Addicted to Tadej Pogačar? Like many addicts you may not realise it or want to confront it but the Slovenian is becoming essential to the sport.
Last Sunday saw Pogačar duelling Mathieu van der Poel to win Paris-Roubaix. Pogačar was the challenger and if the Slovenian had not been racing then Van der Poel could have been out in front by himself for the final hour and uncontested, much like last year. A formality rather than a rivalry would be less appealing for all.
Pogačar has become the yardstick to measure races and racers against. While you can lose days trying to compare him to Eddy Merckx, he’s a certainly contemporary reference point. Van der Poel beat the field to win in Sanremo and Roubaix but arguably his triumph was ennobled because he beat Pogačar to do it.
This is approaching the point where Pogačar is needed in every race. He’s due to race the Amstel this weekend but if he wanted a rest then 17 World Tour team managers might make a fist pump out of sight but the organisers would be frustrated by his absence and TV executives worried.
Last Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix got its best TV audience ratings in France since the exceptional 2021 edition (post pandemic, rain, October) which in turn had the best ratings since 2008, a time when Netflix was largely a mail-based DVD rental business. So big numbers in Paris-Roubaix in 2025 are valuable for broadcasters in an era of fragmenting audiences.
Why were French audiences tuning in? There were no French favourites so absent any polling, a hypothesis: the Pogačar effect. The race was talked about a lot more in the build-up because he was thinking of riding, then more hype because he was confirmed as a starter. This supplied media interest that went beyond the cycling press, beyond the sports pages and into wider coverage.
For cycling fans the same rider winning again and again may be boring but comparatively few watched the UAE Tour, or even Strade Bianche. The sense of repeat episodes are only true if you watch every race he starts and the majority of people don’t. It’s the same in many sports: fans might watch everything, the general public tunes in for the finals.
Even cycling fans used to him winning can at least enjoy the manner of his wins. He might make it easy to write pre-race previews but at least he’s not riding down his rivals and sniping them in the sprint. But launching with, say, 100km to go is audacious and matters for the wider audience too as it can increase duration, more eyeballs spending more hours.
Look at the upcoming Giro d’Italia. Who will win, Primož Roglič or Juan Ayuso? It’s a huge task only there’s a tiny asterisk that they’ll do it in the absence of Pogačar. Now this is fine, it really is. If Roglič wins again, good for him; if Ayuso… well actually it’ll set up stories about him wanting to target the Tour de France and challenge Pogačar.
Besides if Mikel Landa, Romain Bardet or Egan Bernal win it could fascinating to watch this unfold. But this is “inside cycling” talk for purists, that little asterisk is more something for the general public who will show up for the stars. The Giro last year recruited Pogačar to take part because it needs the validation of big names, it needs star power, especially in the absence of Italian contenders. See the Vuelta organisers who are rubbing their hands in the expectation he’s coming too. They expect the public to follow if he is there.
Sports can boom when a Greatest of All Time is in action. Tiger Woods in his pomp boosted golf. When tennis had Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafal Nadal tournaments seemed predictable but audiences boomed with non-tennis fans coming across to see the big names in action, the kind of people who watch the finals rather endure mid-week third round games; it’s the same in cycling were mass audiences watch the Ronde or Roubaix and probably ignore the existence of the Scheldeprijs. Others probably watched Michael Jordan more than they followed basketball; many followed Usain Bolt more than track and field. Some of these comparisons only go so far, these are bigger examples than Pogačar.
Pogačar doesn’t have an outsized personality and for now he’s not really superstar; two million followers on Instragram is a celebrity metric only that’s fewer than Peter Sagan, and small compared to Lewis Hamilton on 39 million while Virat Kohli has 271m and Cristiano Ronaldo 652m.
Unscientifically accost people in the street and ask them to name the person pictured above and – unless you live in Slovenia or Flanders – you might, alas, get plenty of blanks. But he is breaking out beyond his sport, ask the same people in the street “what sport does Tadej Pogačar do” and the number of correct answers must be on the up. Still, if cycling fans feel his wins are becoming inevitable then this might mark the point where the general public starts to take an interest and they want to see the best in action.
Pogačar has found his match in the classics in Van der Poel but this is only for a handful of weekends. Plenty might still watch the Tour de France if Pogačar floats away with it but arguably more will tune in if Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel can sustain a challenge in July. Ideally for record media and public interest there would be some caricatural clash.
Conclusion
Pogačar could retire at the end of the season and the sport would go on. New duels, rivalries and stories would emerge. But there’s something to be said right now for Pogačar’s presence in the sport. Van der Poel has taken impressive wins in Sanremo and Roubaix but these triumphs have arguably been enhanced, both for beating Pogačar but also because the Slovenian is enhancing the action, like his Cipressa attack. Already next year’s Paris-Roubaix has added interest, not just to see if Wout van Aert and Mads Pedersen can try again but for Pogačar returning with experience.
