2025 Races with Spoilers.

[No Ta Doctor]

I'm not sure it's comparable. Merckx won a lot of his (one-day) races because he could sprint well. I don't think I've ever seen anyone whose basic MO is to simply ride off the front from way out and hold that gap to the end. You got Merckx, Hinault and guys like that doing it now and then, but never in every single race.

I think that's a part of the issue for me - with a sprinter that wins often you always think there's a chance he'll muck up, his train will get a corner wrong, someone loses a wheel, so the suspense is there to the end of the race. Pog is winning races from distances we wouldn't have even seen televised just a couple of years ago. You turn on the TV and the race is already effectively over - barring some rare misfortune/bad day

Pog's only been caught once as far as I can remember - in Amstel this season, where Remco and Skjelmose chased him down. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have been caught if he had the form he's displayed the last couple of weeks.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Pog is winning races from distances we wouldn't have even seen televised just a couple of years ago.

That happened with the women's Paris Roubaix that Lizzie Deignan won didn't it? I think she'd already gone when the coverage started.

 

[phreak]

I think that's a part of the issue for me - with a sprinter that wins often you always think there's a chance he'll muck up, his train will get a corner wrong, someone loses a wheel, so the suspense is there to the end of the race. Pog is winning races from distances we wouldn't have even seen televised just a couple of years ago. You turn on the TV and the race is already effectively over - barring some rare misfortune/bad day

Pog's only been caught once as far as I can remember - in Amstel this season, where Remco and Skjelmose chased him down. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have been caught if he had the form he's displayed the last couple of weeks.

And even then, he still finished with the leaders and contested the win. This wasn't a caught in the sense Del Toro or Pidcock were caught in the World's and spat out the back.

 

[Adam4868]

No Lombardia for Ciccone
Season finished.

 

[Adam4868]

Pog's only been caught once as far as I can remember - in Amstel this season, where Remco and Skjelmose chased him down. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have been caught if he had the form he's displayed the last couple of weeks.

He's pretty much kept his form all year...barring the Tour and looking like it took some out of him ! But that's the reason why he's so good isn't it,to bounce back to that form race after race in the way and style he does it.Seems like an age ago when he won Strada...that tumble in that race could of quite easily been game over for the year.
Amstel was a good race though to show us it's possible,had a nasty headwind and Skelly and Remco chasing you down....some duo to work together ! But it shows how it can work and he can be beaten.Love Remco and his optimism of how he can 🤣
Yea it came down to the width of a tyre but all the same a wins a win.
It's mad how much he's raced this year and still got Lombardia as his goal...can't wait.

 

[No Ta Doctor]

Just seen that Christophe Laporte got third in Binche - Chimay - Binche / Mémorial Frank Vandenbroucke, his first top ten of the season, after missing almost all of it with a cytomegalovirus infection. He didn't race at all until mid August. Good to have him back, he's got a couple more SSRs this season* and then hopefully he has a good winter and comes out fresh and ready to go next season


*Sorry Paris - Tours, it shouldn't be this way, but the world has moved on

 

[No Ta Doctor]

Tom Pidcock seems to have a busy weekend lined up, he appears to be down for both Lombardia on Saturday and the world gravel champs in Limburg on Sunday

 

[Adam4868]

Seixas 25/1 for Lombardia....e/w mmmmm

 

[phreak]

He's pretty much kept his form all year...barring the Tour and looking like it took some out of him ! But that's the reason why he's so good isn't it,to bounce back to that form race after race in the way and style he does it.Seems like an age ago when he won Strada...that tumble in that race could of quite easily been game over for the year.
Amstel was a good race though to show us it's possible,had a nasty headwind and Skelly and Remco chasing you down....some duo to work together ! But it shows how it can work and he can be beaten.Love Remco and his optimism of how he can 🤣
Yea it came down to the width of a tyre but all the same a wins a win.
It's mad how much he's raced this year and still got Lombardia as his goal...can't wait.

Vingegaard has actually raced 13 days more this year than Pogacar.

 

[Adam4868]

Vingegaard has actually raced 13 days more this year than Pogacar.

I'm not doubting or disrespecting Vinny....he's had a great season...
But Pogacar has had one of the most dominant ones we've seen and won a lot in ways we haven't seen before...I'd go as far as to say one of the best seasons of all time ?
Not much of a comparison for me.

 

[No Ta Doctor]

I'm not doubting or disrespecting Vinny....he's had a great season...
But Pogacar has had one of the most dominant ones we've seen and won a lot in ways we haven't seen before...I'd go as far as to say one of the best seasons of all time ?
Not much of a comparison for me.

The comment was regarding how much he's raced. Volume-wise it's not all that much.

Pog has only ridden two GTs in a season once - last year. Merckx rode two per year every year from '69 to '74, bar '71. Pog has also only raced two non GT stage races this season. Vingegaard has more race days this year by nearly two weeks.
According to PCS, there are over 700 riders from WT to CT that have more race days than him this season

https://www.procyclingstats.com/ran...e=smallerorequal&team=&offset=0&filter=Filter

He's had a fantastic season, no doubt, but there's no reason to make up additional awards for him really.

 

[Adam4868]

The comment was regarding how much he's raced. Volume-wise it's not all that much.

My comment was about the races Pogs raced and the style in which he's won them.

Pog has only ridden two GTs in a season once - last year. Merckx rode two per year every year from '69 to '74, bar '71. Pog has also only raced two non GT stage races this season. Vingegaard has more race days this year by nearly two weeks.
According to PCS, there are over 700 riders from WT to CT that have more race days than him this season

Different era and there's some stuff probably best left unsaid about it...he might not have the same Palmares as Eddy now but still a better rider for me.

He's had a fantastic season, no doubt, but there's no reason to make up additional awards for him really.

One step away from podium in all five monuments...Tour, World and Euro Champ in the same season.
I really don't have to make up awards for him lol

Right early night I'm off to Bergamo tomorrow to watch him win Lombardia....fingers crossed 😁

 

[No Ta Doctor]

My comment was about the races Pogs raced and the style in which he's won them.

Wasn't my comment initially, but this is what @phreak was replying to, his reply was a factual thing, not a slight on Pog's season:

It's mad how much he's raced this year and still got Lombardia as his goal...can't wait.

 

[misforturob]

Race days is one factor we can think about, the number of days between Pog's first and last win of the season is another. The latter is very impressive

 

[phreak]

Even last year, when Pogacar rode two GTs, he only had 58 race days, with Jonas having done 62 already this year. It's probably a psychological bias that we feel like Pogacar races a whole lot because he wins about 25% of the time he puts a number on.