard one so let's see what happens when they get to the long, arduous climbs that take them all the way to the clouds. Think Vingegaard has a genuine chance here.
Click to expand...

I'll say Roglic has more of a chance, and it's a very small chance
 
Suedesi said:
I'll say Roglic has more of a chance, and it's a very small chance
Click to expand...

You think Roglic has a better chance of making up 2:45 on Pogacar than Vingegaard does making up 35 seconds?

That’s a bit mad considering Vingegaard beat him yesterday, rode a better time trial, and Roglic has had a bad crash.
 
Suedesi said:
I'll say Roglic has more of a chance, and it's a very small chance
Click to expand...
Roglic has zero chance to win this Tour. Guy barely got off his bike by himself yesterday, is in too big a hole already, and is also the inferior climber to Vingegaard and Pogacar at the moment.
 
It's clear as day Vingegaard is stronger than Roglic this year. The signs were there before the Tour, this was just a confirmation. The way he made Pogacar fight yesterday, I don't see anyone else capable of that (on those gradients).

He's almost as good as Pog if you ask me, just that Pog is still a better punchy finisher and slightly better TT rider.
 
The big hope with Vingegaard is that if we go by last years indication (Ventoux), he could turn out to be better than Pog on long climbs in hot conditions which we'll have with Galibier, Granon and Alpe d'huez in the Alps this year. But I see a higher chance that Pogacar gets Covid with his teammate testing positive today than him losing significant time there.
 
Ainu said:
It's clear as day Vingegaard is stronger than Roglic this year. The signs were there before the Tour, this was just a confirmation. The way he made Pogacar fight yesterday, I don't see anyone else capable of that (on those gradients).

He's almost as good as Pog if you ask me, just that Pog is still a better punchy finisher and slightly better TT rider.
Click to expand...
That said I’m still convinced JV has some sort of US Postal / Quick-Step like advantage against the rest of the peloton. Not necessarily “doping” but they are doing something the rest isn’t aware of yet imo.

Vingegaard meteoric rise last year even though he hadn’t really shown that much before that Tour.
Benoot going from a passable rider to a TdF difference maker. Same goes for Laporte.
Someone like Kuss riding with the best of them in the mountains.
…

I’ll never forget Popovich joining Lotto and completely sucking the next season. Then he went to RadioShack and suddenly became decent again :lol:
 
RobinLFC said:
That said I’m still convinced JV has some sort of US Postal / Quick-Step like advantage against the rest of the peloton. Not necessarily “doping” but they are doing something the rest isn’t aware of yet imo.

Vingegaard meteoric rise last year even though he hadn’t really shown that much before that Tour.
Benoot going from a passable rider to a TdF difference maker. Same goes for Laporte.
Someone like Kuss riding with the best of them in the mountains.
…

I’ll never forget Popovich joining Lotto and completely sucking the next season. Then he went to RadioShack and suddenly became decent again :lol:
Click to expand...
If you're not insinuating doping, then what else? They've been very open about their use of ketones. I don't see what else you could be pointing to other than systematic team doping.

Benoot and Laporte, they were more than passable riders before joining Jumbo. Benoot was 5th is first Ronde at the age of 21 and has had 3 further top 10 finishes since. He's won Strade Bianche, he's been second overall in Paris-Nice, two top 10 finishes in LBL as well. He's clearly always been an excellent rider who just has trouble actually winning stuff, but those riders usually make fantastic domestiques. It's no surprise at all. Laporte's palmares was less impressive but he still managed an 11th and 6th at De Ronde and Paris-Roubaix last year before joining Jumbo, so he just continued that upwards trajectory.
 
Mike Smalling said:
You think Roglic has a better chance of making up 2:45 on Pogacar than Vingegaard does making up 35 seconds?

That’s a bit mad considering Vingegaard beat him yesterday, rode a better time trial, and Roglic has had a bad crash.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think Roglic has more GT experience and a fully fit Primoz would be challenging. I'm not on Vingegaard choochoo train just quite yet.
Can't see past Pogacar though, unless he gets COVID, crashes or has a mechanical it's his to lose
 
Suedesi said:
Yeah, I think Roglic has more GT experience and a fully fit Primoz would be challenging. I'm not on Vingegaard choochoo train just quite yet.
Can't see past Pogacar though, unless he gets COVID, crashes or has a mechanical it's his to lose
Click to expand...
But you weren't talking about a fully fit Roglic. You were talking about a Roglic who's trailing by three minutes, is riding with pain and looked worse than Vingegaard even before his crash.
 
Impressive solo victory from Jungels, been a while since we've seen that from him. Pinot looked like he would close the gap but alas, it wasn't to be. I think he has a stage victory in him though.

Tomorrow is test day, let's hope we don't see half the peloton getting sent home or something like that.
 
Worries for Pogacar: George Bennett abandons due to covid and Majka tested positive as well, but with a low enough viral load to continue the race. How will it affect him though?
 
What a finish by Cort! Extremely clever on the entire climb, but of course a bit fortunate that Sanchez blew up,
 
You must log in or register to reply here.