Agree! Just being a fan having fun.
Definitely not willing to bet any hard earned DarthBucks ™ against Pog at this point.
I see his career a bit differently…so much unrealized potential. Only 1 Flanders and Roubaix win each and so many other races that fit his abilities untouched. Milan-San Remo, Amstel, potentially even Liege, etc.
Three World Championships in a row - over a dozen grand tour stages. I guess you can’t have it all.
No one said he hasn’t had a great career…or that he had to “have it all”.
But an honest assessment of his skills and capabilities shows that he there was much more he was capable of winning.
I’ve always thought of Sagan as a natural talent having fun and winning on his terms. Less machine-like (some GC guys) and more real.
Except after three WCs, he had a giant target on his back. Everybody was riding his wheel for a while. It’s tough to get more results when all the best in the world are riding your wheel and watching your every move.
Wonder how guys like Boonen, Cancellera, Museeuw and others managed to do it…
I think Sagan is one of those potential big time heroes who doesn’t quite live up to being the amazing role model people might desire. That’s probably on the collective “us” more than him.
Read his autobiography on a recent plane ride. It’s a weak book as books go. I came away thinking he really didn’t know what story to tell and tried to be too cute and irreverent. I kept wondering if he had just a little more maturity he might have won even more. But on reflection, that’s unfair and to judgmental on my part. He’s won a crap ton of big bike races, world tour life is brutal hard even at the top, he has been entertaining and seems a decent enough dude.
If he was different perhaps he doesn’t achieve anywhere near what he has done. But as a fan, can’t help but think he left wins on the table.
Again, rooting for him to put the last couple seasons in the rear view and to have many more successes. While it’s a fans right to be critical, basically always rooting for these guys to do well.
$0.02
Back to the tour – I want to see Cav get another one tomorrow. What a great story this is and so much fun to watch. But will take everything being perfect to get the W. Those other fast guys are not going to let him win. DQS can make it happen though. Wondering if he’s going to make it to Paris and keep green. Another very tough ask with those two huge stages looming large now.
Was hoping to see some gorilla madness today at the final but didn’t happen. Was a nice win for Politt though. Love it when guys just throw down like that and go for it.
p.s. Museeuw was poetry on a bike (and a Mapei guy too). For those new to the game, find some video. That’s how you want to pedal a bicycle. Even post surgery the guy was amazing. @Power13
It would be great to see Cav go into stage 21 with 34 stages wins, which would setup an epic battle for the win on the Champs Ellysee
If he can make it to Paris, I think he’ll break the record. Whether he can make it there through the Pyrenees… 
Some speculation that it will be tough to get through the mountains because he did not really prepare for the Tour, etc…we’ll see. I hope he does.
Agreed re: Museeuw…i have a lot of mixed feelings about his past, but he was class on a bike.
I think he will make it. He is going strong so far and his team is going to give everything for him to get over the Pyrenees. And I think he will win the Champs-Élysées… Nobody managed to win it more often than Cav (Suck on that Eddy 
) I think he will do it one more time 
Uh, I don’t think I’d trade any of their palmares for Sagans???
Did you word that the way you intended…because I agree - I wouldn’t trade theirs for Sagan’s either since theirs are better. 
Apparently not, because Sagan is way over them. Multiple WC, first person since the Badger to win Roubaix in the stripes, all time green jersey champ… That crushes monument wins.
Even if he loses time in the Pyrenees, there’s still the stage 20 ITT giving him additional buffer on top of the 5 minutes he currently has. He took a minute out of Uran, 1:44 out of Carapaz and 0:27 out of Vingegaard in the first ITT. If that stays marginally the same, that means, he has to lose 6+ minutes in the mountains to lose the Tour. While not over, much of the writing does appear to be on the wall for 1st.
That said, with the podium wide open, it is possible they attack each other and ignore Pog. In that case, if Pog makes a mistake in following wheels or attacks, he could “explode” more than the “little bit” he said he did on Ventoux. So in my mind, he loses the Tour if he 1) crashes out or 2) pulls a Yates.
I hope Cav makes it to Paris but there’s 5 “hard” days in a row coming up for him. Sure there’s a rest day in there but he hasn’t done more than 2 “hard” days in a row yet and he’s using every bit of the time cut to finish those.
It’s funny how we rank riders. Most riders win a Tour stage and we pat them on the back for the win of a lifetime. Sagan has 47 Tour podiums and we say ‘he could have given us more’!
We know how Museeuw did it. Doped to the gils! When a team puts their mind to it, they can accomplish great things.
There ought to be a forum penalty for posting a picture of that tattoo. I mean, come on man, we can’t unsee that!!!
Back to records:
Sean Kelley’s palmares is one for the ages and it doesn’t get mentioned often enough. Monuments. One week tours. Grand tours. Tough to beat King Kelly in his day.
Paris Nice record will never be broken