{"id":158288,"date":"2025-09-24T21:48:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T21:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/158288\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T21:48:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T21:48:09","slug":"hell-struggle-on-sunday-if-youre-not-fresh-youre-finished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/158288\/","title":{"rendered":"He\u2019ll struggle on Sunday \u2013 If you\u2019re not fresh, you\u2019re finished"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nThat warning comes with direct relevance to Pogacar. The Slovenian admitted post-Tour that he was carrying fatigue, fell ill before the Canadian races, and then subjected himself to long-haul travel in pursuit of racing days. \u201cMaybe the jet lag is still in his body,\u201d Van der Mieren suggested. \u201cIf that clears in a week, it could be in his favour. But if not, then I think he\u2019ll struggle on Sunday against a super Remco Evenepoel<\/a>.\u201dWhy Van Wilder thrived, and Pogacar cracked<\/p>\n

Van Wilder\u2019s bronze medal provided a surprise but, to Van der Mieren, it was entirely consistent with his physiology. Some riders, they argue, simply process altitude stress better than others. \u201cIlan is one of the lucky ones,\u201d said the doctor. \u201cHe loses less power at 1,500 metres.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van der Mieren broke down the science in simple terms: the body has three \u2018engines\u2019 \u2013 fat burning, aerobic sugar burning, and the anaerobic system, which runs without oxygen. At altitude, with less oxygen available, riders rely more heavily on the third. But doing so effectively requires both genetic predisposition and a fully rested body. \u201cA tired body cannot sustain large anaerobic efforts,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

That, in his view, is where Pogacar may have faltered. Even a rider with one of the sport\u2019s largest \u2018motors\u2019 cracked under the Rwandan conditions, while Evenepoel\u2019s physiology and freshness allowed him to dominate.<\/p>\n

\"Remco<\/p>\n

The final podium of the Kigali Worlds TT<\/p>\n

The road race forecast<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s road race is expected to be no less punishing. Temperatures around 27 degrees may not sound extreme, but combined with Kigali\u2019s altitude, they could magnify fatigue. Van der Mieren believes the difference could amount to \u201cfive to ten percent\u201d of performance \u2013 more than enough to decide who survives and who falters.<\/p>\n

With Evenepoel arriving on peak form, Belgium\u2019s chances look golden. For Pogacar, the margins appear unforgiving. If his body has not yet shed the accumulated strain of a long season, Van der Mieren\u2019s verdict could prove prophetic: the rainbow jersey may be beyond reach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" That warning comes with direct relevance to Pogacar. The Slovenian admitted post-Tour that he was carrying fatigue,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-158288","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}