Quote Originally Posted by Witton Park View Post
It's a fair point.

and the point I'm trying to make is that there is more specialism now.

Riders seem to be one day racers, or GC contenders in stage races. Pidcock even this year prepped for the Spring Classics and won one.
Job done.

Pogacar might be a capable classics rider, but I reckon this week he's paying the price for what happened in the spring.
The evidence points towards less specialism: Pogačar has won two Tour de Frances, two Tirreno-Adriaticos and one Paris-Nice. He has also won 7 classic races, and he is still only 24. Remco Evenpoel has won the Vuelta a España and 5 classic races, and is only 23. And then there is Wout van Aert, who despite doing a colossal amount of heavy-lifting for Jumbo-Visma has won the Tour of Britain and 5 classics.

I was surprised that Pogačar even started this Tour de France, after missing so much training and racing. I would not expect him to be at his best, but he's still 49 minutes ahead of Pidcock in the GC