Tadej Pogačar had one rival remaining in Mathieu van der Poel and ejected him on the early slopes of the Oude Kwaremont. Van der Poel did not crack but the gap began to open and the world champion was away. This was the moment the race was won.
It took some time for the early breakaway to form. Eventually a group of 13 were away, notably with Silvan Dillier from Alpecin as a potential relay rider for Mathieu van der Poel and also Sainbayaryn Jambaljamts of the BH-Burgos team, the first Mongolian professional. Imagine a Flemish wrestler taking part in the Naadam?
UAE and Red-Bull were left to pull the peloton but they were halted by a level-crossing and officials when part of the peloton made it through when the red light was flashing. This is against the UCI rules which say passing when lights flash is a disqualification. But just as nobody racing looks at traffic lights when approaching a junction, nobody will look at the level crossing so there’s a grey zone for stopping time, a few flashes can allow a few riders through. The only consequence was it gave the breakaway some added time.
Amid a reported million people by the road and the strijdvlags slapping in the wind all day the peloton had to be on alert. Normally the Eikenberg-Holleweg-Molenberg section sees the race begin to open up and gives teams a chance to fire riders forward in longshot raids or make tactical moves by sending a lieutenant clear. Only Nils Politt was baring his teeth as he towed the peloton and UAE formed a 16 rider group with Tadej Pogačar and his team mate Florian Vermeersch, Mathieu Van der Poel was there, Remco Evenepoel and just in time Wout van Aert made it. Did UAE plan it or was it forced on them as they were running out of riders with Cosnefroy crashing and Morgado on a bad day?
So much for anyone trying to anticipate Pogačar’s moves later, the main move was sailing away with 100km to go and little more than 20km later caught the morning breakaway. Pogačar looked fidgety here, seeming to do more work than others while rivals, notably Van Aert were sat tight.
The penultimate time up the Oude Kwaremont saw Pogačar attack and briefly we got the “big four” billing as he went clear with Van der Poel, Evenepoel and Van Aert. But it was fleeting as Van Aert was distanced. Next came the Paterberg and Evenepoel was ejected here to leave two riders in the lead.
Evenepoel was not dejected and began a long time trial to get back to Pogačar and Van der Poel. He could do nothing else as Van Aert and Mads Pedersen were behind, to continue guaranteed a podium finish. He was agonisingly close, a handful of seconds in it for a long time but in splendid isolation all the time. Up ahead his two targets benefitted from a TV moto. Pogačar was anxiously checking where Evenepoel was and adjusting his efforts to keep the Belgian away. Van der Poel was taking shorter, lighter turns but still sharing the work.
The infamous Koppenberg came and went like a mere canal bridge. With the contest now down to two it was like a roulette in a casino and betting on red or black rather than anything more complicated. Pogačar was betting on the upcoming climb of the Kwaremont, Van der Poel staying with him to win from the sprint.
As soon as the final time up the Oude Kwaremont began Pogačar stood up on the pedals and slowly Van der Poel was dropped. He did not crack and apparently had been working on just this scenario in the hope of making a steady effort to pace himself back. But he could not and while the gap was close on the Paterberg Pogačar was clear by six seconds and victory salute included, built this to 34 seconds at the finish.
The Verdict
Star power. If you wanted the stars in action you got it, if you wanted to see displays of power you got it. It was like watching a strong man contest where riders competed like village strongmen to lift barbells sagging with weights; or if you don’t like metaphors a wattage contest.
There was no surprise but still some suspense. Rather than tow the race to the Kwaremont with 60km to go, UAE split it with over 100km to go. And for long, Van der Poel was in a winning position, the reveal still came late, the final time up the Paterberg and there was only six seconds in it. But the hierarchy had been established long before.
The Ronde isn’t in danger of becoming a strength competition, it is. It lacks subtlety for this. But whether the organisers can prevent this is not so obvious, teams with the strongest riders still have an interest to make it so hard that everyone else is eliminated. Plus would Flanders Classics have it any other way, after a €395 serving of herring, wines and beer does does a ticket holder in the Paterberg VIP zone want to see Pogačar riding past first, chased by Van der Poel, then Evenepoel, then Van Aert? Would they settle for a group of twenty riding past which could go either way with the peloton behind.
Van der Poel could have tried to play with Pogačar’s nerves but he said it’s not his style. After all he wasn’t a limpet who’d latched on from the early breakaway, he too was racing to win and had to hope it was Pogačar who would crack. We may view their rivalry in columns of wins and losses but for them there’s more in terms of self-respect.
Many were keen to see how the Olympic champion might fare a in big one day race and Remco Evenepoel had a great day. Apparently he’d wanted to ride this before when at Soudal but management said no and a little more practice on the Paterberg could have seen him in contact with the lead two, if only until the next time but still. Indeed if this were a wattage contest, would Van der Poel come second or Evenepoel?
Van Aert of course finished fourth. But no mishaps this time and Pedersen still has Paris-Roubaix. This Sunday’s race looks like terrain where Van der Poel ought to be impossible to beat. But a year ago we wondered if Pogačar could cope with Roubaix.
It was interesting to me that Evenepoel lost time on the cobbles, whether uphill or flat. He was fine everywhere else. In his long TT effort he wasn’t losing any ground on the paved climbs/ramps. There is a certain way to ride on cobbles, some people float over them, some people hit every one of them. Evenepoel seemed to be more of the latter. I think he lost out, at least on second if not perhaps first, for a want of technique/skill/subtlety rather than power. Its maybe something he can work on and eventually move up on the podium.
Roubaix should be a real slugfest between MvdP and Pogacar, with perhaps Van Aert, Pedersen and maybe Vermeersch clinging on to their coat tails.
As mentioned yesterday I’m feeling incredibly well satisfied this Spring, brilliant surprising races in the lead up to this week, and then the Pog show Sunday before the will-he-won’t-he of Roubaix. Couldn’t really ask for more. It’s been an excellent season to this point.
I suspect Jonas, then Pog will quash the Grand Tours but this never annoys me as it’s been this way for 90% of Grand Tours I’ve ever watched (especially TDFs) so really not much has changed! There will be beautiful tales of the also-rans to keep me smiling and entertained.
Excellent review as always and thank you INRNG.
The funny thing that catches my eye from yesterdays comments is both R.Felt launching into Pog wishing he’d remained a special rider on a small team… as if that were ever going happen? The best riders get the most money and the best domestiques… this is the way of the world unless we change the entire way they go professional racing to something like a US model (which I’m vaguely in favour of as I do still think the sport can be better but regularly get told big ideas in this vein would ruin the sport we love!).
Then the kneejerk reactions to change Flanders (although I do think Richard S says so with tongue slightly in cheek), maybe it would work although might be a touch unfair on Pog in the eternal debate of him vs Merckx if all the races are suddenly stacked against him!! I do though wonder (and I’m not including Richard S nor Gabriele in this, always enjoy their comments!) whether the true fans who oppose any kind of change (despite there always being flux in this and any sport) suddenly change their tune once a juggernaut like Pog turns up to flatten the bucolic, backwater sport of yesteryear? I have no proof, just a hunch!
To be honest Flanders has never been my favourite race and I’ve often felt like it’s a badge of someone trying to show they’re a real fan of cycling to say Flanders is their fave (…Roubaix is so clearly better!) but I love the theatre of the new loop and that so many fans get to watch the men and women pass repeatedly. These past few years have really seen my love for the race grow – so huge congratulations to the organisers, it’s difficult to improve a race so old but they’ve done a great job. I’m very much in favour of more loop based races/stages especially in cities to get bigger crowds/interest in cycling plus often better racing (I’m thinking of the Naples Giro stage, Glasgow worlds, TDF Bologna stage, TDF revised Paris finale, all great imo!)
In the background I feel like there are some race organisers doing some brilliant work with limited means currently – and that often gets overlooked – StradaB is a masterclass in how to run a race, especially a new one. I’m also not opposed to some of the new Belgian races names everyone seems to hate, ‘In Flanders Fields’ is quite poetic, reminds me of a Japanese film title!
I’d LOVE and INRNG article ranking the best races organisers currently working? Top 10 organisers or something… give them their laurels?
On a totally different note, I’m also still extremely excited once we get a further away from this carbohydrate era for historians to tell us what was going on – as the shift of the past five years has been so dramatic I’m looking forward to knowing more than a GCN video can tell me!!
My comment about a UCI resolution to remove all hills from the last 60km of all bike races may have been slightly tongue in cheek, but my reaction in general is not knee-jerk. The general trend over the last however many years has always been to make the end of races harder, either in the real old days to ensure a selection as bikes and road surfaces improved and bunch finishes became more likely, or more recently just for spectacle. My reaction isn’t kneejerk as I have been moaning about it on and off, particularly in respect to Lombardia and Liege, for about 15 years. Now in the current strongman era, which may be set to continue with Seixas and Evenepoel, it applies to every race. Rare nowadays is the one day race that doesn’t have a solo winner, whether its Pogacar, MvdP, Pedersen or Del Toro is largely irrelevant. If you want races to be tactical, interesting and have suspense then currently they are all too selective. If you want to fawn over Instagram clips of a superstar crossing the line first they are just fine. It just depends what people prefer I suppose.
I’d genuinely like to see the Tour put a flat 100/150km TT in there to see if Evenepoel could take enough time to make a race of it.
When Sagan was in his prime I would have loved to see minute time bonuses like in the old times. I bet he would be very close to winning the whole thing.
In some years the Tour has given a 4 minute bonus to the stage victor.
Completely agree with races being too selective. And the other major factor, which for some weird reason almost no one wants to acknowledge, is that the lead group or rider is always motorpaced. Sometimes the chase is as well to a certain extent, but very often they aren’t. And as speeds have been increasing these last few years, being part of a larger group can’t simply make up for the massive advantage the motorbikes give.
