Tadej Pogačar -- greatest talent since Lance or fraud like Lance?

Don't know. One thing is for certain is that the riders can't dope anywhere near the level during the Armstrong days. The ABP has pretty much wiped out any effective blood doping. And the test for EPO is so sensitive now it pick up past usage several days in the past.

I've followed cycling for 30 yrs now & my guess is the riders are clean & we're looking at a lot of young talent coming into the sport.

The only caveat I could see is if mechanical doping is so technical & to a sophisticated level where it can't be detected by the UCI. But this seems like a low possibility since it's difficult to completely conceal mechanical enhancements to these modern-era bikes.

Doping questions aside, Tadej is more all-around talented than Lance. Don’t get me wrong, Lance was very good, but could you imagine Lance sprinting against MvdP for the win in Flanders? The only real comparison is Merckx.

For a myriad of reasons comparing Armstrong to other riders is quite complex.

Anyway the overall dominance of Pogacar is something that makes him stand out against any modern rider since.. Hinault? You have a guy who was probably the strongest in MSR and very likely in Da Ronde against a wild beast called MVdP, who before yesterday showed the potential to win Roubaix and that yesterday won a magnificent semi uphill sprint against Roglic and Matthews... And he is about to destroy them all in the Mountains. It's so crazY that is difficult to believe.

On the other hand currently NO riders test positive at the World Tour level. (I think it's been years since the last one being popped for something he did at WT level, not and old biological passport violation ). You can understand that as the sport being clean or as the testing being ineffective for whatever reason.

So yeah, in terms of performance he is unbelievably good, unparalled in the modern highly professionalized version of the sport, but when you've been around the sport for enough time, not being at least a bit skeptic about what you're seeing is difficult.

If compared to Merckx we have a doping problem. He was doooooooped to the max riding with needles in his backpocket!

ePogacar won his first Tour by driving on a electric timetrailbike , if you can find the footage at the end of his timetrail he drove way past the tv crews and changed bikes! He drove back on another timetrailbike than he finished!

Cheating in cycling has never changed

they have clearly perfected micro dosing, new drugs and other 'marginal gains'.

pogacar is inhuman.

I thought for sure he was going to get busted for something after that stage 20 TT in 2020. He completely embarrassed the best riders in the world that day and his dominance hasn't stopped since. I'm suspicious and skeptical of him, but it is entertaining. Barring injury or a crash I don't see anybody being a threat to him for the next several years. He is the best talent of a generation and perhaps the best ever in my opinion.

On a side note I hope to see him race the Vuelta this year.

Unrealistically good? What does that mean?

The usual stupidity is to say "look he's not even breathing hard" as if that indicates super human oxygen uptake.

OCD troll Armstrongivs spent 50 pages trying desperately to BS his way out of that one.

Maybe you can improve on that?

It means he won his first yellow younger than anyone in an amazing way, then easily destroyed the competition last year, and now took yellow earlier than it would have been estimated....all by a guy that is also winning monuments and competing to be a legit contender the first time he rides flanders.

I find it very entertaining but after having grown up with cycling since the 90s, I am not naïve enough to think the peloton is now clean after the sports crazy past.

So yea, TP is in line with Merckx and Bernard Hinault. For an American comparison, he is more like Greg LeMond than Armstrong, in that LeMond was good in one day races (twice world champion) and of course a multiple TdF winner. TJ is better than LeMond though.

If I may offer an even older comparison, I'd say Fausto Coppi fits the bill. It would be interesting to see if TJ ever attempts the hour record.

All the greats of the Tour have similar physical attributes.

VO2 max around 80 ml/kg/min and good Anaerobic power.

The whole blood doping and EPO doping fiasco is pure quackery. You are naïve about doping. You just can't admit it.

There is no Superhuman oxygen uptake, because, by definition it's a physical impossibility.

Tadej Pogačar has the coolest head of any Tour de France winner since Miguel Indurain. With the advantage of winning much younger which makes him more exciting to watch. If it makes you cynical, that's your problem.

Maybe you, Paul Kimmage and Antoine Vayer could meet up for a drink and put the world to rights?

The greatest talent is wout, mvdp and pidcock. But if you only watch bike racing for a couple weeks a year during July then sure you might think it's pogacar.

2 THE GILLS!!!!

Translation: I try really hard to sound like an expert.

What they are doing is blood doping in the team vans right before the start and then bleeding them in the vans after they finish to remove the excess hemoglobin.

Doper. No hard to recognize. There has not been a clean Tour winner in well pretty much forever. And the supercharged epo doping just made it more obvious.

Is there a video that supports this claim (do you have a link)? I searched and I’m not seeing anything but I would love to if it exists!

Just like Lance and "Livestrong", Pogacar has just launched his own "cancer foundation" today, I kid you not! And just like Lance and US Postal that was a state sponsored doping team, Pogacar is on the state sponsored doping team created by the country of UAE, flying their airline colors and name.

cyclingnews.com

Pogacar: Jonas Vingegaard is the man to beat

@cyclingnewsfeed

Slovenian giving no gifts to his Tour de France rivals, wins on same day as launching cancer research foundation

Open link

? Guess you had a bad day or sth? You wanna add sth to the debate?

Lance never tested positive. Must be clean.

Tadej is most likely dirty. Just has a better chemist that can mask the drug(s). Wouldn't be surprised at all if there is a small motor in the frame somewhere. It might provide him with that extra 1 or 2mph he needs on the big climbs.

Not sure if trolling but I can't think of a better rider with his GC-One day races ability. Literally Pogacar has been the strongest rider in 4 different monuments (ok you can argue about MSR and maaaabe RVV) in the last two years (he decided to destroy everybody in Strade Bianche in the meantime).