Tadej Pogačar Just Became Cycling’s BIGGEST PROBLEM

Tadej Pogačar Just Became Cycling’s BIGGEST PROBLEM

Tadej Pogačar’s dominance is getting unreal, and no matter what teams and their performance gurus do, nobody seems to be able to solve the Pogačar puzzle. With the Tour de France approaching, it’s obvious that every team is trying to find a solution to bring down the UAE Emirates XRG, and prevent the inevitable, but no matter what they do, the Slovenian seems to just be getting better and better. So, is it even possible to bring a rider to the level of Pogačar? And what would it take for a team to actually become competitive in the Pogačar era, and solve the cycling’s biggest problem?

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tarde Pagacha’s dominance is getting unreal and no matter what teams and their performance gurus do nobody seems to be able to solve the Pagacha puzzle with the tour to France approaching it’s obvious that every team is trying to find a solution to bring down the UAE Emirates XRG and prevent the inevitable but no matter what they do the Slovenian seems to just be getting better and better so is it even possible to bring a rider to the level of Pagacha and what would it take for a team to actually become competitive in the Pagacha era and solve the cycling’s biggest problem see we’ve come to a point where no team is afraid to admit the Pelaton has a problem and that problem is Tad Pagacha yonas Vingor Remco Even their teams and all the other Pelaton dominators are simply clueless of what to do to match Pagacha’s physiological bizarness dan Lurang from Red Bull Bora Hans Grower for example said we have to admit that Pagacha is one level above we have to accept that’s how it is and we cannot negotiate it it’s hard to go into a race and say okay when Pagacha goes we follow we’re seeing again and again that it’s just not always possible and it’s hard to know what we can do against it just look at the criterium dudine as an example it literally looked like he was nose breathing when he dropped the entire pelaton off his back wheel and understandably everyone’s asking whether a similar domination could even be stopped at the tour to France it’s clear that if he continues to dominate in a similar fashion that we’ve seen at the Doofune everyone else is pretty much cooked and Lorang the coach of Primo Roglitch and Florian Lipowitz who commented on the matter is just one of many top tier training minds analyzing that question as the countdown to the Grand Depar continues Pagachar is simply sitting on top of the pro cycling throne right now grand Tours Hilly Classics Cobbled Classics you name it they all fall under his UAE Emirates XRG dominion and realistically there’s only two riders maybe not even that who pose a mediocre challenge to his rule matu Vanderpool and Vingagore but we’ve seen him crack those two again and again as well and Pagacha only cemented that status recently fresh off an altitude camp in Sierra Nevada the 26-year-old unleashed his latest weapon a brutal seated acceleration to dismantle the doofina he claimed a reduced sprint dominated two alpine stages and secured the overall title edging ever closer to 100 pro wins and honestly if he wanted to he could have easily pulled that off too the Slovenian star leveled up across the board becoming stronger and more complete just as most of the Pelaton was still scrambling to close last year’s gap bringing Javier Solar on board for 2024 elevated Slovenia’s babyfaced Assassin to a new level while most of the Pelaton remained a step behind a renewed focus on heat adaptation strength work and torque training helped round out Pagachar’s still developing engine and some upgrades in both on and off bike nutrition were the final polish pagacha has grown so dominant over the past 18 months that some questioned whether his erratic pacing in the Dofphane time trial was just a bluff and speaking of that Jacob Alula coach Peter Leo and many others didn’t hesitate to say it out loud the rest of the Pelaton has a serious problem leo said it’s hard to find the answer to the question of how to compete with a rider like Pagachar he seems to only get better we will maybe know more about what we can do in the future but at the moment it’s sometimes difficult to understand what we see given the background information we have from our own riders in the same race we can make our guesses at what Pagacha does it’s something we’re not sure how to match when there’s such a massive gap and things become even scarier when you realize that his 20inut 7.1 watts per kilo abomination on stage 6 of the Doofane wasn’t even his personal best his 40inut 7 watts per kilo demolition of Plateau de Bay at last year’s tour is already being hailed as one of the greatest climbing feats in history for comparison most pros