TDF 2022:- Stage 7: Tomblaine to La Super Plance des Belles Filles, 176.3km ***Spoilers***

RichN95. said:

DeadCalm said:

Really? He won the Tour de l'Avenir by an unremarkable 1'28 ahead of 18 year old Thymen Arensman. He obviously had potential, but nobody back then was bigging him up to be the dominant GC machine he has become.

There was a stage where there were he was already in the lead by a few seconds. There were three unthreatening riders in the break and a GC group of about 15 (including Vlasov, Mader, Foss, Almeida). They kept attacking but got nowhere as Pogacar personally chased each one down. Then he attacked, bridged up to the break and took at minute out of everyone in short time. It was a remarkable piece of riding.
The next day he went off on a corner and had to change his bike while the race was in full swing. The speed that he got back to the front was astonishing.
It was like he could do whatever he wanted with a strong field

Even though, I followed that race very closely, you had me doubting my recollection, so I went back to the thread at the time.

https://forum.bikeradar.com/discussion/13094889/tour-de-lavenir-2018-spoilers/p1

The chasing down of attacks was impressive, but the attack was in the company of Ries by whom he was beaten in the sprint. Neither of them caught the Spaniard who had attacked previously from that group.

Again, the chasing back on was impressive, but not remarkable. He lost maybe twenty seconds maximum when he went off the road.

He was strong, the strongest rider in that race for sure, but he never won a stage and was out-sprinted every time he got to the finish. Nothing screamed future multi-TDF winner.