Cycling historians were unanimous: there will never be another cyclist like him. Someone like Eddy Merckx, who won the Tour, Giro, World Championships and Classics in a row - usually at the end of long solo rides. It was a time when sports photography was still largely shot in black and white. In the modern era, great cycling successes are much more colourful when a young man now stands as the Belgian's rightful heir: Tadej Pogacar, who snapped up jerseys in pink and yellow as well as with rainbow stripes in the past cycling year - with downright mischievous attacks in which the colours of his jersey sometimes disappeared under a thick layer of dust, as at the Strade Bianche - in which he put in a solo ride in the very first race of the season that was considered impossible in modern professional cycling.
Merckx has practically decreed his succession in his will: "It is obvious that he is now above me. There is no longer any doubt," Merckx told the French newspaper L'Equipe. The power density in professional cycling is now far too great, the roles of the teams and helpers far too important, for success to be achieved with a riding style like that of Eddy Merckx and Fausto Coppi. Pogacar has proved the experts wrong. He has made the seemingly impossible possible. The 26-year-old Slovenian is the outstanding representative of a new generation of racers who do not wait and see, but instead seek out spectacle and risk - with a riding style that was rarely seen in the era of Lance Armstrong and Christopher Froome.
First teamwork, then going it alone
Pogacar also has strong supporters at his side. His team, UAE Team Emirates, is considered to be the strongest internationally - financed by almost fabulous wealth from the United Arab Emirates, where a lot of money for cycling is springing up thanks to large deposits of oil and natural gas. But Pogacar likes to leave his escort behind early and seeks his salvation in flight. His record-breaking rides in the 2024 season were last seen in the era of Fausto Coppi and Eddy Merckx.
Of course, the superiority of the always rascally cycling pro has also raised questions and doubts. There have been discussions about suspected abusive Use of carbon monoxide. According to international observers, there were certainly doubts about the seriousness of the doping tests in his home country of Slovenia - but the Slovenian lives in Monaco with his partner Urska Zigart, also a professional cyclist, like many of the best international cyclists. There may be doubts, but there is no evidence that "Pogi" has done anything illegal to become a high-flyer on the scene - or that he is doing anything different from his competitors. And one should not forget: Eddy Merckx has been caught doping several times. Largely without consequences.
Solo rides by Tadej Pogacar
Ultimately, Pogacar also wins because he is not afraid to take the risk of long solo rides - he often rides significantly faster for just a few moments than his rivals, who often don't dare to do so so early in the race. And he then benefits from the fact that the pursuers paralyse each other, nobody wants to do the work for the others - there is rarely cross-team cooperation. The lead grows.
There may be people who get bored if the same person wins too often. But Pogacar has given cycling a lot of spectacle. If you want to see excitement and race decisions by hundredths of a second in the final metres of a race, you can watch bunch sprints. The lightweight from Slovenia is not involved in that. But perhaps he will soon try to disprove the prevailing cycling theory here too.
Tadej Pogacar still lacks a few wins
He came relatively close to winning his fourth Monument this season at Milan-San Remo, finishing third in the sprint with Jasper Philipsen and Michael Matthews. He wants to try his hand at Paris-Roubaix soon. He has never been an Olympic champion - this year he decided not to start in Paris. Remco Evenepoel then snatched gold twice in the road races there. In 2025, Pogacar wants to win the Vuelta in Spain for the first time, as he has already announced. And the all-rounder does not consider the triple of overall successes in the Giro, Tour and Vuelta within one season to be impossible - but only later in his still young racing career. So there is still a lot to do for Tadej Pogacar - even after a record year. It will be exciting to see what else he can achieve.
Andreas Kublik
Editor
