2026 Classics

[Daka]

Everyone watching Flanders? Reminder it's started

 

[eth-dog]

Everyone watching Flanders? Reminder it's started

At the footy but will watch once I get depressed at the scoreline, so in about an hour

 

[Duck Farmer]

2 from 2 monuments for Tadej.

 

[Daka]

It baffles me why other riders like MVDP pull with Pogacar, he would have beaten Remco anyway in a sprint.
than they wonder why they get dropped on climbs because use up all their energy pulling, yeah he might got dropped anyway but they always seem to play into Pogi's hands.

 

[eth-dog]

It baffles me why other riders like MVDP pull with Pogacar, he would have beaten Remco anyway in a sprint.
than they wonder why they get dropped on climbs because use up all their energy pulling, yeah he might got dropped anyway but they always seem to play into Pogi's hands.

I think he was doing fake pulls. Remco only gained time when MvdP was on the front.

 

[Daka]

I think he was doing fake pulls. Remco only gained time when MvdP was on the front.

Remco was never returning, not with the moto pacing ahead of MVDP & Pogacar.
big elephant in the room in cycling at the moment. 100% Remco would have got back to them if it wasn't for that.

But I think Pog would have been stronger anyway on the climbs anyway, but MVDP should not work at all imo. even fake turns.

EDIT - What last nights race showed us is that Remco Evenepoel has to focus more on the classics, I did not expect him to be as good as he was on the cobbles, I knew he'd be easily top 10 but I wasn't sure he'd be stronger than guys like Wout & Petersen who have much more experience.
It makes sense this is a guy that won a 273km Olympics Road Race that featured cobbled climbs.
I am not the biggest fan of Remco but I must say he did look good last night and deserves some credit.

 

[Black Diamond]

Pogacar now has as many Ronde wins as Boonen and Cancellara.

All of this is plausible IMO:

One more Ronde win making him the outright record-holder (although MDVP also has three at present).
One more Lombardia win making him the outright record-holder with six (currently equal with Coppi).
Two more Liege wins equalling him on five with Merckx.

I hope he does it.

 

[Vader]

The big question for 2026 is whether or not Pogi can do a Monument Grand Slam?

He's already won MSR and RVV, and all but has a mortgage on LBL and GdL. The only thing stopping him now is MVDP in Paris-Roubaix.

Merckx won all of the Monuments on multiple occasions. I'm not sure that he ever achieved a Grand Slam.

 

[eth-dog]

The big question for 2026 is whether or not Pogi can do a Monument Grand Slam?

He's already won MSR and RVV, and all but has a mortgage on LBL and GdL. The only thing stopping him now is MVDP in Paris-Roubaix.

Merckx won all of the Monuments on multiple occasions. I'm not sure that he ever achieved a Grand Slam.

Nope. Best he ever did was 3 in one year, but he did that a few times (69 and 75 did MSR, Ronde, Liege, 71 and 72 did MSR, Liege and Lombardia)