Everyone is going to the wind tunnel, measuring the smallest marginal gain, but then someone gets motorpaced up the Poggio, wins by just 4 seconds over the first chaser, and nobody bats an eye. The draft could have easily been worth over 100W at times, and the amount of seconds saved must have easily been in the double digits. And this is just one of the worst recent examples, but it happens in pretty much every race. Remco would have probably made contact on Sunday if it wasn’t because Pogacar and MVdP had their motorbike in front and he had his behind.
Someone also got brutally motor-ahem-“paced” across Cipressa and then won (some years ago…), so now we can have a couple of ideas about the reasons for which teams hate so much compulsory UCI GPS on each athlete.
Jokes (?) apart, you’re right, and in Belgium (not exclusively so of course) it’s hugely apparent, sort of a “tradition” (palm face). As you say, up to a certain point it was “part of the game” but in more than one occasion it became deeply disturbing for the neutral spectator as a serious difference seemed to be made.
So someone must have forgotten to tell WvA about the motorpacing option at Dwars door Vlaanderen. Funny that Belgium’s favorite son would miss that 🤔
I keep wanting to do a post every spring about the “optionality” of being the first rider up the road. To spoil a longer piece if you are leading and have a small gap then you seem to have the right to the motorbike draft. How much this is worth is up for debate but being there gives some kind of help that those behind don’t always get. In short put yourself in the winning position and you end up with winning assistance that can help further but it’s debatable if it really sways the result. Or at least that’s the hypothesis.
The motorbikes are an issue, but this will hopefully be resolved soon with the emergence of drone technology for the TV transmission. That will reduce the number of motorbikes, leaving commissaires, police and photographers, of which the latter are the only ones who will get close to the riders at odd times and maybe provide drafting options.
Given what we have seen at the Olympics in terms of drone technology in TV transmission, that day is hopefully not far away anymore…If the rather conservative cycling world lets it happen…(how about a post about this Mr. INRG?)
Can’t see it happening yet as you need drones capable of flying 250km. Or unlikely, then a series of them posted along the route with pilots who know the route to avoid power lines, banners, arches, bridges etc. Then the drone has to deliver quality and stable images at rider level.
Where I think it’s ready is for filming static things like bunch sprints done from overhead, you could have a fleet to fly over the riders and film different angles.
So not soon it seems.
You could probably do it with a UAV (although the cost might be prohibitive) as it has a long enough loiter time.
Battery technology is coming along all the time but it’s unlikely we’ll see a cell pack with enough oomph to follow a race for six or seven hours – although solid-state technology might help if that becomes commercially viable.
At the moment, only a very big drone (think a Predator rather than a DJI) could hope to have enough battery power to do the job (and you might as well use motorbikes transmitting to a plan at that point).
I would be willing to give up some of the angles we get from motos in exchange for removing them from the race, or at least having them less omnipresent. They find a way to impact races far too often, and their footage is often not that interesting anyway. At the very least they should be removed from tight climbs/descents where they’re more a hazard than a help.
The answer to the drone range problem is “more drones,” but you’ll still want an (electric) motorbike on point as chaperone?
The range problem also applies to bikes and helicopters, who need to refill. For each major race, there are at least two helicopters. You can easily swap a drone out (even from a moving car or truck behind the race convoi..) and having a heavier drone operated by two persons (pilot, focusing on the flying and camera man, focusing on the image), solves the problem of obstacles..
Given the way technology evolves, I see it happening in the near future…if there is the will to try it (and that is very much in doubt)
#The drone
We’ve talked about this a few times before on Inrng, and I agree the technology is pretty much there, or very close. Much of it has advanced due to the tragic war in Ukraine. Mesh-based drone “swarms” could solve the range problem and probably most of the transmission and relaying issues too. Avoiding powerlines and towers is already standard, off-the-shelf tech. I’ve close-up seen stabilized 4K streaming over a multi-hop drone-mesh with barely a blink as drones replace others that need recharging.
The main obstacles are more likely to be operational, safety-related, and cultural. Would authorities and organizations like ASO or RCS be fine with a swarm of 50 to 100 or more drones hovering over a pack of riders, spanning several miles, with thousands of spectators crammed onto a narrow road during an isolated mountain climb?
Avoiding the cost of helicopters, the risks that come with motorcycles (and the constant motorpacing), while having the ability to cover nearly all riders, are potentially huge advantages—but I think it will take time….
small note – I have previously worked with drones pretty extensively and although this will all come to cycling soon, there are many reasons why we’re still a way off – it will happen for real when systems are fully automated with no need for pilots as transporting these pilots, range, communication issues, battery switches are the part of the overall reason why it’s yet to change: so once there’s a system where the drones can track the race by themselves and return to multiple recharge facilities along a route (again by themselves), plus send out replacement cameras without need for continuous prompting, then it’ll finally be goodbye helicopters and maybe even motos.
The same drones will likely also need to be able to respond to director prompts ‘go closer/further’ etc and when you factor in all these leaps (which are close technologically I’m told) you’re pretty much a AGI!!
I have tried as a commissaire – in vain – to have these camera bikes removed. I have had races where I had to address the issue afterwards as “the home boy” was “lifted” to the lone breakaway rider for a chance to win. Luckily, Freire was too fast on the line so Nick didn’t get the win anyway.
But through the small streets, it is virtually impossible for commissaires to see these things and – strangely enough – the local motos are always unable to get out of these narrow gaps and as a foreign commissaire, I don’t know when and where to request they leave the gaps. (And local commissaires are often too busy with other things in the thick of the race; “anderswo engagiert”)
Route fashions are pretty interesting…
You had a time recently when some of the big climbing tests were left right till the end of races like Amstel and Liege, until the boredom of waiting for riders like Valverde just to nip ahead at the last second encouraged organisers to push the sharp ascents backwards, and we were rewarded with multiple incredible races? You’re right to ask if they should now push the big tests further back, although if you look to StradaB the extra loop of the finishing circuit has actually only served to force Pog to attack earlier leading to a longer (and for some, more drab) procession…?? So would your solution work?
I’m not convinced you can do anything against this version of Pog personally, as if the hills are at the finish like MSR he’ll wait and if the hills are far out, like recent Worlds, he’ll go early – the only solution is either fewer hills or very shallow ascents which many would be outraged by as they change the historic nature of some races (LBL without La Redoute is pretty unthinkable?) plus once Pog’s retired these routes may lead to very dull races a la the Valverde era? (Aside from the fact of it being a little unfair to Pog and the history books to stack so much against one rider?).
Maybe there’s another more interesting issue at play with the Carb-era in that tiredness used to be the main issue for riders resulting in clever tactics, but having now learnt to fuel correctly and for multiple hours, both tiredness and tactics are disappearing, so maybe this isn’t really an issue with Pogacar and rather an issue with fuelling? So if fuelled correctly and minus any incidents, the best rider will now always win? (I don’t know whether this stacks up considering other classics have been so good this year, just putting it out there…)
If it is the case though, how do you solve that? Even longer races? Shorter races? I don’t know, but I am skeptical of your suggestion Richard S for other reasons listed above – (even though as you know I’m emphatically in favour of a dramatic calendar shift and other changes to racing overall for different reasons as I’ve outlined previously) – but my hunch here is whatever you do Pog is going to win more often than not currently and it’s more about waiting for the next era.
Personally I feel like any organisers are better to take a long term view because in almost every race without him we’re getting a treat and sometimes with him we’re getting all time classics (MSR ’26, ’25, Flanders ’23) – plus as I’ve also said here before: many many races were boring before Pog and if you look at the ratio of dull-to-great now compared to 2015 I’m really sure it’s that different?
Basically I don’t see that much wrong with the routes and races atm? The overall sport yes, but not most of the big races, it’s generally similar to what it ever was in terms of entertainment with two or maybe three differences – fuelling, tyre width and Pogacar.
While I might be a bit glass half empty compared to your glass over flowing all over the floor and causing a flood, I would suggest the evidence is out there. THe two least hilly classics are Milan-Sanremo and Gent-Wevlegem. Pogacar has won sanremo once, and then by the width of a tyre. MvdP has never won GW. They both work against the best rider. The absolute worst races, your Lombardia’s, recent Worlds, arguably Strade Bianche nowadays, are the ones with climbs a long way out, and then repeat climbs all the way to the finish. The gap gets bigger on every hill because each is a watts per kilo fist fight and the best watts per kilo can’t be beaten by any kind of teamwork behind or smart tactics. Some races have to have hills yes. But they don’t necessarily need hill after hill after hill all the way to the line. Liege could have La Redoute and then nothing. Its the hills after it that are the problem. Added in bit by bit over the years. Why Strade Bianche had to be altered at all is a total mystery to me. We don’t want to be in a position where the strongest rider always wins, other than rampant fanboys.
Well, only 2 stages into Basque Country, I’m afraid those who like squeaky bum time are in for a long 15 years …
As for SB, people kept wanting it to be the 6th Monument and I think the organizers were falling for the idea.
Personally, I lean towards “if you want to be the best you have to beat the best.” That was everybody else’s job Sunday and will be Pog’s job next Sunday. If Seixas keeps improving (and it sure likes he will) that will be his job soon and Liege and Lombardy might become seriously competitive.
This is quite a funny shift of positions Richard, I’m usually the one advocating for change (which I obviously still want just in a different way!)
I guess my answers to you are three fold:
1 I enjoyed your label of me as being overwhelmingly positive but I would ask – can you name a better Classics season at this point than ‘26? It’s been a remarkable few weeks? I would contest that my positivity is a better reflection of this current classic season than any negativity?
2 I do feel that if you take a longer view you find that one year a particular race is great and the next another race rises above the others, so to make modifications based on one season or one rider isn’t the best plan – plus beyond that many fans are excited to see which young buck comes through to vanquish Pogacar, so to see his reign ended by course changes would be a shame?