Where this reaches higher levels still is when audiences crossover to watch him in action. It’s just a hypothesis for now but if cycling fans are finding his triumphs inevitable, this might be the point the wider public is coming over to watch and this brings in more plenty more viewers.
I am not waiting for next year’s Paris-Roubaix to see if Pocacǎr can win, but to see if Mads Pedersen can build a similar form for the spring and avoid any kind of misfortune.
Just a hunch Mikael, but are you a Danish Pedersen fan 😉
Absolutely, but nonetheless I would argue, this wish is justified on account of his racing quality.
Me also. And additionally hoping that it’s cold to give Mads a better chance.
I’m not Danish, I happen to like his blunt personality.
“Pogačar has found his match in the classics in Van der Poel…”
Historically, the classics were the following 8 races: Milan-San Remo, Flanders, Roubaix, Fleche Wallone, Liege-B-L, Paris-Brussels, Paris-Tours and Lombardia. This lasted until the late 1980s when the monuments became “a thing” and the term classics started having a wider meaning. Among the traditional classics, Van der Poel is only really challenging in the first three (neither race Paris-Brussels or Paris-Tours). I know some people use “classics” to mean the cobbled classics (+San Remo), but the term does include the hilly classics, and at these races nobody currently can challenge Pogi.
Gand-Wevelgem wasn’t a “semiclassic”, it always had prestige and a top-level international participation since the early 60s (and you could even backdate that a further decade depending on how strict or context-related is your judgement). Of course it went through lesser years and got recently pushed up again when its position in the week was changed some 15 years go, but it had a very active organisation since its very first editions as a pro race, soon after WWII. Anyway, it was always regarded as a Classic.
That said, I personally feel it’s a pity that Paris-Bruxelles and Paris-Tours were left struggling down the slippery slope towards a “semiclassic” status (I still can’t accept it for the latter, anyway). Were they still deemed as a very relevant piece in a rider’s palmarés, Pogi would face further headaches to sort out how to take them away from MvdP’s iron grasp.
Yet, truth is that the status of races changes through time in constant feedback with multiple factors including riders’ interest. It’s to be seen how these shifting situations turn into middle to long term status. Currently, Harelbeke is enjoying a good moment, even at expense of Gand-Wevelgem, but will it last? Paris-Bruxelles looks quite much gone for good one step down, Plouay is on the up in very recent years after having been mediocre from the beginning of the 00s to mid 10s. Same for San Sebastián, not a “true” Classic being very young, but it needed less than a decade to adquire status.
And what about Amstel? To me, it’s already a Classic, notwithstanding its “recent” origin and a couple of dubious decades across 80s and 90s.
It’s all quite paradoxical. However, what’s sure is that as you say the concept of Classic goes well beyond the cobbles, plus several Classics have always been hilly, and nobody is currently a serious match for a top form Pogi there. At the same time, there are other Classics or semiclassics where even without cobbles, MvdP could be a serious rival for Pogi or even the outright fav. Asphalt and “some” hills, not so long or not so steep. As none of them barring Sanremo is currently regarded as a top race, I’m afraid we won’t see many duels there between an athlete also tackling GTs and another who’s also passionate about CX and MTB…
‘Nobody’, Gabriele? Remco (& Jonas?) on top form could challenge Pogi in hilly one-day races, it would still be advantage Pogi but he’d actually have to race hard for it like MVDP made him do in De Ronde.
But it all serves to stress the absolute class of Pogi. His challengers vary with the terrain but he is invariably a contender. What a time to be a cycling fan.
Vingegaard is perhaps the complete opposite of Pogacar, reducing rather than expanding his focus to concentrate solely on stage races. He hasn’t finished a one day classic in more than three years. Of course that’s his choice to make and one he presumably believes gives him the best chance head to head against Pogacar at the Tour. The end result is probably that he has to ride very defensively in anything other than a mountain stage, and it leaves him very exposed in any stage with true classic qualities.
Yeah but intrinsically he has the qualities to challenge Pogi in LBL or Lombardia no? If he is surrounded by guys like Wout and Tiesj for the first >200km it should be doable I believe but clearly him and his team have other plans.
I do find Jonas a bit of mystery when it comes to one-day races – is it strategy, physiology or psychology that prevents him from competing? At the tour he’s often the only guy to follow Pog’s kicks (and counter attack), at the top of his game he’s a comparable time triallist, which presumably helps with those long range attacks, I’d be surprised if he had any issues with >260km races and has a strong team.
