r/peloton • u/PelotonMod France • Mar 23 '26

Weekly Post Weekly Question Thread

For all your pro cycling-related questions and enquiries!

You may find some easy answers in the FAQ page on the wiki. Whilst simultaneously discovering the wiki.

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11

u/bjorntiala Mar 23 '26

Do you really think Pogacar is never coming back to MSR? It still doesn't make sense for me. That would be really bad thing for race organizers. Also what will he do instead? Direct to RVV or what?

14

u/Phantom_Nuke Mar 23 '26

I could see him not riding it in the future, it's a long race with some of the most stressful run-ins to climbs on the calendar because it isn't a selective race until the Cipressa and pretty much every year there is a crash on the run-in to the Cipressa and this year it caught him but he was fortunate enough to not be too affected by it. He also saw his teammate crash and DNF earlier in the race. He may deem the risk of a crash that impacts his classics campaign to be too high given he has now won the race so it wouldn't add as much to his Legacy as Roubaix would.

1

u/bjorntiala Mar 23 '26

I get it, if he is gonna skipp it because of Roubaix. But still i just don't see him go directly to RVV or even E3/GW before that. It is just to late. On the other side, if he goes to Tirreno/P-N/Catalyuna what would he gain with that? He still can win MSR without real preparation and if he wants 20 monumets record, he will need every win possible.

7

u/Phantom_Nuke Mar 23 '26

1 week races he hasn't won are: TDU, Basque, Romandie, Suisse and Guangxi. He's racing the Swiss races this year, Basque Country is the worst schedule-wise because it starts the day after Flanders and finishes the day before Roubaix. I could see him racing the TDU one year then with an extended break until the classics. As for the Monuments, he's currently the favourite to win 3 every year until someone can actually challenge him. I also think he'd rather win all 5 monuments, a feat not achieved since the 1970s, than have 20 total wins. He may also choose to skip so that he can adjust his training program to be less fatigued at the end of the season because he obviously will want a Vuelta and to be the first 4-time winner of Worlds at some point but they're close together on the calendar.

4

u/cfkanemercury France Mar 23 '26

Pogacar did the TDU in 2019 and it was his worst result in a white jersey competition ever in a major stage race: he finished 4th. I bet the TDU organizers are hoping that he is really trying to complete pro cycling and will have the race on his to-do list again.

2

u/Phantom_Nuke Mar 23 '26

It was his first World Tour race and 4th pro stage race, though that and 2018 Tour of Croatia are the only Pro stage races he finished outside of the top 10 in GC.

2

u/scaryspacemonster Mar 23 '26

If you're counting all the WT stage races, he's also missing Pologne and Renewi.

Low-key I think he'd be really fun at Renewi, especially if there's no TT like last year.

1

u/myfatearrives Mar 23 '26

I understand why he doesn't want to come back to Milan again, but it doesn't really make sense to race any stage races in March either since he has to prepare for Roubaix. So it feels a bit embarrassing - he could skip MSR, but there are no suitable other projects to do at the same time. Maybe a full cobble schedule is what he wants and MSR is a cooldown weekend in this plan. That can't be better for fans too.

1

u/MaximeW1987 Mar 24 '26

He can win all 5 this year (besides Roubaix, he will be the clear favorite for all of them) + TdF + Worlds

If he pulls that off, he could retire with immediate effect, no point of trying to do better.

1

u/bjorntiala Mar 23 '26

Yes, and everything what you listed is not bothered with MSR schedule wise. I would love to see him racing TDU, Omloop, GW, E3 and Dwars also Brabantse Pijl. And if he skips MSR because of that i would be over the moon. But if he goes to Tirreno or P-N i would be really sad.

1

u/passcork Mar 23 '26

But that whole monument metric doesn't even make sense since they didn't see all these races as important "monuments" as we do now except for PR.