{"id":717909,"date":"2026-07-29T20:57:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T20:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/717909\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T20:57:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T20:57:12","slug":"what-i-was-doing-for-10-minutes-tadej-is-doing-for-more-than-40-now-chris-froome-says-pogacar-has-moved-the-goalposts-in-grand-tour-cycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/717909\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWhat I was doing for 10 minutes, Tadej is doing for more than 40 now\u201d \u2013 Chris Froome says Pogacar has moved the goalposts in Grand Tour cycling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>His recorded climbing time of 35:27 was more than a minute quicker than Marco Pantani\u2019s previous benchmark. Remco Evenepoel, who finished second overall in Paris, crossed the line 2:29 behind him.<\/p>\n<p>Froome\u2019s peak numbers now only \u201cgood for a top 20\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Froome won the Tour in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017, before adding the Giro d\u2019Italia in 2018 to the two Vuelta a Espana titles already on his record.<\/p>\n<p>Asked how he might have performed with the equipment, training and preparation available to today\u2019s peloton, Froome found the comparison increasingly difficult to make. \u201cIt has all changed so much,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is so hard to say because the goalposts have moved so much.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Froome then went beyond his 10-minute comparison with Pogacar and suggested that the numbers from his own Tour-winning years would no longer place him anywhere near the yellow jersey battle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe power numbers I was putting out probably seven or eight years ago, those numbers would probably only be good enough for a top-20 finish now,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is just from watching and looking at the times.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pogacar had already taken control of the Tour long before Alpe d\u2019Huez. He won five stages across the three weeks, including major mountain victories after attacks on the Col du Tourmalet and at Le Lioran, before finishing 6:26 ahead of Evenepoel in Paris.<\/p>\n<p>His Alpe d\u2019Huez ride came with the yellow jersey already secure barring disaster. Rather than defend his advantage, Pogacar attacked from the opening slopes, passed the remnants of the breakaway and delivered the fastest recorded ascent of the climb.<\/p>\n<p>Froome had already described that performance as \u201cnothing short of remarkable\u201d, adding that Pogacar had \u201cdestroyed everyone\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tourdefrance2026stage4-chrisfroome-6a4d3847c0d80.jpg@webp.webp\" class=\"w-auto h-auto\" alt=\"Chris Froome at stage 4 of the 2026 Tour de France\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Chris Froome at stage 4 of the 2026 Tour de France<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThank God I\u2019m not there\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The transformation in Grand Tour racing has not left Froome wishing he could return to his peak years.<\/p>\n<p>Asked by Blythe whether it felt better to be watching from outside the race, the Briton replied: \u201cIt feels amazing. I don\u2019t miss it for a second. I\u2019m so grateful for my career, but at the same time, looking at it, I\u2019m just like: thank God I\u2019m not there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pogacar ended the 2026 Tour with five stage victories and joined Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain as a five-time winner. Froome believes the numbers that delivered four yellow jerseys during his own career would now leave him fighting merely to enter the top 20.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; His recorded climbing time of 35:27 was more than a minute quicker than Marco Pantani\u2019s previous benchmark.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[163942,35740,4985,101,8782,6549,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-717909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-adam-blythe","tag-chris-froome","tag-cycling","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\/717909","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=717909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}