But like Jorgenson said this year, there’s no tactics that can beat Pogi going up a steep hill at 7w/kg. At some point it all comes down to power to weight.
But like Jorgenson said this year, there’s no tactics that can beat Pogi going up a steep hill at 7w/kg. At some point it all comes down to power to weight.
Stage 21 was a great example of how tactics can beat a stronger rider. Pogacar was probably the strongest but Matteo burned up his energy chasing attacks in the final lap and then at the right moment WvA was ready to pounce and take the stage.
Sure it was great to see Wout win again - in Paris no less! And it does kind of validate the TVL strategy of “wear Pogi out with 3 super hard weeks of racing.”
Unfortunately for them it just wasn’t enough to make the difference in the GC.
Did tactics have anything to do with how Pogi lost the 2022 TdF on stage 11?
More generally, there is a lot more to each stage and to the race as a whole than the general classification.
If power to weight is all we cared about, we could rank all riders based on their power curve as measured on an indoor trainer and call it a day.