TADEJ POGACAR - TOUR DE FRANCE WINNER 2020

I was definitely wrong last week when I said there was no way Pogacar was going to make up that time on Roglic in the TT. That was a legendary ride.

As for WVA being a GC contender, he's already said that he has no interest. He is a classics racer and wants to stay as such. I wonder, however, if seeing all his work go to waste on the last day of racing will make him change his mind.

Mindpower wrote:

But let's be honest here, Roglic choked big time. He switched off, lost focus. He thought he had it won, like Fignon in '89.

I think this is oversimplifying things. Fignon showed up in 89 without a helmet and on an old-school TT bike while Lemond had an aero helmet and aero bars. Roglic still rode a strong TT, but he was just getting blown away by Pogacar at the early time checks. I don't think there was anything he could've done that would have saved yellow.

So I get that everyone in the peloton is still dirty.....it's just not the wild Wild West days anymore. But, how does a rider win the TdF in his very first Tour? The youngest winner ever.

So he wins the general, mountain, and youngest rider....

I think each year there should be an individual time trial, a mountain time trial, and a team time trial.

Alan

Laurent Fignon also won his first Tour in 83.

From Wikipedia:

Henri Cornet is the youngest winner; he won in 1904, just short of his 20th birthday.

browski wrote:

Mindpower wrote:

But let's be honest here, Roglic choked big time. He switched off, lost focus. He thought he had it won, like Fignon in '89.

I think this is oversimplifying things. Fignon showed up in 89 without a helmet and on an old-school TT bike while Lemond had an aero helmet and aero bars. Roglic still rode a strong TT, but he was just getting blown away by Pogacar at the early time checks. I don't think there was anything he could've done that would have saved yellow.

Fignon knew about the aero bars and helmet, because Lemond used them in the previous time trial. But Fignon thought he couldn't lose. The evening before the final time trial, he was actually giving interviews explaining how he won the Tour. Do you know about this?

Same thing with Roglic, he thought he was going to win. He probably didn't warm up enough. How did he suddenly lose power after so many days of domination?

He lost focus, that's how he lost power. Pogacar remained intensely focused.

Runningart2004 wrote:

So I get that everyone in the peloton is still dirty.....it's just not the wild Wild West days anymore. But, how does a rider win the TdF in his very first Tour? The youngest winner ever.

So he wins the general, mountain, and youngest rider....

I think each year there should be an individual time trial, a mountain time trial, and a team time trial.

Alan

Alan, get your head out of the 90s. There are young riders in your local area who can put up big power numbers whilst holding down a normal day job.

Stop spreading ignorance.

I agree with this, plus the blind power of youth. Never tell a kid what they can’t do!

Aaaarrrrrgggggghhhhh!!!!!

What a ride, seriously.

fisky wrote:

This was the greatest stage 20 and possibly the greatest stage ever in the Tour de France.

One thing I would like to see next year... I think Wout Van Aert should be a GC contender for another team. WVA was a monster for Roglic and could have been a contender for yellow this year. Having WVA contest for GC would make a very entertaining TdF next year!

I wonder if his contract is up or if he's tied to Jumbo Visma for years?

LeMond beating Frenchman Fignon on the Champs Elysee was better and I don't think that will ever be surpassed. But it was still very exciting.

Anyone know what doping testing has looked like since covid started ? There were a lot of very fast days. Cycling is on a big high right now, and I don't think they will want to start DQing guys.

noticeable difference in the cadence yesterday of Roglic and Pogacar. Lance reported on his podcast that Bobby Julich told him Roglic's cadence was too high, causing him to lose power.

Primo Numero Uno wrote:

Watching him today was stunning. It reminded me a lot of Contador when he just destroyed the time trial in his second tour win. Although he was 4 or 5 years older at the time. The only one I could see having a chance against him in the upcoming years is Bernal if he can regain his form in the high mountains. Even then I feel like Pogacar will dominate any tour with a solid time trial and no team time trial if he is in form.

There are multiple young guys with a lot of potential (for example Pidcock or Evenepoel), it is way too early to say that Pogacar will dominate for many years. Also there is always the chance that he will get caught.

fisky wrote:

This was the greatest stage 20 and possibly the greatest stage ever in the Tour de France.

One thing I would like to see next year... I think Wout Van Aert should be a GC contender for another team. WVA was a monster for Roglic and could have been a contender for yellow this year. Having WVA contest for GC would make a very entertaining TdF next year!

I wonder if his contract is up or if he's tied to Jumbo Visma for years?

No.

Runningart2004 wrote:

So I get that everyone in the peloton is still dirty.....it's just not the wild Wild West days anymore. But, how does a rider win the TdF in his very first Tour? The youngest winner ever.

So he wins the general, mountain, and youngest rider....

I think each year there should be an individual time trial, a mountain time trial, and a team time trial.

Alan

I think Bernal did the same last year. Also Pogacar isn't the youngest winner ever. I am glad that there was no team trial this year. If your team is bad, you will lose the yellow jersey no matter how good you perform individually, it doesn't make any sense.

nathancat wrote:

noticeable difference in the cadence yesterday of Roglic and Pogacar. Lance reported on his podcast that Bobby Julich told him Roglic's cadence was too high, causing him to lose power.

yep. and i think roglic shifted a lot between the gears. as mentioned above, a stellar performance by pogacar who gave 100 percent every single second (even the change of his bike during the tt took only 5 or 6 seconds!). i think roglic messed it up a little bit, the change of his bike was pretty slow, he had problems to find a proper gear, to push hard and to stay focused enough.

honestly, the tour is the most exciting endurance event. three weeks of drama.

nathancat wrote:

Anyone know what doping testing has looked like since covid started ? There were a lot of very fast days. Cycling is on a big high right now, and I don't think they will want to start DQing guys.

During the first couple of months there were no tests, but (in most countries) it has been back to normal since June or so.

Roglic finished fifth in the time trial, so I find it hard to say he choked. One thing people on this site probably don't know is that Roglic had a seemingly insurmountable lead in the Giro d'italia in 2019 and to everyone's surprise cracked in the mountains with only a few stages to go and ended up losing. Thus, Roglic has a history of performing poorly in the third week of a grand tour. Maybe Roglic just put too much effort into the previous stages and didn't pace himself as well as Pogacar, or Pogacar simply recovers faster than most anybody else. I see yesterday's events as the emergence of a supreme cycling talent who showed his ability rather than choking by Roglic.

This makes Pogacar's performance even more impressive in this day and age, riding without HRM or Power.

Although, perhaps it makes the performance a bit more explainable, in that he was just going all out without regard to numbers, whereas Roglic it sounds like was having trouble hitting his Power numbers early on and that probably led to him stressing and pressing and coming undone; he looked almost white by the end and his form was all over the place.

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/pogacar-rode-without-power-meter-or-computer-for-la-planche-des-belles-filles/

When Lemond beat Fignon in the TT to win the Tour by 8 seconds on the final stage, I believe he did a similar thing (no computer, no splits or time updates...just ride all out)

Although that time trial was much shorter, and only took about half the time to complete compared to stage 20 this year.

Yeah, no comp or power...and no radio contact for the last 6k due to crowd noise.

That’s the right way to win, and that’s the right environment in which to do it.

Today he looked fresh as a spring flower.