3 do you not feel my notes on lack of tactics/carb era/issues with changes just resulting in the strongest riders finding other ways to win (that some find dull) hold any water? This argument around Pog and this era feels bigger than just changing some courses to me? I’m in favour of change (as mentioned above) but I think they need to be larger and more long term than what you are suggesting here?
But yeah, agree to disagree if you think I’m away with the fairies!
I would encourage you though not to be derogatory toward other fans even if you consider them fanboys or fair-weather, this is such a tiny sport we should listen to abd welcome all comers otherwise we’re just lonely fanatics shouting in the void?
1) not off the top of my head, but I can’t remember much from one day to the next so thats not saying much. I would slightly counter your point by saying the good races have been the flat ones with either only very minor hills (MSR) or small hills along way from the finish (Belgian semi classics). Roubaix is flat and will be good. The major hilly classics, if both Pogacar and Evenepoel enter will finish with Pogacar 1 minute in front of Evenepoel and he in turn 2 minutes in front of everyone else. Ergo, too selective.
2) I would counter that by saying Lombardia has been routinely garbage for years and even if you take Pogacar out will remain so thanks to Evenepoel/Del Toro/Seixas.
3) I won’t lie, you are so prolific and your posts so long I don’t read them all. But undeniably something has changed. Long range solo raids by the top riders are the norm. They may remain the norm. So changing courses to reflect that change in rider/peloton behaviour/capability is reasonable in my opinion.
Ha, that’s fair enough – although I haven’t actually been posting on here regularly for nearly a year, so maybe I’m making up for lost time!
I think really I found some of Ryan Felt’s opinions in recent days way off base so thought I’d give the opposing opinion for anyone who cared to read.
People complain a lot – these races have been amazing. We’re in a very rare situation where you have 5-6 riders who are untouchable. I’m praying everyone is clean (I’ll settle for clean-ish), but I’m being optimistic it’s above board.
The racing is aggressive and Pogacar et al never hold back. It’s way better than the past 20 years where the Grand Tours were completely separate from the rest of the season.
While this lasts, I’m going to love each race, and then we’ll reset for the next batch!
+1
oldDAVE
“The funny thing that catches my eye from yesterdays comments is both R.Felt launching into Pog wishing he’d remained a special rider on a small team… as if that were ever going happen”
Well, MvdP has stayed with Alpecin, even though, aside from him, they have little more than Philipsen and a few lesser lights. I respect him far more than anything or anyone connected to the nightmare that is Team UAE.
To each their own, but I’ll make Richard’s words my own.
“If you want to fawn over Instagram clips of a superstar crossing the line first they are just fine. It just depends what people prefer I suppose.”
MVDP is an all time great but not a Tour De France winner – I cannot remember a single multi-time Tour De France winner who has ever not been soon supported by the best of the best domestiques and the richest team, aside from maybe Contador who had a strange career and is the anomaly for a reason.
Also, MVDP has an excellent team around him that you’re ignoring?
Silvan Diller is a runner-up at Roubaix himself and is just their work horse.
Gianni Vermeesch has finished top10 three times at Flanders&Roubaix.
Florian Senechal has finished top10 twice at Flanders&Roubaix.
And although you mentioned Philipsen, it’s still worth emphasising that he’s a far stronger foil than most Classics riders have enjoyed.
None are average riders in a Classics sense? If you go back through Classics winning teams this kind of line up is about par for the course? As is Pogacar’s back up when compared to previous all conquering teams like Visma, Sky, Astana…
I’m not arguing much here, just stating the obvious: money rules everything.
The best riders often have the best teams and such is life?
And talking about the Contador anomaly above, we should probably also remember MVDP owns a part of his team so is also a tiny bit of an anomaly – if you still think he’s team is weak, you’re reason for why is answered by knowing this?
Maybe the overall money in cycling and disparity between teams has risen recently but the real difference is the squad of UAE being exceptional as opposed to their race-to-race teams being that different to TDF winning teams previously.
To me you’re words are a fantasy that’s rarely possible in the version of procycling we are watching – but I should add that I’d like for this fantasy to be true even if the way to get there might be different to what you imagine: maybe starting with smaller race teams and overall squads might be a good place to begin as incremental changes that helps firstly struggling teams to fund themselves more easily (with fewer riders to pay) and races to be a little more chaotic (with more star riders forced onto opposing teams having less support)… the problem is most do not want small changes (let alone a US style draft system) plus any change like the above would also need to come hand in hand with a schedule revision that doesn’t pull poorly financed teams across Europe to races that not only overlap to reduse sponsorship visibility, but also offer little visibility alone anyway, nor hope of long term growth so the sport might eventually move to a more sustainable business model for those who work so hard to give us the race we love. I love what we get but have long wanted more as I feel we underserve the teams, riders, organisers and fans – but if this is what we’ve got then I’m still happy to watch and enjoy.
And I’ve actually been posting here and watching the sport long before Instagram even existed so I can assure you my pleasure in watching does not come from fawning over clips online! But even if it did, we should welcome and accept all fans for what they enjoy, not ring fence the sport for supposed ‘real fans’ who seem to enjoy complaining more than celebrating great performances and talent.
If only there was a like button!
#oldDAVE
Your point: “Maybe the overall money in cycling and disparity between teams has risen recently but the real difference is the squad of UAE being exceptional as opposed to their race-to-race teams being that different to TDF winning teams previously.”
But isn’t that exactly because the UAE could afford to buy all the talent they could get their hands on? To an extend that no other team in modern cycling has been able to match?
I don’t agree with Ryan’s take on Alpecin, but I do think UAE’s position has been unhealthy for cycling—at least it was. Luckily for the sport (though not for UAE), their team seems to be in a rough patch, and the cynic in me wouldn’t mind seeing that continue a bit longer. Not that I wish the riders to deal with illness or crashes, of course.
It’s quite a hard question to answer? We all argue ad infinitum about Merckx vs Pog and then agree to disagree by saying ‘you can’t compare different eras’ but can we compare Sky with UAE? They once rode with three TDF (current and soon to be) champions in their team? Pog has never had this? Maybe it would be impossible because he’s so good? But Astana also rode with a famously strong team in the late 00’s as did many teams previously.
I do agree UAE’s overall squad is extraordinarily strong but in a way that doesn’t affect individual races aside from them having favourites in most, which again wasn’t unusual for super teams – Visma had favourites in every race they entered a few years back.
I do agree that money distorts sport to a degree that is rarely acknowledged (home Olympics teams funding bump equalling dramatic increases in performance is often understated) but it’s a hard thing to solve and not one that’s easy in such a niche and poorly funded sport as cycling.
I’d still argue a combination of Pog and possibly this current carb era (once we know more) is doing more to distort than money – but I may be wrong, especially as I’d also argue that the sport isn’t as different from what it was in a purely entertainment sense, there were many more boring races previously than seems to be thought on this current comment section!
#oldDAVE
I’m not sure I agree that UAE played no role as a team. I didn’t watch SB or MSR, but in Flanders, it seemed clear they suddenly set a brutal pace to wear down the competition. I don’t think the UAE is just another strong team either. In my opinion, dominance like this simply isn’t healthy.
https://www.domestiquecycling.com/en/features/mcnulty-powers-uae-team-emirates-xrg-to-historic-86th-victory-smashing-16-year-record/
I do, however, agree that there’s not much that can be done about it..
oh sorry that’s not what I was saying – I just meant despite the money disparity between current teams meaning UAE’s squad is stupidly stacked… in actual races their teams are not that different to mega-teams we’ve seen previously around star riders.
oldDave – I share your interest to hear what the real boost was to this generation’s pace is. I came up during the LA years and now maintain a very strong healthy cynicism for any current explanation about the current generation.
I don’t want to turn this into a doping conversation, but I’m genuinely interested. I wish the generation would be fully open about what they are doing. I’m not interested so I can call them all cheaters, I’m a student of the sport and want to know for interest.
As far as I know, it’s genuinely fuelling advances – all about this gut training of 100-200g per hour.
I’m happy to be proved wrong, but from what I can see they have actually been pretty open about it as they have sponsors with products to shift to the likes of you and me!
Talking about doping though – I’d really love to know if these new fuelling strategies are actually more beneficial to riders than the doping methods of yesteryear? We’ll never know I guess…
Especially as tyre width for races like Flanders and Roubaix seems to be making as big of a difference, far more than the suspension attempts of yesteryear, again back in the doping era. (Unless the disappearance of suspension was more down to E.Colnago’s whims than anything else… he apparently banned it from his era defining bikes).
I’m not that interested in the doping-Olympics that someone was trying to get going recently, but I would watch a youtube video that somehow pitted a properly fuelled rider against a doped rider to see which was the most impactful – not sure how you’d test though unfortunately!
Maybe someone should just do a video with a youtube approprite title like ‘WAS THIS THE MOST IMPORTANT RIDE OF ALL TIME?’ about Chris Froome’s Giro’D Italia win because that seems to have been the day that truly kicked off this fuelling revolution?
Haha, great idea. It’s fun analysis and maybe GCN can really tackle this.
Aero is also very important, even in climbing stages. Besides being more biomechanically efficient, what with gearing and fueling advances, cyclists these days have to work less hard to go the same speed as they did not that many years ago. I was recently viewing Thibaut Pinot’s win on the Tourmalet in 2019 and it looks like it was from a completely different era. Wide bars, cables showing, open climbing positions, bibs and jerseys (instead of skinsuits) often zipped down … if you look at Pog (post ’23) or JV in the big mountains, they have excellent aero discipline and hardly ever get out of the saddle or even into the drops.
Circling back to Flanders, MVdP apparently sticks with his 44cm bars. Wonder if he could have won if he were able to adapt to 38cm. The climbs would still hurt , mind …
Jalabert observed that everyone was in his rightful place. He was correct. If the final 50km had been run as a TT it might well have given a similar result with just Evenepoel changing places with MVDP for second.