even a former yellow jersey like Gear Ain’t Thomas might only hit that kind of power for 7 to 8 minutes if even that even Thomas said the following on a podcast it’s just ridiculous you could see it too it just looked effortless those types of numbers are just insane his engine is just phenomenal and he backs it up the next day if Pagacha stuns the Pelaton the reaction among coaches is closer to quiet resignation leo also said “It’s becoming a big frustration for us in the performance group you see your riders achieving a bunch of PBS but it’s still not enough to follow Pagachar and the rest of these guys it’s hard for us to understand what they’re doing and why we can’t match them we do what we can but there’s no magic solution and for Leo’s team Jac Alula and likely many other mid-tier squads it’s not just Pagacha causing headaches vanderpool and Mads Peterson have joined Poggy in dominating the classics widening the gap between the big four GC contenders and the rest of the Pelaton in today’s cycling if you’re not among these bigs you’re falling behind but that doesn’t mean Okconor Rogich Evanapole and Vingore won’t be strategizing hard to solve the Pogachar puzzle this July and if anyone is going to crack it the general consensus points to Vingugore there’s just no visible valid reason we could think otherwise vingore was the only rider who could somewhat match Pugatcha in the Alpine finale of the recent Criterium Dud and Pugacha clearly wasn’t going full gas yet standing on the second step of the podium the twotime Tour to France champion remained upbeat confident there’s room for improvement in his final tuneup at Tinus but how close can Vingore get in just a few weeks is it realistic to think he can go past Pagatar’s form in such a short period of time well his Vizma lease a bike coach is optimistic but still keeps it real pagatar is just one of a kind and he’ll likely be half a step in front of everyone for quite some time vingor’s coach Tim said “Last year on Plateau de Bay I know what Yona’s pushed and Pagacha pushed harder those climbs are Yona’s strength and Pagacha was better that means we need to become better to match that level and then become better again maybe we will make an analysis of Pagacha’s strengths but he can do anything the only part we can control is the shape of Yonas we cannot control the shape of Remco Pagacha or anybody else we’ll get into the best possible shape for the tour and then see what it’s worth two weeks at high altitude and the chance to grow into the tour before the final alpine assault will determine if Vingore can achieve a perfect three for three against the dominant Slovine it’s also been a while since we saw him bonk but crashes cramps and other mishaps remind us that Pogy isn’t invincible at least not yet so as Lurang suggested if you can’t outfitness Pugacha you have to outthink him and that’s where the Pelaton is kind of trying to go he said “What you can instead do is play strong and use tactical cards which we tried in the classics if you get things right we’ve seen having numbers up the road for the final can count paga is so impressive but he cannot do everything we’ve seen that before red Bull and Vlab super teams will field squads of top domestics to back Rogich and Vingore and maybe try to outmaneuver Pagachar in the fight for the yellow jersey but for riders like Matteo Jorgensson and Florian Lipawitz UAE Emirates XRG will be just as strong if not stronger and they have Pagachar as well sure they can ride clever as a team but when it comes to one-on-one some guys are simply on a different level right now and for the likes of Red Bull there’s no solution for that right now all their performance staff can do is work hard and make their guys strong enough to use numbers or create surprises like they did in the classics are there any surprises coming though well we’ll see skeptics may point to the controversial past of some staff at UAE Emirates XRG but Pagachar is clearly one of a kind a perfect blend of genetic talent he burst onto the world tour scene in 2019 and hasn’t looked back since the story is similar though less explosive for MVDP and Vingore and maybe some cycling superheroes simply can’t be beaten leo said it best as a fan it’s incredible but as a trainer it’s frustrating it’s hard to digest maybe the racing changes again in the future and the level becomes closer or more dense but now it’s like a twoclass society in pro cycling teams like Jac Alula will apparently need to wait out the current dominance of cycling superstars and focus on nurturing young talent while top rivals hope Pagachar’s prime came earlier than expected but talking about top rivals this year’s Doofine might have literally leaked the Tour to France winner already you can hear more about that by clicking the video on your screen right