Does Remco’s triumphant return change the equation at all? He’s “box office” and I’d imagine his wider public profile is similarly high due to his Olympic win. More likely to give an interesting sound bite compared to Pogacar too. I honestly had no idea if he’d have to go through a Bernal-like slow return to form, so yesterday was wonderful to see.
It’s always a mystery of sort, but no news, really. Some athletes just can’t fit in one-day racing, often with higher, shorter, more repeated peaks of power. Then you need on-the-spot strategic vision, proactive decision making, huge flexibility to adapt your power distribution to often unpredictable and rapidly-changing circumstances.
But it’s not only that.
You can see how they can sometimes do well in Classics-style stages in a GT or shorter stage races, but the more serious Classics are beyond their reach. Think Contador, for example. Excellent on the flat, able to attack multiple times with huge power peaks, notable race vision and intuition, too, good handling skills. As a consequence, he could match the best Gilbert in many a hilly stage more than once, and often exploited “easier” middle mountain stages, similar in a way to the more climby Classics, to huge tactical advantage.
Well, despite trying multiple times Liège and Lombardia he could barely make a couple of top-10s.
He raced over 30 minor or major Classics during the peak of his career (and many more before 2007) and only won the serious uphill finish of Mi-To once. He’s got decent results in the harder finales like FW, Amorebieta, said Mi-To but they were really sparse and more generally he struggled to turn good form in anything better than the occasional top-5.
Motivation? Calendar? Self-fulfillin’ prophecy? I really don’t know, but that’s case study, for sure, given that anyway, as I said, to grab a top-10 in a Monument or a top-5 in a selective race with solid rivals a certain (high) degree of form and motivation is required.
Contador is not the only example but he’s one of the most manifest as he showed more than once that he had all the abstract set of skills.
I’ve often thought that Vingegaard’s got some physiological similarity with Contador, although a totally different character, attitude, mindset (for ill and good).
I think for Vingegaard and any other stage race/grand tour specialists there are fairly obvious why not to do at least the early season classics. If you want to win the Tour then you’ll be aiming to peak in July. If you aren’t Pogacar that means you probably won’t be at a high enough level of form in March to contend a major bike race, let alone one that doesn’t suit your attributes. So we can rule out Milan-Sanremo. The Belgian cobbled classics are as much about fighting for position, often at very high speed on narrow roads, as much as they are about short, steep, bumpy hills. They’re dangerous, especially if you’re trying it for the first time. So if your team are paying you millions to win the Tour, and already have a strong team of specialists for these races, they probably won’t want to risk smashing you off the corner of a house or an unguarded signpost. Paris-Roubaix is often carnage, so the same applies. Liege-Bastogne-Liege is a bit less obvious, but the climbs are probably too short and at too low altitude for a real alpine climb specialist. Lombardy is the least classic like of the classics but a GT contender, unless they are returning from injury and desperate for race days, is likely to be on holiday by then.
Andy, I’m with you. Even though I find it a bit sad to watch Wout struggle in his attempt to win a damn race, it’s really exciting to see Remco looking so sharp already. I think anyone but the most ardent Pogi fan is rooting for anyone to keep things interesting.
Where did I write that? Think you got the wrong reply…
^___^
However, Remco might work as a challenger under the appropriate conditions (we might see something this next two weekends), even more so because until now he looks on an upward curve season after season, barring accidents.
However, the last we know (hence John writing “currently”, I think) is that Remco reportedly at the top of his game crushed the field at Lombardia… but was no match for Pogi.
Jonas never looked competitive, he’d need to do a Jaja in the opposite direction to tackle those races.
Situation is bound to evolve with new competitors, Pogi worn out by more complicated challenges etc., yet for now the core of the question is that Pogi is physically perfect for long hilly selective one-day races, probably even “more perfect” than for GTs, so even a “transgenerational” champion of all-time value (like MvdP is on the cobbles, and like Remco could as well be for hilly Classics), might not be enough in this context. I really hope Remco is up to it.
I think that a top Alaphilippe would have worked for the occasional challenge on a great day, and even a top WVA. Which makes me even sadder thinking that we may not see them again at that level (surely not in Alaph’s case). Pidcock might be about focus and age. And luck. Then Ayuso, Hirschi, Healy, the Lotto or ex Lotto boys, Skjelmose, but those names are all subject to the need of further athletical evolution, not a match… currently.
Vingegaard or Evenepoel, even with the same results, would never have the same appeal. In an era of calculating riders watching power meters and riding to instruction, Pogacar feels like a breath of fresh air: always smiling (at least for the camera), apparently likeable, audacious, versatile, fun…
Merckx had the audacity and versatility but also a certain ruthlessness. Pogacar appears to lack that cold streak and always has a air of happy innocence. No wonder he’s popular.