I don’t think that courses tend to be changed in opposition to pogis benefit, rather the opposite. Flanders is much harder now than before the course change (I know, the changes were years before pog, but he would struggle much more to dominate the old one). Further, the worlds has been crazy hard the last couple of years (that never happened 2 years in a row before I think, and rarely ever this hard). Same with the last euros. Also Strade har become severely harder, so that MvdP does not bother going. I think if anything, pogi gets help from the current organizers who is dying to have him present in their races. I don’t blame them, he is probably the best road biker ever. But it makes some of us get a little tired of the omnipresent pursuit races, where the strongest one is in front. I guess it’s for the better that the stronges athlete usually wins, but I hope that cycling will remain to be a tactical sport.
“organizers who is dying to have Pgi present in their races”
The reason for this is that television viewership, and the media coverage, are significantly higher with Pogi present at the race. Maybe the people who claim everyone is tired of seeing Pogi win should keep this in mind.
Have been reading here for as long as I can remember. The Naadam reference was a lovely touch. You never fail to surprise.
I liked the limpet image as well…
Easter eggs every day.
How about “Politt baring his teeth” 🙂
The Flying Dentist is really the best nickname in the peloton atm.
I find it weird Pogacar still has no nickname, my vote goes for ‘the anomaly’, but I also still think Froome should’ve embraced ‘the tarantula’ (for his arachnid-like riding style) but now sadly we’re only left with ‘Froomedog’ and his Rhino-themed bike art…
Nothing can be worse than TopGanna though.
It doesn’t even work?!
I think the best nicknames come from G’s podcast. Sniper (Tiberi) and Waistband (one of the P-P brothers) are two of my favorites.
yeah, these are good, I think we have them to thank for The Flying Dentist also – funny as I occasionally find Rowe pretty annoying! He has a sports-bro vibe… although admittedly I probably shouldn’t listening to sports podcasts if this bugs me!
I think Daniel Friebe has referred to Pogacar as the Slovalien.
Best ever sports star nickname I think is “Waltzing” for Australian rugby league player Matt Hilder, but one needs to have spent some time Down Under to get it…
Oh, c’mon! Hilder’s parents HAD to know what they were doing!
It feels like a long time since we were all surprised at how well Nibali did as a GC rider in Flanders – checks Wiki – when he finished 24th in 2018.
As I noticed somewhere else, it was more about him having sensed precisely which was the right moment to move (something that had a lot of relevance back there ROTFL) and showing serious handling skills, but I think that Terprstra dropped him from his wheel or passed at double speed (again, something uncommon back then compared to today) showing the kind of absolute watts – and hence weight – you were required for that sort of panzer war. The average weight of the top 20 was 75 kgs (!) with only Stybar (10th) and Cort (20th) below 70… both at 68 kgs! I don’t even know if there was any other athlete who didn’t weigh more than 65…
Really, it’s not like that changed hugely today, wasn’t it mostly for Pogi and Remco (especially the latter, at least according to my conspiracy theories ^___^), you just have them, plus G. Vermeersch… Bettiol… Gregoire…
Although the real “outlier” is 29th placed Arjen Livyns clap clap clap clap!
He was with Terpstra til the Hotond I think? I recall getting quite excited by that. Strange to think he won MSR and not Flanders (or Liege!).
LBL was potentially much more his thing, but he lacked explosivity. He had his occasion all the same, but was prevented from winning by bad luck in the form of a flying Kazakh. Nibali had his fair share of good luck for some of his best wins, but also a decent part of bad luck, when his path was crossed by Maxxed Maxim, Granpa Horner, and of course Caught-and-Cleaned Chris (plus the Olympic crash, if we consider that as bad luck, which is debatable). It’s interesting that at the end of the day IMHO none of the above would have shifted much the overall perception of the athlete, unless of course you sum it up all and add, dunno, some random Worlds – but all that would really mean enjoying great luck!
Badly hidden Easter Egg in https://inrng.com/2012/04/liege-winning-moment/
Interesting reading the 2012 comments section – a few posters questioning Iglinsky effectively accused of racism by other posters. Wonder if they apologised in 2014 when he and his brother were done for EPO?!
My fading recollection of Nibali in 2918 at de Ronde was of a dead cat bounce attack when the peloton eased briefly before the finale proper, and of Terpstra catching and discarding him like an empty gel wrapper, with a turn at the front neither sought nor given.
A vastly overrated performance from a great racer on different terrain.
2018, obvs.
A proper description of catching the moment, or “how do you try and win races when you don’t have pouring extra watts”.
…Or do you think that he won Sanremo or that first stage victory at his TDF just dropping everybody from his wheel à la Remco, Pogi, Vingo, MvdP etc.?
He had the upper hand in other races he won in terms of sheer physical superiority, but his best or more characteristic pieces are the others.
Valverde was 8th on his debut too
Always looking out for your write-ups, thank you! Pural of strijdvlag is strijdvlaggen, not ‘vlags’. Assuming you meant ‘vlag’ rather than ‘vlegel’, the medieval Flemish farmers’ weapon of choice!
A bit of an anglodutchism there. Notable how many black clawed lions were there.
Thank you for what you do Inrng, just thank you. I’ve been coming here for a long time and you are far and away the best writer on cycling anywhere.
Pogačar shouldn’t rest too much on his laurels.
While UAE is fading in Itzulia, the young French diamond is shockingly good. I’m curious if Decathlon will let him give it a try in July….
He sure looks ready for it.
I cannot imagine a world where he doesn’t ride the Tour this year.
So many are saying no no no – but how do you hold him back?
I think a bet on him being on the podium is good shout atm tbh unless Remco can find his climbing form again.
His team doesn’t need to decide yet and, even if he does start, he could be withdrawn after ten stages or so if tiring. For the moment he’s toying with good WT opposition. Two stages in and already Roglic, Del Toro, Lipowitz, Skjelmose and the rest are at two minutes or more. Astonishing.
Just stepped off a long haul flight and scrolled the news – no comment – and saw the Itzulia result and wow. Been interested to see how he fares this week as we know he has the raw talent but this is a very difficult race only he seems to have torched the field. Still a lot to go though, the mere mention of Krabelin on the Eibar stage means high stakes, but even if he loses the race he’ll still finish the week having surpassed expectations.
A great and exciting race with a worthy winner, which I managed to watch live without paying a rip off fee to Discovery. Shame on them!
The one thing that struck me about Evenepoel’s performance was his seeming lack of top level climbing ability, on even the shortish cobbled climbs. I have long had my doubts about him in three week tours, because he appears unable to climb with the best climbers on a regular basis.
He said that his explosive power for 2-3 minutes needs work and hard to disagree but also some tactical aspect too, the way he tried to come around Pogačar on the Paterberg saw him take the rougher pavé and pay for it. But the Olympic champion and Liège winner showed signs of being a promising one day racer 😉
I agree Remco was slower on the climbs, but my interpretation was that he struggled for traction on the cobbles. I don’t know if others thought that too.
I am pretty sure that if the organizers would eliminate the last Kwaremont, Van der Poel would be contesting the sprint against Pogačar. Everything else stays the same.
Then we have 3 of the 5 monuments MSR style thrillers.
And as it looks like, Seixas will make LBL and Lomardia a contest. 5 of 5
It’s said that the Tour of Flanders is an “honest race”, there’s nowhere to hide and most often the strongest wins. That’s its identity and it shouldn’t change based on who’s racing. So it was this time and I thought it was a great Tour of Flanders. Not to say that races where one of any number can win can’t also be great races, but Flanders just isn’t one of those races. And it’s not to say that Flanders can’t have two or more equally strong riders making a race of it (MVdP is close, though, IMO there’s a bigger gap behind him than to Pog at Flanders and without Pog everyone would complaining about him), but it’s not on the race itself to decide who enters. Quite impressed by Remco: it must have been agonizing to TT for so long and nearly catch them, but a really creditable first time out.
At the other end … I have kind of a soft spot for smaller teams and seeing TPP come up with zero points was rather awful. They’re making Arkea’s campaign look pretty good.
Agree re: TPP. Barely putting up a fight…too bad Vermaerke took the money to join the Dark Side.
Vermaerke is an underrated rider, wouldn’t be surprised if he were to make UAE’s Tour team as a support rider even if the places are filled by now. It won’t help the team’s quest for a replacement sponsor to Picnic but one area where they may not struggle is recruitment as they do pick young riders and many graduate to big things.
Bittner with 170 points in Scheldeprijs!
Am I the only one who wonders if MVDP not wanting to break the “bro code” ended up hurting his chances to win Flanders? Seems to me that refusing to work with Pog was his best chance to win. I would assume that he doesn’t really care about second versus third, so keeping Remco behind doesn’t seem like a good reason to ride with Pog instead of mucking up the race for him. I’m sure MVDP has a lot of confidence, but he had to know that the eventual result was the overwhelmingly likely one.
The post above probably could have given more time to this but I don’t think it was as binary as help Pogačar vs sit on his wheel. Van der Poel was doing turns but not big ones, it seemed like each time he was on the front Evenepoel was coming back and so Pogačar was doing more work. But if Van der Poel had refused to do anything then what chance Pogačar reacted and launched on the Taaienberg, Kemmelberg etc rather than the Kwaremont?
Sure. Then again, what if MvdP best chance was Tadej launching on Taaienberg, Kemmelberg and Paterberg too, rather than so heavily on Kwaremont only? After all, the former was his approach when he was losing these races…
Of course, Pogi would have stuck to his plan, I think, and dropped whomever on the last Kwaremont with a single attack. And a chase of two didn’t necessarily bring him back in that case. But here’s a range of different possibilities, at least… I think MvdP felt confident about not being dropped «too much»,’ but what he underrated was the speed of a slightly fresher than the rest Pogi on the final flat kms.
Yeah, there’s always the thought that, if Pog’s at his best, he’s just going to ride away anyway. I just have a dream that somehow, some way, someone will screw up one of his races one of these days and he won’t destroy everyone all the time. I guess if he found a way to win MSR after crashing he’s truly invincible!
