Tadej Pogačar continues to dominate in the 2024 season, with a record performance up the nasty Vallter 2000 climb, putting huge time into the competition on the first mountain top finish.
It ended up being a cold and wet day in Catalunya, after a sunny start on the coast. With Tadej Pogačar being comfortable in these kinds of conditions and no other superstar GC riders in attendance, it would a hard task to challenge the Slovenian champion. It was an unipuerto stage, finishing up the mighty Vallter 2000 (11.2 km, 7.6%).
19-year-old Norwegian climber Johannes Kulset spent 3,141 kilojoules for 4:21 hours before Vallter 2000. It was a low intensity day with 11.71 kj/kg/h – unsurprising considering the parcours before Vallter. It was not possible to see the first part of the climb thanks to a disrupted TV signal in the wet Pyrenees. The UAE Emirates climbing squad did their best effort to set up an attack for their leader with Pavel Sivakov, Marc Soler and Joao Almeida pacing up the climb. Pogačar launched between 7 and 8 km to go and soloed for around 18 minutes to the win.
In the Tour de France 2021, Stage 8 Pogačar also gained a huge lead immediately on his GC rivals Richard Carapaz, Jonas Vingegaard and others in the wet Col de Romme and Col de la Colombiere stage. It was the same scenario in Catalunya with no one being able to even respond to an attack and attempt to hold Pogačar’s wheel.
Pogačar did a strong performance, considering the high altitude, pushing 6.23 ᵉW/Kg for 31:30 min and breaking the climbing record by 21 seconds, which was set by Roglič, Evenepoel and Ciccone last year. Pogačar spent most of the climb alone without a draft, which makes his effort more impressive. As Vallter 2000’s average altitude is 1707 metres it is a strong performance when adjusted for altitude. At sea level his performance would be equivalent to 6.66 ᵉW/Kg for 31:30 min. In the steeper middle section Pogačar did 6.39 ᵉW/Kg for 19:26 min. As there will likely be cold and rainy stages in the Giro d’Italia, it is difficult to imagine anyone challenging the Slovenian, who might have even improved this year considering his previous March performances.
Mikel Landa with 5.89 ᵉW/Kg for 32:53 min finished second. Pogačar's dominance was so huge that Cian Uijtedebroeks who finished 23rd lost less time to Landa than Landa lost to Pogačar. Visma - Lease a Bike's had a shocker, with their young Belgian GC talent pushing 5.55 ᵉW/Kg to finish with Juan Pedro Lopez, whilst Sepp Kuss in his home race finished in the same group as Burgos-BH rider Jose Manuel Diaz, doing 5.70 ᵉW/Kg.
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ammattipyöräily says Pocaçar’s time was 30:01