Pogačar is interesting because he gives some polite interviews but we don’t know too much more about his views on much. I still think of L’Equipe’s Alex Roos describing him as the kid on the front of a Kinder chocolate packaging.
Also visit a race and the UAE bus is often the choice for the crowds looking for Pogačar but there’s music, lights and the staff often seem more joyful, it’s quite different from the sombre faces elsewhere.
Pogacar’s surface charm has almost made us forget the characters of Matxin and Gianetti, and the oil money fuelling the team bus. A dream would have him riding for Arkéa-B&B!
I’d rather he wasn’t managed by Gianetti, but him and Matxin and the rest of the team at least keep their heads down and don’t go shouting their mouth off at anything, win or lose. That sits with the rest of Pog’s entourage – I don’t know who his agent is but whoever it is keeps their head down, and you certainly don’t get Urska ranting at Mrs van der Poel on Twitter. It feels like that sort of thing certainly helps his reputation with the public.
My thoughts exactly, possibly not Arkéa-B&B though.
Yeah, suggestions? Tietema Rockets?
If you take out dodgy DSs, dodgy sponsors, dodgy past of the team, maybe currently suspicious performance and on top of that poor teams, you aren’t left with many options…
Admittedly, UAE ticks most of the boxes barring “poor”, so one could at least hope for a partial improvement.
However, it’s to be seen how the “team performance” aspect evolves this yearbat UAE, we’ve had some good individual performance (compatible with the profile and career point of the athletes involved) and some demonstration of athletical collective weakness, not just tactical one. We’ll see more in GTs which is where you notice more this sort of things. I’d tend to expect this season will still be a strong one for them, with perhaps some turnover from the next year over, as they haven’t received any kind of subtle warning, for now, which is how UCI has managed things under Lappartient.
However, it’s not like you can’t notice how some other specific teams are enjoying “technical improvements”… as well as others having spent their golden visa.
Well, we know that he thinks that “social media are the cancer of our society” which might not be helping his Instagram figures
^___^
That long interview to Zigart which was around some time ago was also quite interesting to catch some flashes of his character.
re: “we don’t know too much more about his [Pogacar] views on much”
That’s a good thing! Athletes and other “celebrities” are entertainers. Most of the audience doesn’t want to hear their often uninformed opinions on politics, religion, society, capitalism vs socialism, etc.
Ahh, the old “keep politics out of sport” catchcry.
Couldn’t disagree more. Give me a cyclist that demonstrates they have a personality and actually thinks about the world around them over a flat cartoon character any day of the week.
Nah, they “speak with their legs” as an artist speaks with their paintbrush. Of course it’s refreshing if a sportsperson has a point of view, but that’s not their job and shouldn’t be a requirement.
It can work, it can flop. Guillaume Martin is an interesting rider for this but obviously he’s rare in sport, let alone cycling.
I think the unknown personality aspect is not so much about their politics or else, more about how much they come across in interviews. Evenepoel for example is very expressive and in three languages. Pogačar is almost fluent in English but in a “team did a great job” way.
But that’s his style. He can get comparisons to Hinault but it’s hard to see him with his jaw sticking out in menace, and leading a rider strike on his first Tour de France “Badger-style”, or thumping roadside protestors. No bad thing.
Evenepoel’s MO is bugger off with 100/75/50km to go and win solo, as nowadays is Pogacar’s. As is Van der Poel’s. I don’t see how any is more appealing than the other.
And Remco won that incredible challenge with Ganna at the Worlds without a powermetre, which is even more notable in an ITT fought down to the very few secs.
‘Don’t see how any is more appealing than the other’
Pog’s smile?
Well, maybe. But I’m a 40 year old man, not a 75 year old nana.
What is that suppose to mean?
I agree this era of “cyclisme a duex vitesse” is dull as dishwater.
This didn’t age well… Remco just beat WvA in a two-up sprint in his first race back after injury.
Other than Pogi, Vingegaard triggers no excitement at all, on or off bike, he’s just boring and uninspiring. I’d rather watch paint on my wall that already dried 3 years ago.
A pro athlete plucked from obscurity, had to have an actual job (packing fish, no less), a person with a family who actually cares about life outside the peloton. Also, has shown himself to be an excellent and at times ego-free teammate. Yes, he’s terrible in interviews, but you and I strongly disagree on what’s “uninspiring.”
This all a question of taste so each to their own. As mentioned above some caricature-like opponent (think Coppi vs Bartali or Anquetil vs Poulidor but taken out of a country to go international) could almost help the story for the crowds with opposites where people can identify, even if the reality is probably more complex, as it was with Poulidor and Anquetil etc.
