Just look at his face. Like you said, he’s strong as hell, but I always feel like he looks like if he bumps into a doorknob he’s going to break a bone. I can’t imagine that’s even close to healthy.
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Healthy isn’t always the goal for elite athletes. They are putting their bodies through the ringer to get every ounce of performance
Was it nibali that broke a hip crashing at almost zero mph? That kind of bone density is a dream if you need every w/kg possible but kind of a nightmare otherwise😬
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That settles it. The next athlete that will beat Pog will have bird like hollow bones and his W/kg will 7.0 at recovery effort 
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Almost all the guys who can really climb are tiny humans. I was actually thinking Jonas looked like he had added some muscle this year, but he’s still a tiny dude. As is Tadej. I’m always surprised when you see one of these guys in person (not that I’ve seen Jonas or Tadej). I thought Peter Sagan was a decent sized (fairly muscular) guy until I saw him at a race next to normal sized people. Yeah, he’s muscular next to the average WT pro, but the average WT pro is pretty damn skinny.
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I remember reading in Sean Yates’ biography how he stopped doing 100 press-ups a day when he realised that Robert Millar was able to drop him, so it clearly wasn’t necessary.
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I’ve never seen Jonas nor Tadej in person but I’ve seen a lot of the gravel pros in person at Unbound gravel.. May or may not be similar pro athletes for observation. In person, the male pro athletes especially are always a lot smaller framed than I expected, from looking at pics. They are also taller than I expected as well but their “skinniness” makes them not look so tall. I am 6’4" (193cm) tall and was surprised standing next to Ian Boswell that he was almost my same height. I figured he was a good bit shorter (but I was wrong).
Chapeau to Arensman! And to Florian Lipowitz! I’d hate to have Roglic as a teammate.
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Anyone else think Tadej is sick? I think its more than wanting to get to Paris. He looked like he needed a hot water bottle, painkilers and netflix in yesterdays interviews
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He said himself 3 or 4 days ago that he wasnt feeling well
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Long day in the rain and finishing at altitude with no rain jacket
I think Jonas and Tadej just rode themselves into exhaustion (and possible illness). Visma plan would have worked “if” Jonas had maintained top form, I think. However, Jonas form fell as Tadej’s fell. No gain – but a lot of exhausted legs.
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The two mountain stages were pretty anti-climatic between Tadej and Jonas. For the last like 5-10km the announcers were like “any second, Tadej will be making his move!” Then it just never happened. I understand people don’t like Tadej being so dominant, but dam I sure get amped watching him take some crazy flyer and watch people just drop trying to match it. I can rewind and watch 3-4x.
That in mind, it’s still very enjoyable watching a long range breakaway and have racers that slowly fade off, and then the peloton work to try and pull them in during the final km. It’s so awesome when the leader is able to maintain their break (like today on stage 20). And - disappointing when they can’t quite hold them off (mvdp in an earlier stage).
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Do you think the stage will be raced tomorrow? Or will they stay behind the yellow jersey till the last part?
Two of the best riders ever are dueling it out up monster climbs sometimes 20k from the finish. While there may not have been traditional all out attacks (I mean JV tried in stage 18) the pace up these climbs has been brutal, often setting KOMs. When you are pushing hard for that long you just hope the other guy cracks first. But no one ever did.
Yeah… it is a 4 min gap in the end but the over-all seemed a lot closer than that. The difference was in time trials and a few seconds here or there. Otherwise outside of a few finish line sprints they seemed equals. But that’s me.
Phil Liggett is getting worse and worse every day!
Talking about Stuart O’Grady and Erik Zabel racing in the 70’s
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Plus the two minute chunk pog took on the first major mountain stage
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Best last stage ever
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1989 would like a word. But today is a very nice stage indeed.
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Yea, got to give it to 1989 because the outcome mattered. But today was super exciting. They should mix things up every few years with this course, an individual time trial, and I’d love to see a final day team time trial.
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Agree. I think he is sick too. Normal tadej would win 19 and maybe 20
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