{"id":672899,"date":"2026-07-04T05:29:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T05:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/672899\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T05:29:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T05:29:16","slug":"to-then-utter-magic-words-like-forming-an-alliance-that-just-doesnt-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/672899\/","title":{"rendered":"To then utter magic words like forming an alliance… that just doesn’t work"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nNaesen said on the HLN Cycling Podcast<\/a>: \u201cWhat is that then, a block against Pogacar? If Evenepoel were to say to Seixas now: ‘If you attack now, I’m not going to follow…’ That doesn’t happen.\u201dWhen it comes to teams’ ambitions for reaching the Tour de France podium, former Olympic champion Greg van Avermaet<\/a> thinks an alliance is out of the question, and that legs alone trump tactics or co-operating with rivals.<\/p>\n

Van Avermaet doesn’t think alliance would work against Pogacar<\/p>\n

Van Avermaet said: \u201cAll teams have put so much work into their preparation. Standing on the podium is already a goal in itself for many riders.<\/p>\n

“To then utter magic words like forming an alliance… that just doesn’t work. Racing is simply far too hard for that. Sometimes some tactics are involved. But often it is the legs that count.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naesen turned his attention to team tactics, referencing Team Visma | Lease a Bike’s repeated strategy of controlling stages and making them difficult for Pogacar. He believes that the strategy plays into his hands and defeats the purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cI often find that strange,\u201d he notes. \u201cVisma | Lease a Bike says that often. But if you make the race hard, and your opponent is much better than you, for whom are you making the race hard? Isn’t that just playing into your opponent’s hands? You should actually try to make the race as easy as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pogacar’s dominance compared to Merckx<\/p>\n

When it comes to Pogacar dominance, Naesen compares it to Eddy Merckx’s cannibal days of dominance. Although noting that fans may be frustrated by his all-conquering victories, his legend will live long in the memory.<\/p>\n

Naesen said: \u201cIt does remind me of what you hear in legend, the days of Eddy Merckx. At the time, it might be annoying to watch. But I can certainly appreciate those performances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Avermaet agreed, likening Pogacar dropping professionals at will to making them seem amateur: “It is like us dropping a recreational cyclist on the flat. We just have to put in a little effort, and then he drops back. That is the feeling the pros have with Pogacar. If he puts in a bit of effort, they drop back. If you can do that at the highest level, it must feel amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Naesen said on the HLN Cycling Podcast: \u201cWhat is that then, a block against Pogacar? If Evenepoel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,114048,9046,121022,101,8782,6549,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-672899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-greg-van-avermaet","tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-oliver-naesen","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tour-de-france","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672899","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=672899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}