It’s always fun to have a villain. I think Froome was not a bad one to root against. Most of the “bad guys” these days seem pretty decent. Cat lovers can always root against Tiberi.
I would agree with Craig about Vingegaard being a good teammate, apart from shoehorning himself into the Vuelta, where Roglic was to be the leader; this was the source of all the subsequent conflict re. Sep Kuss etc.
Whereas Roglic rode against Kuss, when Kuss was in the lead (even more than Vingegaard did), and then had the hypocrisy to state that he wanted Kuss to win. Roglic was also apparently against the eventual team orders to stop riding against Kuss, whereas Vingegaard was not.
That Vuelta was a hilarious mess. I truly don’t think Vingegaard knew what to do. I vividly remember him looking back at Kuss like, “do I go with Rogla or stay here with you? Go, I guess?” He was definitely ok with letting Kuss win, and I think he could have dropped Roglic too. That was it for “#samenwinnen.”
Perhaps you should.
Comes across as a grinning simpleton to me. He’s not an arse or anything, but Pogi seems a bit dim witted to me, though it could be a way to provide cover for working with Giannetti.
and you’re opinion betrays ignorance
But hey ho we don’t actually know anything
Perhaps best to articulate that
Although I absolutely agree with Mr. Ring’s premise, I would just say that for sporting interest we need Pogi AND at least one other rider capable of challenging him. The GC in last year’s Giro was not worth following; maybe that’s ok for casual fans, but I wonder how many people want to tune in for a blowout.
That’s the distinction. I’d like races so uncertain that writing pre-race previews is a fraught thing; compared to knowing where on Cipressa Pogačar will attack or giving five stars to the same rider every time.
But I can imagine someone watching golf a while back just wanted to see Tiger Woods hit a 450 yard drive after 450 yard; or see Lionel Messi put four past Madrid or France etc. A challenger in cycling would be good; but at the same time the viewers would not quite have the simplicity of the champion on a pedestal they want if someone else is almost as good. What works now is that Van der Poel is a rival in one domain, like Maertens or De Vlaeminck for Merckx, or Vingegaard fulfilling this role in the summer. This way those wanting “GOAT-vision” are served it.
God I hope that Vingegaard can provide a better foil this summer. Last summer it felt like Jorgenson and Vingegaard against a dominant UAE and an even more dominant Pogi. Although Kuss has generally looked anonymous for most of 2025, let’s hope that he and Jorg can provide better support than he had last year and maybe Remco and maybe (maaaybe?) Roglic can throw some uncertainty into the mix. One thing is for sure, the level that JV and TP have shown over the last several years whittles the realistic GC list down to very few (really just two) serious favorites.
BTW, I thought the Tiger Woods era was incredibly boring and he seemed like a real jerk. Since then he has done us the favor of showing the second part to be true.
Lance Armstrong anyone? Sadly, some casual fan love to jump in for an easy triumph or “historical records”, even when the technical aspects are weak or dubious.
But I’d agree that these are “bubble fans” and that sort of things can backfire big time – not just because of doping.
As inrng says, we’re lucky now that there’s a little something of everything.
My parents don’t usually follow cycling but loved both Sanremo and Roubaix, the former had big viewing figures in Italy (and Roubaix wasn’t bad either). Same for friends who had been big fans but who stopped watching cycling some 10 years ago more or less.
Curiously, last Giro worked for a strange mix of people, some casual fans (not all of them) and some hardcore fans (not all of them). No record figures but it limited the losses in a moment of clear downward trend since the beginning of the 20s.
Here in the US, Armstrong was a serious celebrity, even well into the time when most of the world considered him an inveterate doper and liar. We have a history of being “front-runners;” that is, we only care when we are the best or close to it. And you are 100% right about “bubble fans.” Once that bubble burst, cycling interest cratered.
You aren’t wrong about that. I was in a baseball thread on reddit where doping came up and somebody used the old Armstrong never failed a test argument. Drives me insane when the old Armstrong apparatus re-appears in an unrelated area. But it does happen in predominatly US spaces online every so often.
Pogacar is absolutely essential to cycling in March and early April to prevent it being a boring one man show. From mid April onwards he is responsible for it being a predictable one man show. It’s arguable whether it’s boring.
Good summin’ up of the question 😀
Van der Poel is absolutely essential to cycling in March and early April to prevent it being a boring one man show.
Anyone who’s ever watched anime will understand the fascination with Pogacar. A likeable kid trying over throw the odds against him (in races like MSR and PB that don’t suit his skills) with a strong will and a huge natural talent.
My nine year old son’s favourite rider is Pogacar. In fact, his favourite sportsman is Pogacar (his second favourite is the footballer Saka who plays for Arsenal). I asked him why he liked Pogacar above all others and this is what he said: “He tries to win every race and that makes it exciting.”
