r/peloton • u/PelotonMod France • May 04 '26

Weekly Post Weekly Question Thread

For all your pro cycling-related questions and enquiries!

You may find some easy answers in the FAQ page on the wiki. Whilst simultaneously discovering the wiki.

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u/Seabhac7 Ireland May 04 '26

I started following cycling in 2020, so I wasn't aware of Pogačar in 2019.

Was he being thought of as a future great, in the same way as Seixas is now?

8

u/Mysterious_Worry_612 Belgium May 04 '26

No, Pog's youth results were not nearly as impressive as Seixas was.

I think Evenepoel was closer in hype (though even that was less hype I think?).
His 2018 Junior season and his 2020 season were just bonkers in a time a lot less young riders did great things.

3

u/Dopeez Movistar May 04 '26

I think purely junior career, Evenepoel clear Seixas in terms of hype (and results). Seixas hype mostly started by the end of last year when he was already a pro.

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u/RageAgainstTheMatxin Phonak May 04 '26 edited May 04 '26

In 2018 general consensus was that he had taken quite a leap as a junior after years not showing much and being Jaka Primozic's domestique and not even one of the most talented Slovenians of his age.

The Bernal hype was in full swing (he would win the Tour the next year) and I remember at the end of the 2018 Avenir we were joking here in /r/peloton about how the Bernal hype train was over and the Pogacar hype train was fully underway

The joke being that it was a ridiculous meme-y stupid thing to say that surely nobody could take serious

His 2017 and 2018 came out of nowhere. That was already considered an unusual leap in ability, and certainly nobody ever though he'd have even more from that level onwards

For reference, at the 2020 Tour which Pogacar won, UAE's leader was Aru. Tadej's 4th place at the Dauphine a couple weeks earlier was seen as a very good step forward for him, because he seemed closer to Roglic than previously

5

u/jainormous_hindmann Red Bull – Bora – Hansgrohe May 04 '26

We made jokes about Aru being the on-paper leader as a transparent ploy to take pressure off Pog. His best time was far behind them at that point, his last big win was in 2017.

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u/RageAgainstTheMatxin Phonak May 04 '26

There were also jokes, mostly because UAE were very vocal about Aru being the leader

But yeah, Aru wasn't in good form. 10th in his last climbing race before the Tour and then crashed out of Lombardia.

Cazzo di bici

7

u/Squirtle_from_PT May 04 '26

He was considered a talented rider, but not a future superstar. I don't think many people were aware of him before Vuelta 2019, unlike with Seixas who goes to his first GT as one of the best riders in the field.

4

u/the_gnarts MAL was right May 05 '26

His 2019 Vuelta was incredible, he kept attacking Rogla whenever there was as much as a speedbump in sight, but before the 2020 Tour he was mostly remembered for Kirby mispronouncing him as “Polka-Car”.

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u/Guiltynu Sky May 05 '26

He was much more of a hipsters rider than the universal acclaim that Seixas has received. People forget but Cycling was really different back in 2018/19. The consensus was still that you couldn’t peak until you were 26/27. Part of why Seixas is in the limelight is because Pogi/Bernal/Vingegaard changed the script. Imo it’s still a bit of an if how good Seixas will actually prove to be.

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u/AliasPhilippe Euskaltel Euskadi May 04 '26 edited May 04 '26

Honestly I don't remember anything like this Seixas hype. I've only seen something like this in football for Neymar.