Breaking down the key moments of Tadej Pogačar's steamrolling of the competition en route to a sixth career Monument victory on Sunday at Liège-Bastogne-Liège
The numbers and analysis in this post demonstrate that we witnessed historic Spring campaigns by Van der Poel and Pogacar. It's astounding to think that Pogacar is poised to continue his run of excellence into the Grand Tours. Let's see if his targeted, and thus limited, race day schedule has given him the chance to build the depth of fitness that he lacked in last year's Tour.
While there is no doubt about the headlines from this Spring, those other results and failures are the storylines that kept me watching. The minor placings honestly didn't interest me all that much until the relegation system raised the importance of UCI points to my attention. Have to credit the UCI for highlighting the racing that happens behind the winner.
I'm also trying to figure what strategies and tactics can be used to combat group two syndrome. The emphasis on UCI points, and accompanying increase in prestige in being best of the rest, may have doomed the cooperation necessary for a group to defeat the strongest rider. But just like the "I'm strongest, gonna attack from the longest" tactic has become the tactic of the last few years, I'm expecting some new strategy to develop as teams and riders continue to tweak their training, nutrition, equipment, etc. We probably won't know what the new approach will be until we've seen it repeated multiple times.
The numbers and analysis in this post demonstrate that we witnessed historic Spring campaigns by Van der Poel and Pogacar. It's astounding to think that Pogacar is poised to continue his run of excellence into the Grand Tours. Let's see if his targeted, and thus limited, race day schedule has given him the chance to build the depth of fitness that he lacked in last year's Tour.
While there is no doubt about the headlines from this Spring, those other results and failures are the storylines that kept me watching. The minor placings honestly didn't interest me all that much until the relegation system raised the importance of UCI points to my attention. Have to credit the UCI for highlighting the racing that happens behind the winner.
I'm also trying to figure what strategies and tactics can be used to combat group two syndrome. The emphasis on UCI points, and accompanying increase in prestige in being best of the rest, may have doomed the cooperation necessary for a group to defeat the strongest rider. But just like the "I'm strongest, gonna attack from the longest" tactic has become the tactic of the last few years, I'm expecting some new strategy to develop as teams and riders continue to tweak their training, nutrition, equipment, etc. We probably won't know what the new approach will be until we've seen it repeated multiple times.