+1
I kind of think that’s the beauty of Pog, he makes half of us feel like a 9 year old again.
Blanks or Eminem?
I think that the nationality thing plays a part and Slovenia has only a small population.
Pogacar is fantastic for the sport. With the inescapable “what about you-know-what” asterisk that looms over *every* cycling star of every age (and let’s not pretend that this isn’t true in other sports, including a couple of athletes mentioned in this post), his excellence is compelling to watch. It’s compelling to watch him win and it’s compelling to watch him get challenged. The 22 and 23 Tours were absolutely gripping editions with repeated and dramatic attacking from both Pog and the Jumbo-Visma crew, and Pog and Ving were constant features at the front of the race, looking for seconds at every possible point, from the first stage until the bitter end. This is not the rather predictable racing of the 90s and early 00s.
And so it is in decidedly non-climby classics now, too. MSR. Flanders. Worlds. Roubaix, now. Pog and van der Poel and a couple of other really elite riders, big-time winners themselves, at the front, animating the race with attacks.
And it really is thrilling to see Pogacar and van der Poel, two very different riders already firmly established in the pantheon of all-time greats, trading haymakers in race after race. It makes the races great. It makes both riders greater.
And it’s great for the sport; forget the social media numbers of the biggest stars of the biggest sports, look at the attention it draws from people who would otherwise not pay attention. It’s inescapable.
I hope we get years more of this.
As I’m sparing OLDdave below, I feel like putting some perspective into the above.
In the 90s the TDFs 1991, 1992, 1998 hadn’t much predictable racing – if not in hindsight – and as for racing rather than result you could also add 1994, just as with a bit of rolling eyes you should also add 1996 and 1998, too. Same for the Giro 1994, 1997, 1998.
Bartoli, Musseuw, Tchmil, Bugno, the last burst of Argentin, Jalabert, Ballerini, Vandenbroucke, Tafi, Van Petegem etc. etc. granted really exciting Classics in the 90s with several riders performing across cobbles and côtes. Most of them were also there in 00s when you can add Bettini before a new golden era for the Classics began (albeit with a little specialisation too much), but admittedly you only named early 00s above.
The 90s were an overall golden era for cycling, then we were indeed left with Classics “only” for a number of years.
I love Pogi and MvdP but one must admit that there’s a lack of general level in many sectors (not ITTs, not cobbles) this time around, and not just ’cause the top are so good…
With inrng’s comments on the more general fans tuning in, and on athletes transcending their sports, it coincides with TNT’s takeover of coverage.
While some cycling fans might complain of the cost and not wanting to pay for other sports, it makes it easier for general viewers to crossover from say, a football match to a cycling race.
Indeed, TNT are now advertising cycling with clips of their football commentators watching races in shock at how hard the sport looks.
Excellent article.
I think this comment section sometimes gets lost in the weeds what bald television ratings or even YouTube clip counts make obvious.
I watch more cycling than probably 99.9% of people and love it all but what truly grabs me and keeps me in line with most half interested channel surfers is knowing when I’m seeing greats at work, and if those greats have a rival then it’s ecstasy! Call me basic but it’s the truth.
The last few years have been an absolute feast and a true golden age far beyond anything I’ve been lucky enough to witness as an adult.
And all I really want is cycling to learn from this. I don’t want it to stop when this generation leaves. I firmly believe athletes can be made not just found and if cycling somehow (I know it won’t) put all its efforts into designing a system that gave us more Pogacar’s I’d be over the moon.
I’m aware you’ll always have changes, peaks and troughs etc etc – and I’m not going to pretend I’m clever enough to do work it all out (although I am arrogant enough to have ideas!) but I just wish someone somewhere could make it their life’s work and improve the sport we love.
I know this will cue Gabriel’s sending a list of great Gent Wevelgem’s and Giro’s all of which I’ve watched and enjoyed (some a huge amount) but nothing truly compares to this years MSR or ‘23’s Flanders and I want that level of aggression, greatness, grand tour/classics rivalry more consistently now I’ve finally seen what it must have been like to be a fan in the eras of Merckx and Hinault (even I was too young!).
Fully aware I’ll be shouted down and told to bugger off but now more than ever I think cycling should look at what’s given us this moment, and attracted fans back to a race like Roubaix, and try and make a ten/twenty year plan to move forward and maybe let me have a second golden age if I’m lucky enough to hit the high 90’s and get a letter from whoever might be King or Queen.
What prevented Nibali and Valverde from giving us a golden age before time? The calendar?
I’d say their character, their legs and politics. Only the latter could be solved and Lappartient partially did. But I doubt it would have been enough, even if of course it was a fundamental aspect.