Watched Amstel 25? ^___^
LBL might be next.
Imagine winning Sanremo, Ronde, somehow Roubaix… and losing LBL or Lombardia!
It would be kind of hilarious if Pogi won the first four monuments, and then gets beaten at Lombardia by Seixas.
While the race was on, it was clear that Pogi was doing more turns, and putting more effort into them. Between 100km and 60 km to go, I thought Pogi was tiring himself out by doing too much work. When down to 2 riders, MVDP did a few short and rather soft efforts, and it was Pogi doing most of the work to stop Remco catching them. I think MVDP got it about right, but it was just that Pogi was insanely strong: if Pogi was less strong then we would hail MVDP as a tactical genius and be calling Pogi the idiot.
I’ve said this above but just posting again as it’ll likely be missed in the monologue:
Has there been a better classics season by this point than ‘26?
I’m specifically talking of the races that follow Milan San Remo, which as far as I can see have all been excellent with only Flanders being moderate – I’m struggling to remember a classics season this strong by the same point?
Can’t recall most of the minor classics, precisely as they were also less valued back then, but I think that 2015 for example might be a good candidate.
Among the good effects of this period, partially as a positive side effect of only two riders dominating what once were the main or only things that mattered, there’s the rise in interest and investment towards races which had a very small relevance in recent decades, think Het Volk or Waregem but also E3 which hit some historical low points trying to grab some attention through, ahem, «marketing». It’s also a result of some good job by Flanders Classics, although not all is organised by them and I personally don’t appreciate some of their decisions. Yet, at the end of the day several semi-Classics are more interesting and fought for than they had been for years.
I’m not convinced there’s a “grey area” in terms of stopping at a level crossing when the lights are flashing. Rather, the rules are clear and the commissaires ignored them. All the riders who jumped the lights should at least be on yellow cards now if it’s too late to disqualify them.
re the course design, having been at the Oude Kwaremont and then the Paterberg on Sunday, it did help the building story of the races to see:
– first time round, the break then complete peloton
– second time round, the big 3 with Wout and Mads just behind (and noting just how much louder the cheers were for Wout than Remco)
– final time, Pogacar alone, with the others following one-by-one (and having to pause my video between riders)
– then Demi grimacing all the way up to widen her gap from Puck & PFP
really enjoyed this post Nick thank you.
there are so many fans/perspectives involved from us fanatics on our sofas, to those by the roadside, to those watching for the first time or with little understanding for what the hell’s going on – it’s very easy to forget each when redrawing a route from our keyboard.
For what it’s worth, we had a little pootle along a bit of the Paris-Roubaix parcours on the way home yesterday. Lots of big gaps between the stones along the right-hand side of the Arenberg trench. Hopefully, the riders spot them in their recons.
If you’re in a car you’d approach slowly and if there’s the warning, stop. But in a race you might be 20m away from the crossing when the light and bell goes but can’t stop as you’re doing 50km/h, nobody slows down as a precaution. So the rule’s clarity that crossing if the alarm flashes/rings = DSQ probably requires a little leniency. But only a little.
The day sounds good and a lot of action each time.
Re: courses.
I think that the abstract idea of Richard S – in its more general formulation, i.e., “routes might be adapted to the field facing them” is correct, and organisers are indeed often taking that path. Only, they don’t react to contingencies which may last 5 or 10 years, obviously including in the above the specific career of any star rider, unless it’s part of a broader trend. Whether this is the case or not, it’s something we’ll discover in a few years time. The changes introduced across the years in the route of Roubaix or Sanremo are decent examples of the above.
Moreover, the specific concept behind Richard S’ idea is quite flawed, as his recent observations.
The Ronde became a harder race with the finale circuit, but I think it would be hard to defend that the average quality of its editions dropped due to such a change. And you’ve had any sort of finale with the Muur or without it, as both with an easier and a harder version of the current circuit. To me, this year was better than the previous two and well above mediocrity, whereas 2024 and 2025 might be more open to debate. However, we should’t allow ourselves to forget that we were delivered four consecutive great races 2020-2023, something which hadn’t happened for 20 years despite the huge percentages of quality editions provided by the Ronde (by the way, that’s what makes it better than Roubaix, @OldDAVE).
Similarly, but on the opposite extreme of historical ebb and flow, LBL is facing a period of crisis which has been now lasting a couples of decades, which of course didn’t prevent it from having some beautiful editions in the while. It’s worth noticing that its main problem at first was that it had been becoming more and more akin to the Flèche, nothing happening before the last 2 kms had much relevance anymore, not even St. Nicolas. Now it looks like it’s got the opposite issue: when Jungels won in 2019 it looked like a welcome exception, the different and hence special event which made that specific edition feel great amidst all of those uphill sprints, as it had happened before with Vino, Gilbert, Schleck. In retrospect, it’s 2020 and 2021 (Roglič and, guess who?, Pogi) which were the variation in too fixed a pattern of 15 to 30 kms middle range solo attacks.
What’s pretty evident is that both adding a difficulty (la Roche) and removing it (St. Nicolas + Ans) might have add a short term impact, hard to separate from random turns of events, but in the middle term la Roche didn’t actually make the race much more selective, while quitting St. Nicolas and Ans didn’t make it more open at all, given that a strong man (say, Fuglsang, not necessarily Remco) could find the key of the race, or the right door for the key they add.
As for Lombardia, I guess it’s among the best example of your general theory not working in its specific format. You used to blame the Muro di Sormano as what made a difference between those great editions won by Gilbert, a heavier Classic specialist prevailing over climbers and GC men. But the Muro has been away for years now, it last appeared in 2020… several editions have included 30 to 40 final kms mainly flat or downhill, where none of the very little hills included ever made a difference, not even when Pogi was the one who could use them, precisely because they aren’t really that much selective (they *can* be but less probably so). One of the most dominating performance happened on the less selective course. Bagioli, Masnada, Alaphilippe, Kron, Powless found their way to a top ten without a break, plus Simmons or Meurisse made it anticipating. OTOH, GC men were being able to prevail in wins and quantity with lighter courses between the last 00s and the beginning of the 10s. Note that, by the way, I totally agree with you in that Lombardia should leave a chance open for great one-day racers, not just GC men, only it’s a huge mistake to equal this *identity issue* with the *quality of racing*. 2016 for example was an extreme course, focussed on pure climbing skills and huge stamina, “but” it provided a fantastic race.
As a side note, I suspect that one of the current problems these race have it’s that we lack really great hilly races (côtes) specialists, barring Pogi it’s just Remco and, dunno, maybe Healy and the right man would probably be Pidcock but bas luck and different aims kept him often away.
What’s sure in Lombardia’s case is that we had excellent editions in 2021 and 2022 (yes, now I know about your short term memory problem you referred to above), then a mid-level one in 2023, and two too-doomed ones in the last couple of years, notwithstanding any difference in format. Very same course? Different quality of racing and final selection. Easier course? More selection. In Lombardia soooo much is about how teams race very very very far from the last 50-60 kms…
Mollema’s Lombardia, or Dan Martin’s, Purito’s, Zaugg’s were generally on par with current “bad” editions, or much worse, even.
Lombardia had a supreme 00s decade, then went back to norm for any race which is, dunno, two great years, a bad one, a good one, three mediocre ones, then a great one again etc.
Nowadays unless you don’t totally pervert its identity (which I wouldn’t appreciate anyway), you can try any trick, the same man will win until he gets weaker or somebody else gets stronger, because it’s *his* specialty at its purest. Boring as it might become, it makes sense he wins a lot of that, just as Cancellara and Boonen sharing 7 P-R in 9 years, MvdP or Moser winning three in a row, or think Zabel at Sanremo, Argentin at LBL, Valverde on Huy etc.
And nothing of the above, in Lombardia’s case, as I showed, has anything to do with making the course harder, lighter, more or less selective, or whatever, just as the correlation with great or poor editions is totally lacking.
I knew as I typed that it would generate a response! I stand by my general view that hilly races, as in races with multiple steep/long hills in the finale, in this era of strongmen are not entertaining. Or at least the racing isn’t for the last hour, even if the views in Lombardia always are. This includes Lombardia, which you yourself somewhere in my years of complaining momentarily admitted had got a bit carried away with backloading the climbing, and such as worlds/euros, where organisers seem to think more hills=better. And if this strongman era is to continue, because of some sort of revolutionary change in carbohydrate intake and uptake, then these hilly races, unless the attitudes of the organisers re course design change, will remain dull and lop sided. I don’t think thats up for debate really. Take Pogacar out of them and someone else wins by minutes, and top 10s are often covered by multiple minutes.
My point with regard to Flanders was that Pogacar, because of his freak characteristics, has turned it into Lombardia. I’m not saying it necessarily needs to change, though this course has been the same for a while and a tweak wouldn’t hurt. What you say about Lombardia can almost, with only a small amount of exaggeration, be applied to any race with a hill in it. Pogacar will win. There’s not much we can do about that other than move all racing to Holland.
I feel like I understand only about 10% of the comments and analysis. Maybe because I don’t have a formal education in cycling and I have been following the sport for only about 10 years. So forgive my ignorance. But it seems like Tadej is just so physically strong that course design (and tactics) don’t matter too much when he races. He either wins or is very competitive in every race. And if the entire peloton is getting stronger and faster, then again, how important is course design? Among pro sports, cycling seems to require the least amount of skill. It’s nearly all about physical (and mental) strength. In my opinion, anyway. Please educate me. : )
I think you are correct. On any race which is sufficiently hilly, Pogacar can have his domestics set an incredibly hard pace, before he rides away to win the race. Given what happened in MSR, “sufficiently hilly” is actually two shallow hills near the end of the race.
Don’t mess up the concept of “cycling with the first ever possible competitor for a GOAT title in 50 years” with “cycling in general”.