‘I firmly believe athletes can be made not just found’
I feel like this requires a little more explanation. Are you suggesting some sort of UCI funded selective breeding programme? Or just hoping that if you leave Van Aert and Ferrnad-Prevot in an isolated hotel for long enough nature will take its course?
Ha. No I’m not saying selective breeding.
I’m saying the course defines the athlete.
So the demands of the course, the season, or even the sport as a whole can encourage a certain types of athlete – so if you set up your sport to encourage more riders like Pogacar, they will come. Cycling in general has been the opposite and is set up for hyper-specialisation which has been (Pogacar and a very few others aside) exactly what we’ve got. What I’m saying can/will never happen, it’s just if the demands were different and the sport radically reinvented there’s a chance we’d make Pogacar’s the rule not the exception.
You mean we should do away with the TDF? Agreed ^___^
Even if the calendar has gone through change and single races had better or worse luck, as also highlighted above, the general format or idea has been there for long, and sometimes you have specialists and/or ages of specialisation, sometimes you don’t.
Pogačar is so great because he’s special. Maybe if you had forced Froome to go through Roubaix and get a top 20 to qualify for TDF, some TDFs might have become more interesting… not having him around. OTOH, a lot of other GTs with no Contador would have lost much interest.
Force MvdP to brings his efforts around the road calendar much more and, to start with, you’ll harm CX and maybe even MTB now. But what’s even worse, he’ll be less of a contender for Pogi where it matters the most.
Actually nowadays the existence of some specialised athletes makes many races more entertaining as they have more chances to challenge Pogi.
When is the point where you should start messing up with things, and when should you stop?
If Sanremo had been made more hilly ten years back when it didn’t look in its best health, not only we’d have lost some of its best editions in the while (Sagan playing a key role, Mohoric’s descent, Nibali doing something special) but *now* it would offer no emotion at all, late burst by Pogi and adieu, let’s go for the 7 Sanremos record. Do you think it would have offered something better instead from 2015 on? Dunno, I check Liège and it doesn’t look a great moment to have a show from côte specialists.
Struggling to accept the specific identity of the sport, or its own broad internal diversity between athletes, races and ages, plus not assuming that change can happen by itself within a proper time bracket, that should pose questions about what we ask to the sport.
That said, when things don’t work for say 5-10 years, I’m totally fine with looking for proactive change.
But you should intervene on what’s not working, not just trying to build up an artificial phantasy with no roots in reality, history etc.
Throwing away the way a sport works in one of his golden ages because you hope to grab “a chance” to make a norm of the exceptional in any unspecified future looks a bit delusional.
P.S. We should also take into account that things has they’ve been for long now, Classics sadly don’t make for massive watching figures as GTs do.
If I understand you correctly, you are suggesting that there should be less variety of course, that they should all present similar demands? And that there should be fewer races, so the big names can always be present and fresh? And that by doing this, cycling would attract more top level athletes?
I think this is only possible with the world championships currently. And even there, the UCI has gone bezerk with mountainous courses last year, this year and at Sallanches in 2027 essentially ruling out any challenge to Pogacar and probably ensuring MvdP won’t even enter/get picked.
This whole thread is making me even more excited for the GT’s to start. All the talk about MVDP dominating and WVA’s decline suddenly gets forgotten as we have the diversity we seek *daily* and riders like Healy and Cort and Carapaz and Soler animate the races in a way that simply doesn’t happen in one-day races where only the biggest names have any legitimate chance of winning. Give me a mid-week breakaway stage with the “will-he-won’t-he-make-it” dynamic over the “this exact moment will 100% decide the race” any day. I know I’m in the minority, but I don’t care.
Sorry @Richard S that’s actually the opposite of what I’m saying but I’ll reply more fully another time.
@OtherCraig, I actually do not think you’re in the minority? Just because people enjoy big names winning the big classics, the same people also have Campenaerts TDF win as a highlight of last year, or more recently Ben Healy latest breakaway win. I don’t really see any of the above as an either or issue – thankfully neither does cycling, nor has it really ever.
Wasn’t it sort of what THEY did with MvdP? And, feel assured, the other line of THE UCI BIG PLOT was spreading clones of Lemond in small countries around the world, until finally one of them…
Think we need to talk about the UAE sponsorship. I know nobody wants to…
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/17/icj-hears-sudan-case-accusing-uae-complicity-genocide?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
I’ve covered the team’s prime backer here, because as well as controlling Colnago, he is the UAE’s national security chief and so behind a lot of the country’s politics at home and abroad… but I think it’s very different from the mass market, inside cycling fans will know this but the millions tuning in just see the branding of the Dubai-based airline and tufts.