Look at, say, Van Aert’s career to find a vast number of races where the strongest did *not* win (those where he was the strongest, I mean). Or check *some* victories by Kwiatkowski, Rui Costa, Contador, Vinokourov, Nibali, Carapaz, Gilbert, van der Poel even (!) to appreciate the opposite perspective. Of course, much of the latter could be seen as a sort of “mental strength”, but in that case it would be the same as “skill”.
In more general terms, among the issues which might be worth checking:
– w/kg is different from absolute watts and partly in direct contradiction with (more than watts vs. w/c. aero)
– relative superiority to others of any athlete, on both or each of the above concepts, may vary much across different durations in time, and typically does (you can be relatively faster over 5 minutes and relatively slower over 20 minutes – which is how MvdP lost 2026 Sanremo according to many including his brother, former athlete himself and now manager)
– all the above shifts differently from athlete to athlete depending on previous efforts during the same race or through different days
All these factors explain “specialisation”. When an athlete is able to overcome that, it’s precisely about “skills”.
(Or, of course, such a general physical superiority that it comes out you’re one in every 50 years of sports.)
Normally, many of the best races in cycling include a combination of contrasting and balancing factors, the main and more general one being slipstream, but in a more subtle way the need to mix impressive fondo with explosivity in Classics (the two best sprinters ever only one Sanremo each despite a period hugely favourable to bunch sprints). The Ronde is deemed among the best races for its balance of endurance and *uphill* (though short-lasting) repeated explosivity.
The specific skills required by cycling can be imagined as the ability to find in a very complex context the best applications for your specificities with the help of in-team strategies and cross-team tactics. Read the context, transform it as much as you can and/or pick your occasions as your “performance curve” are matched by others.
Of course, skills can compensate only partially a physical difference – was the latter very big, there’s little one can do. But it’s not like this case is as common as it seems now!
OTOH, there’s a very long list of riders with impressive physical values which never turned into a winning career, and not only because of mental qualities (losing focus is often a consequence rather than the cause).
As in most sports, skills add up to physical prowess producing a unique result which is actually the combination of both aspects. Which is why, in the other direction, nearly every NBA or tennis player needs huge loads of gym no matter how “technically gifted” he might be – and many a greatly skillful player just couldn’t comply with the physical requirements of the sport.
Final footnote: Stage of the day at Itzulia, feel assured that Aranburu hadn’t the best athletical qualities in the break, but he won, and surely soon-to-retire Ion Izagirre isn’t faster uphill than golden boy Seixas although he dropped him. Nothing of the above happened by mere chance, even if chance is needed to find the occasion gate open, then skills allow you to enter.
@gabriele, thank you for heightening my appreciation of the sport. In my spare time I study art, and when I’m lucky enough to visit a museum or great architecture, I recognize things that I studied, what they mean, and their effects on me. So I go from ignorance, to interest, to appreciation, and eventually passion. I’m on that journey with cycling now. You have genuinely increased my appreciation of the many complexities of the sport. Thank you!
P.s. the entire peloton is actually becoming faster, not stronger or more skillful, which is why fast, strong and skillful riders can make even more of a difference.
Or why at the TDF a handful of same athletes fight in the breakaway day after day despite the cumulated effort.
Or why some athletes on the verge of retiring still get top-10s and more, just as… when they were younger and supposedly athletically stronger.
The mass baseline was raised, but quality riders are fewer, so top ones have less problems when kicking the rest away and playing it out among them.
Somehow I knew Gab wouldn’t fail to answer the prompt “educate me.” He educates me even when I don’t want to be educated!;)
It is not just the parcours, but how the big-name riders decide to ride the race. If the race is ridden at a fairly soft pace, the favourites group remain together much further into the race, and the results become more of a lottery.
The Merckx era was an anomaly, compared to before-Merckx and after-Merckx because Eddy believed a hard race would favour him. As a result he had his domestics set a furious pace from the start, to split the race apart, allowing him to win. Doing this he could win three monuments and two grand tours a year. Post-Merckx, the pace of the peloton was slower. Hinault, for example, was notorious for getting the peloton to slow down.
Pogacar is similar to Merckx not only because he wins. But also because he understand that a hard pace benefits him. Hence his domestics set the kind of hard pace in races that has not been seen since the Merckx era. By doing this, the particular features of the course become less important, since it becomes a race of attrition. I don’t think changing the parcours is going to affect how the races unfold.
@John, you’ve helped me broaden my perspective on Tadej and appreciate him more, with what you said about Tadej’s use of Merckx era strategy. So it’s not just F=ma. Thank you!
Another comment:
The “hard all the time” strategy only works for Merckx and Pogacar because they have truly incredible stamina. This means they can race longer on any day (e.g. last 100km of a 250km race rather than last 30km of a 200km race). But they can also do this day-after-day. For example, MVDP said in the last tour he could not recover after a hard day to race next day; he needed several days to recover.
In the Grand Tours, riding for GC has, in most eras, depended on saving energy for the important parts of the race. Roglic commented that he learnt to do this by 2020. But he says it doesn’t matter when Pogacar can ride incredibly hard for the last 50km or more of a stage. And then repeat this kind of hard racing several days in a row. Merckx, at his peak also used to race like this in Grand Tours. Vingegaard too has this kind of stamina (which is what makes the Pogi-Vingegaard contest so extraordinary).
I’ll try a shorter version:
– the last route tweaks both at LBL and Lombardia were intended to make the course easier, so the organisers already moved away from the “more hills, especially in the finale, especially very steep” fashion, as easily seen also in GTs. But you can also check Itzulia or Dauphiné or Trentino if you please. Yet, it’s true that Strade Bianche and the Ronde were made a bit harder, albeit in a subtler way.
– I acknowledged above again that I agree with you that Lombardia should have a route which makes possible, though hard, a victory for an exceptional Classics man. Yet, it also should stay a race where stamina climbers with an eye for one-day racing have their best chance. These opinions shouldn’t be based on Pogi but on the course as such. As a personal opinion and an example, I’m not sure van der Poel should be able to have a shot at Lombardia in a straightforward way (he should at LBL, although not easily so), but the best Van Aert as seen 3 or 4 seasons ago should. Are really current routes too hard for that, leaving Pogi aside? Not sure about that.
– Organisers may have different perspectives, for example they might prefer a boring victory by Pogi over a more entertaining Mollema one (no, that wasn’t great either, unless you were a super Bauke fan). Well explained above speaking of the Ronde circuit.
– Lombardia had very good editions “although” Pogi won and terrible ones despite a lot of suspense until the line. My take is that, all in all, it’s a race in decent healthy conditions, wasn’t it because of some RCS negligence (course announced too late, poor marketing). Yet, if Pogi wins in 2026, it’s better if it’s the last one he gets so easily. But maybe he’ll just skip it once he achieves some of his own goals. And, consistently with my points in the longer comment, if it’s 6 in a row half of which not good enough, some specific course tweaking could become an option. I wouldn’t change Sanremo now, but I always defended that a long stint of disappointing editions allows change – Sanremo got close in the past, any race can get to that point obviously.
I think we agree then!
I was recently looking at the ages of the top-ranked riders, and I think there’s an interesting thing happening at the moment: Pogi is entering his prime just as many of his best competitors are reaching the tail end of theirs. So in some cases, the routes would have made for a much better race five years ago, but make for a not-so-great race now and possibly for the next few years. But as others have pointed out, when the current top 10 riders finally have age catch up with them the same parcours could be less predictable again. OR, Seixas just becomes the next Pogi and race organizers still have to think about how to keep their races from being 50 km processions.
I’m not convinced you do agree with Gabriele, Richard S!
But this has been a great chat either way, thanks for everyone contributing and you for kicking off Richard!
I’m with Albert, John and Gabriele here and don’t think a truer thing has been said than: “Don’t mess up the concept of “cycling with the first ever possible competitor for a GOAT title in 50 years” with “cycling in general”.”
I actually think it’s remarkable given how good Pogacar actually is that we’ve been treated to as much good racing as we have been? Dominance on his level usually means much worse entertainment than we’ve actually had? Maybe ‘glass-half-full’ is my middle name but I find it so hard to have a single negative note when a race I’ve always disliked like MSR has now delivered two of the best races I’ve ever seen in two consecutive years!
But, I also love Lombardia even in it’s worst editions so maybe I’m as much of an anomaly as the nickname I’m trying to get traction with for Pog himself… can’t lie though, Slovalien is also a brilliant contender.
Daniel Friebe has long been my fave cycling journalist and I agree with nearly everything he says and enjoyed his recent sparring with Lionel over this exact topic.
Lombardia is a hilly race and regardless of its severity Pogacar would win – agree.
Lombardia should be attainable to outstanding classics riders ‘who can climb’ if they get their tactics right and it goes well i.e. peak WVA, peak Alaphilippe types. – agree.
Lombardia should never be so easy as to be comfortably within MvdPs range (but if he has a golden day and wins it when its hard, fine). – agree
Sanremo is fine as is – agree.
The Liege course is better than when it finished in Ans – agree.
Race organisers probably like the idea of Pogacar winning their race solo compared to a group finish involving people the public at large might not have heard of. – agree.
Not sure much else was said. I exaggerate and embellish to make a point, you and Gabriele are absolutely not shy to use 10,000 words and 3 posts when a few sentences would do, so some things probably get lost/confused.
this was said in jest! no need to get angry, we’re all friends here… at least we’ve been commenting long enough we should be! I wasn’t intending to upset.
No anger was used during the production of the above post.
Inside information on Pogi from the Spanish clan at UAE as reported by the national press:
“Anda más musculado que otros años, sí”, explican en su UAE. “Todo el primer bloque de trabajo está orientado a las clásicas, puro y duro. Este invierno ha hecho más pesas en el gimnasio”
He put up more muscles than in previous seasons as the first training block is fully focussed on Classics without anything else in mind. More weight-lifting than ever in the gym.
Q.E.D.
…Unless one thinks he had much fat to drop in order to make for the weight gain of extra muscles!
They acknowledge it’s going to be hard work to shift the training set for the TDF, but of course the motivation is high.
Not sure why it would be particularly hard for him to shift to TDF shape?
It’s much harder to put on lean muscle than to lose it, or to drop weight in general.
It’s not hard, indeed, but the way your body reacts, especially metabolism which is paramount in cycling, is not as predictable.
(And immune system, the psychological or neuropsychological part etc.)
Because if you have a close deadline you’re probably doing it by calories deprivation and catabolism.
Pogacar told Sporza one week ago that he was 66kg. In previous years, he himself has said he has been 65-66kg in the classics and 63-64kg in the Tour.
He’s put on some muscle and shed a bit of body fat. Obvious but it’s the report from someone on the team too, they’ve been trying to do this.
We’ll see tomorrow if it works. It was only visual but did Van der Poel lose a little weight to be lighter for the Kwaremont? Hard to tell, just a remote TV observation.
One of those existential questions that pops up from time to time.. if a monument doesn’t get an Inner Ring preview, is it a monument?
Yes, but it is cursed apparently!
Inrng obviously didn’t want to jinx WvA
I hereby coin the word akirkosia for the uncertain state of any monument ontologically challenged by the absence of an inrng preview.
A huge congratulations to WVA, can’t recall the last time I was so happy to see someone get a big win. Well deserved for so many reasons and an absolute class ride to do it as well. Everything Roubaix is about – power, willpower, tactical nous and (ofc) a little luck.
What a fantastic P-R, easily the highlight of the season. Congrats to WVA on such a well-deserved win!
I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy about a win that wasn’t Irish. 🙂
Go, Wout, go!
Great race by Wout and huge post-race interview as well.
Immensely touching and sharing a number of facets of that personal, human dimension which brings sport to a whole different level.
“I’ve been trying and trying for eight years, always thinking about dedicating the victory to Goolaerts and especially his family and loved ones”
“Injuries, crashes, bad luck, defeats… but you never lost hope – Yes, I did. And so many times”
“The hard part was entering the velodrome, once there I had lived it so many times in my dreams that I knew what to do”
“Sprinting against the World Champion says it all and makes it so special”
Inverted commas don’t imply exact quoting here, I’m going by memory and was listening to the interview in the background of a coffee conversation ^___^
Now, tell me what you want, that it could be as great without Pogi or whatever – I won’t agree. Even if you hate Pogi as a tyrant of the sport, that’s precisely what made this race beyond good.
Besides Pogi, I’m a MvdP fan, but, had he won over Pogi, it frankly wouldn’t have been as good as this.
#gabriele
I’m definitely not the biggest fan of Pogacar (and even less so of the detestable UAE Team). My opinion of him and his standout performances is probably a mirror image of your opinion on Vingegaard and the time trials of his that you so dislike.
However, I’ll gladly admit that Pogacar truly played a big role in the great race today!
Well, as I wrote many times, my opinion on Vingegaard improved greatly during the couple of seasons when the Jumbo system showed some cracks as such, yet the Dane still confirmed his high quality. Which of course doesn’t make that single ITT event less peculiar statistically speaking, but may mean a different weight to individual merit over team-induced “technical improvements” to explain that.
Similarly I never denied that UAE enjoyed some “very successful prep” and granted a special extra in relative terms to its athletes in the last couple of seasons – which consideration doesn’t take much away to Pogačar’s well known talent and potential, but of course is meaningful context.
I have an arbitrary feeling that under the current context no super team will be allowed to enjoy that extra boost (relative to the rest) for more than 2-3 seasons in a row and I suspect that we might be seeing some change – as it already started happening – in the UAE uber-winning general flow. Those are the occasion when we might be allowed to have a glimpse about actual individual values under varying circumstances. Mere opinions, not rocket science of course.
And there’s really no need to imply anything illegal, either (personally I have some 90s vibes, but it’s strictly personal, as I said): one could just say that a team worked better as a whole for a cycle of 2-4 years, then legal methods get stale or are copied by others etc.
Anyway, that’s why I always insisted that a full understanding of a cyclist’s potential, peaks, anomalies can happen properly only once careers are over.
Thomas, I agree wholeheartedly! Pogi’s presence increased the “jeopardy” tremendously and I hate to admit would have ruined my day if he won. But that’s sport, and when my beloved Gunners face City next week the “Evil Empire” of it all will make it an amazing spectacle.
Gabriele, I also agree with just about everything you said (how about that?), although I wonder if UAE’s recent stumbles are just a blip. I’m extremely concerned about Mr. Seixas’s next destination, as that would be a big example of “financial doping,” which is most certainly a real thing.
The Other Craig
Agree with everything.
It’s hard to overstate just how unfortunate it would be for pro cycling if Seixas ended up joining UAE…
Indeed. In that case, karma should grant a fast decline to UAE (team and government ^___^), for cycling’s sake!
Pogi et al. at UAE (not everybody there of course) at least were selected by a proper scouting system which is a skill worth being praised in sport, just as the ability to grow talent in the middle term without spoiling it or burning it up. But if Matxin and his staff have a keen eye for the former, I’m not convinced UAE is as good for the latter part – in fact, Pogi takes many of his own decisions, hard to imagine others being allowed to do so, albeit greatly talented.
So if they buy Seixas and that works, it’s a total disaster for the sport, but if it doesn’t it’s bad both for the athlete and, again, the sport (which loses a talent).
It would be interesting material for an article to have a look at the raw talent which got a neo-pro contract at UAE but very soon went elsewhere to develop versus the more effective team men which were often bought as a nearly finished product.
Ganna, Philipsen, Ayuso, and now let’s see what about Del Toro, Morgado or Christen vs. McNulty (somewhere in between as he was picked from Rally before being mature), Almeida, Sivakov, Vermeersch, Politt, Yates, Wellens, Soler.
And compare different teams among them under this respect.
gabriele
I agree. It’s hard to fully grasp the strategy and inner workings of UAE. They’ve managed to pull in a huge amount of talent, rack up an incredible number of victories, and turn some of their “mid-level” riders into fierce competitors (Hirschi’s autumn 2024 remains one of the wildest outliers in modern cycling, especially compared to his form after leaving UAE). At the same time, it seems the sheer depth of talent and quality isn’t always easy to manage.
There is absolutely stuff for a story (or two( for a talented sports journalist/writer (or two).
+1
Given that this looks now the nearly official “OT-PR-inrng-thread”, let me also add some Italian TV figures as some commenters previously showed some interest:
– the men Roubaix achieved slightly over 1M spectators on Rai2 (~9% share), 600K for the women.
– as a term of comparison, Sinner beating Alcaraz in the Montecarlo finale to regain #1 in the ranking got 1.5M on TV8 (private but nation-wide free-to-air) and a 12% share.
Tennis and cycling partly overlapped, which probably limited the latter in terms of “generalist spectators”, whereas I’d say that cycling fans mostly sticked with cycling despite the much waited Montecarlo finale.
Cannot wait for INRNG moment race was won on Roubaix!
Excellent race, assume the comments are going to be buzzing, surely no one can be down on Sunday’s result/race? It was fantastic!
I’m a bit confused by the UAE Seixas story? Does it come from a reputable source? I feel like we’re all getting our knickers in a twist over a nothingburger? Are we just going off the Lefervre article and some rumours? I cannot see a version of this that makes sense for anyone so really don’t think we should be worrying about it until it becomes more solidified? Plus, things change quick, think of how ominous Sky/Ineos looked with Bernal in 2019 only for that to fizzle out.
Enjoy the moment, don’t worry about the future!
Plus we don’t even know if Seixas can compete with Pog yet but even if he can, let’s imagine the positives – we may get a magical Tour De France this year where we find out! Pog vs Seixas with Jonas looking to crash the party? Could be a generational edition sooner than we expected that surprises everyone.
Imagine rainbows not rainclouds.
#oldDAVE
Re Seixas, I think – hope – it’s a nothingburger. There has been some speculation in Danish, Dutch and Belgian media
https://sport.tv2.dk/cykling/2026-03-12-cykelverdenen-snakker-om-vildt-rygte-vil-vaere-en-katastrofe
https://www.wielerflits.nl/nieuws/paul-seixas-zet-onderhandelingen-met-decathlon-op-stop-uae-werkt-aan-zijn-komst/
https://www.hln.be/wielrennen/hoe-de-dominantie-van-tadej-pogacar-en-team-uae-nog-kan-groeien-hun-jacht-op-paul-seixas-als-opvolger-van-pogi-lijkt-geopend~a45793bd/
But my impression is that it – for the moment – is pure speculation.
To start with, if one reads all the above comments re: Roubaix, the vast majority don’t quite lack enthusiasm, good vibes and even some “peace & love” between usually opposite perspectives. So one could wonder why you yourself need to insist so much (most of your comment, actually) on that supposedly “negative” very collateral thread, when you could just ignore it and let it go pretty much unnoticed.
That said, let’s tackle the actual answer.
Gianetti reportedly said that “hiring Paul Seixas and Pogačar at the same time is something more than just a dream” (The River comes to mind, “is it a dream a lie if it don’t come true or is it something worse”, but Gianetti’s dream is something worse… if it actually comes true!).
Plus, Seixas is “managed” by his parents which makes even more interesting that they accepted that his younger brother Nino is supported by UAE’s juniores programme, through which the team provides free support and counseling without contracts to a dozen riders a year (the youngsters stay with their local clubs), often allowing those teen athletes to take part in the official devo team’s camp, as it was Nino’s case on the last one held.
Of course all the above is very far from P. Seixas actually signing with UAE but it’s not like there’s no hint to be worried or it’s all just “rumours” or people’s imagination. It might also be a lot of mind games by UAE to crack mutual confidence between rival team and athlete, but what’s sure is that it doesn’t sound good, even as a mere declaration of intentions.
Not that I lose sleep over this, anyway, just cheap talking.
Personally, what worries me a little bit more (not that I lose sleep hours on this, either) is the general trend of early professionalisation generated by a couple of confirmed baby talents who didn’t had a bad career 😉 from then on… say, Pogi and Remco; such exceptions end up prompting teams to act as if that could be a normal thing working more often than not, “hey, just give it a try and if it fails, well, people are expendable after all”. The speculation (in every sense) generated isn’t good at all for athletes or cycling in general, IMHO.
After all, for a series of reasons, most of the Big 5-6 of the years 20s had a pretty traditional maturation on the road, in age terms (Vingo, Wout, Mathieu, Rogla). If we currently wanted to add some names to the above, we might think about Mads, Pidcock, Philipsen, Merlier, Healy, Johannessen, Lipowitz, Almeida, Vermeersch, all of them with a traditional format, if anything forwarded by 1-2 seasons at most, including some early and “premature” sign of great talent followed by a more gradual and steady process of maturation which produces the most consistent results from 24-25 on.
Instead, you can see how the Hirschi, Arensman, Carlos Rodríguez, Ayuso, Fred Wright (first names I come up with) and many more which went pro with 19-20 yrs and huge ambitions are facing more of a roller coaster.
Nothing deterministic here: Martinez or Gregoire are growing step by step yet sooner than one could once expect and they’re doing fine. So, let’s see, but I just hope that the sport just doesn’t burn away on hurries some promising talent because, as we often lament, some part of cycling don’t exactly thrive on abundant quality competition. Classics *for now* do, especially “heavyweight” ones, but stage racing doesn’t… if Seixas is the new Pogačar, the main issue is who’s going to be his competition in a 5-6 yrs time, if teams are so obsessed with “finding the new-new-Pogi when he’s 16” instead of allowing as many athletes as possible to have their full potential surfacing at best, through a time span which *might* be 16-19 but also 16-26… or 23-28.
As you can see, it’s not about worrying on a single event which might or not happen, rather having a look on broader processes which are already happening, especially on a day when a Wout Van Aert wins his first Roubaix at 31 – food for thought.
PD The Bernal reference looks out of place to say the least. It looked “ominous”… until the guy crashed on a bus, what does the above even mean? And it would have looked ominous, really, had Sky-Ineos been allowed to keep in place their power system, thanks to which they actually didn’t need much talented athlete to win (which OTOH, granted that they lost the odd big race from time to time). But that system had already been brought to an end come 2019. A fully healthy Bernal would have actually added up much to the sport, no matter if he rode for Ineos, in the 20s. Now monopoly is sought after through money turning into “tech” ^___^ and contracts rather than unilateral protection (sport politics apparently playing a different, quite “balancing” role), so any news regarding the strengthening of such a mainly monetary monoply is bad news.
Oh my, that reference to The River has to be in the running for comment of the year. Literally laughed out loud!
One source only but apparently something went wrong with Nino’s time at UAE and it did not impress the Seixas family. But one source and who knows if this is sort of “counter briefing”, negatives that can’t be proved etc. Still sharing it for others as it could be interesting.
I don’t think there is any evidence for Seixas going to UAE except that we know that Seixas has two years left on his contract and his agent is sounding out team managers about what they would offer. Separately, Gianetti was asked in a TV interview about hiring Seixas and commented politely that Seixas was a great talent and of course he would like him on his team should he be available.
As you say, a nothingburger.
PS. Seixas is surely at least two years away from putting up a genuine challenge to win the Tour.
yep, I thought so.
and completely agree he’s two years away from a genuine challenge – although recent results may have speed this up, but as you say it’s more likely it’ll take time.
only trying to put a more positive spin on things as occasionally these comments seem to get in a depressed spiral when almost weekly I’m being blown away by the quality we’re seeing, so I’m rolling in as an opposing view to stem the tide!
if we can’t enjoy the last few weeks of cycling I think it’s best to find another sport!
So what we have here is a great example of making a Streisand of sort 😉
Yes, I agree that we have had some fabulous races over the last few weeks. I really enjoyed both Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix. And in both races, whether you like him or hate him, Pogacar was a major part of the entertainment. I think it is fantastic for the sport that, unlike other Tour champions, he turns up at these type of races and tries to win them.
PS. It was particularly nice how Van der Poel immediately found Van Aert after the race to congratulate him and give him a hug.
It was cool to see a more human side of MVDP. He was literally at a loss for words in his interview when asked about WVA. Seemed like he might have been a bit choked up.
Obviously, irrespective of how it ends up, this is playing out this year as a poker game, although we might see the final effects later on. If Decathlon senses Seixas might go away, they won’t let his contract expire without renewing or “selling”, just as any interested team will need to act before the rest because Decathlon could agree more easily on an agreement implying an exit clause for them. Obviously, the closer the final deadline, the harder for Decathlon to make anything out of it. Even if at the same time they’ll want to try whatever it takes to keep him (including going Swiss).
So, no, I don’t think that everybody is going to sit politely on their couches waiting for the natural end of the contract in 2027, even if, as in any complex game, that might be the actual conclusion of it in case of a Mexican standoff.
Are you ok?
Who are you referring to, Mr Inrng, or Tadej?
On Saturday around 6 pm they both looked fine, today could just be a hard day at home or office there in South-Eastern France after a tough Sunday ride.
Yeah fine thanks mate
A great race, in its own way just as good as Milan-Sanremo last year. The most remarkable aspect, other than the relentless downpour of punctures, I thought was that once away with Pogacar Van Aert played it absolutely perfectly. He only worked when it suited him and not when it suited Pogacar and his positioning relative to Pogacar was always perfect. In the finale you could have forgiven Van Aert being the more desperate given Pogacar has monument’s to give away and Van Aert has suffered some borderline humiliating reverses in the last couple of years, but he was as cool as a cucumber.
Also worth a nod to Ganna who suffered ridiculous amounts of bad luck and was presumably using tyres made of linen.
I might be forced to admit that its worth sitting through the one-sided walkovers for the periodic blockbusters we get served up by the current generation. A good result for cycling in that a) everyone wanted Van Aert to win, b) Pogacar occasionally getting beaten is healthy and c) Van der Poel’s ride from 2.30 down to within 20 seconds and at one stage looking like he would make it back to the front probably did more for his legend than if he had pipped Pogacar in a standard 2 up.
MvdP riding the cobbles while chasing when still totally on fire was a sight to behold. Ganna’s undoing was also MvdP’s, in a sense, but destiny had prepared the best possible finale, and this is Paris-Roubaix after all, the perfect metaphore for cycling in general albeit the most different race from… “cycling in general”.
Yep agree.
The last 20 km of the race was a tactical masterclass by Wout. I really think the half-wheeling was a psychological tactic to make Pogi start to panic. If it weren’t for a fantastic bit of bike handling when his back wheel slid out, Pogi’s race might have been done long before the velodrome. Not that Wout has provided a blueprint for beating Pogi, though, because the circumstances were so specific (i.e., no real hills to speak of), but he was so judicious with his efforts that it was a very impressive thing to watch. At first I was worried that he was working too hard, a mistake that seems to happen a lot when riding with Pogi, but it turned out that he stayed just within his limits until the end of the race when he knew Pogi had no way to drop him. Pogi looked more disappointed than usual at the end; I think it was due to banging his head on a wall for 30 minutes only to get blown away in the velodrome.
I think Pogi was almost completely cooked for the last 30 mins. He was barely able to do any kind of attack on any of the last few hard sectors. He just didn’t have anything much left.
this is how I saw it also John.
I do think WVA was purposefully being a bit annoying half wheeling and that was great tactic to get inside Pog’s head, but for the last fifty I just had a sense Pog would be attacking if he had any juice left and by the last twenty you sort of knew it was going WVA’s way.
I see this race as vindication for all those who’ve been angry at riders working with Pog, more just that even the best get tired when they’re chasing back solo before the 100km mark!
It was a great race though and WVA deserved to win, there’s a chance he’d have won anyway from what I saw, he looked excellent all day and was leading even through Arenberg before the cameras got obsessed with MVDP misfortune!
I can’t really fault anyone’s race aside from maybe UAE dealing with Pog’s flat poorly. I realise he couldn’t take Politt nor Vermeersch’s bikes as they’re far taller but I’m not sure whether Morgado was dropped (some seem to say he was others say different? hoping INRNG will clear up…) but he would’ve passed Pog surely and could’ve handed the bike across to save the Shimano debacle. Maybe he missed him, as it’s an easy mistake to make but it’s hard not to think there was a better solution given how many UAE riders were there still.
Could taller domestiques ride with a dropper post to hand their bikes to a leader in a race like Roubaix? Sounds crazy but both favourites had their races severely impacted by punctures so any options would make sense? Similar to Philipsen not wearing the same cleats as MVDP. For one race a year surely it makes sense?
Morgado had a puncture too, and Berg said their radios were not working. “Fog-of-war” and all that: I don’t think the riders really knew the actual situation, something we viewers under-estimate when we watch races.
The cleat situation with Alpecin was a shocker. You would think a detail like that would be considered ahead of time considering the potential impact. You could say that those pedals completely changed the race.
Yeah, I probably misspoke about the “last 30 minutes.” It was really the time just before that that decided the race.
Just want to say that I hope all is well with Mr. Inrng given that there were no PR-related posts. Hope they’re enjoying a little break from the website that has given us all so much over the years.
Ditto.
I’ve dropped INRNG a line before when they’ve gone a bit quiet and there’s always a mundane explanation.
No preview as a bit pressed for time and felt like it was all too obvious: Van der Poel as the rider to beat but Pogačar having to go solo, Van Aert a little short in form but Pedersen further back and Ganna as a threat but heavy on his bike. Probably could still have written it up but it just felt like everyone else had the same notion.