Yes it’s a grim business and I appreciate you do cover it. But I think journalists should be asking him directly about his sponsor since he’s effectively sporstwashing for them and making a fortune on the back of it. In my mind this — complicity in genocide ffs — is worse than taking drugs etc which the press would ask about like they did with Armstrong.
Of course I know I’m a fantasist and most cycling teams have very dodgy backers but I don’t see why we as fans of the sport should just all ignore it or somehow justify it.
From the link you posted it still looks a way less straight-forward question than Rwanda’s case, not to speak of Israel. Very worth tackling, but asking Pogačar to give a verdict before an international specialist court does is a tough call. That said, I think that’s a question for the UCI, not necessarily the athlete, even if the latter taking a personal position, like switching team with his loyal staff, would be hugely appreciated. That is, if he did, I’d appreciate but I don’t feel I can require that from him or anyone – how can we demand that any single person takes fully fair decisions in a deeply unfair world where whole societies fail to take action or go down the “wrong” path? Where do you place the turning point? Personally, I’ve got more issues with the impact of a number of legitimate large scale business than some “rogue” States. UAE is one of those which I have more serious issues with, anyway, and a broad set, from Yemeni war, to the source of their wealth, modern slavery etc.
It’s not that nobody wants to, it’s more that western decline means they can no longer afford to.
UAE are allies of the West.
That is the only thing that matters to our governments and the complicit mainstream media, and thus, most people.
You can pick a country of your choice and see it for yourself.
Which countries is it not allied with? It’s got close ties to Russia (as suggested here before if you Google UAE and Wagner, the first results are not for a night at the opera in Dubai), it has a strategic partnership with China, India is the biggest consumer of its oil, its closest ally is Riyadh.
“The West” is a broad label but it’s been problematic for European countries with Dubai acting as a base for criminals fleeing arrest and extradition but this looks to be finally coming to an end, something we might touch on for the Giro’s start in Albania.
And UAE would face far greater criticism for these things – and many other things – in the West were it not an ally of the West.
Regimes who are allies of the West get a far easier time of it than those who are ‘enemies’ of the West.
Compare what we read about Iran and Saudi Arabia in our mainstream media.
Well I detest Pog and the glued-on plastic smiles and the made-for-TV show UAE puts on.
Minority view? So be it.
It shows one of cycling’s biggist issues vs other sports: you rarely see the best competing each other time and time again. Eg. the races Vingegaard does pre-Tour…
Imagine he is competing with Pogacar in pre-Tour one-week races. This would give so much more dynamic and ‘animo’ to the sport. Let alone if they would be competing in LBL or …
And this example is only about them two and (pre-)Tour
There’s been plenty of exciting racing the last two weekends…..it just hasn’t been on the WT Road. XC MTB World Cup has had plenty of races going down to the final few hundred metres to decide a win/ podium.
Lots of road fans need to broaden their horizons, and watch other disciplines – you may be surprised.
@RichardS about GT champions and classics.
Classics go beyond cobbled ones or Monuments, and several have typically been tackled by GT specialists also.
I think that the interesting aspect is that some GT athletes don’t perform there *despite* trying relatively hard, of course apart from all those who never really tried or were not interested at all in those races.
Until 2022 *included* Vingo at Jumbo Visma raced an average of half a dozen Classics each season with a broad range of performancess, but generally well below what it might be expected by him from a merely athletical POV, when compared to his same-season GC results. Same for Contador, as explained above.
Just check against A. Schleck, terrible attitude but when he finished the races (to start with) and had the form, he could bring home a decent numbers of prestigious results. Or a whole different case with a similar overall profile in results, Cadel Evans. The excellent Samu Sánchez. Or even Ivan Basso (with his absolute lack of sprint).
I like that Pog is a Tour de France rider doing the classics. I think this has to be good for the classics too. Now I can’t see Vingegaard doing Paris-Roubaix any time soon but Remco could.
The thing about having a great champion like Pogacar enter and win most races is that it makes it extra special, when he gets caught and pipped at the line by the likes of – Mattias Skjelmose. Amstel Gold what a race!
Great race, indeed, but I’d say that the two verbs “caught” and “pipped” would deserve separate subjects 😉
Happy for Skjelmose, and big kudos to him, but what a race did Remco make it!
However, Lidl showed by winning this why Pogi & C. are allowed to win easily so often. As a team strategy, Lidl’s move meant trading better chances of catching Pogi with less probabilities of that event happening, but higher options for them in case it happened. Rewarded! Anybody else but Remco (MvdP doesn’t race *that way*), and such a Remco on a great day, would have implied that Lidl was “suiciding” the race of the rest including themselves for the sake of another Pogi show. Instead…
Not sure exactly what the “trading better chances of catching Pogi with less probabilities of that event happening” means other than a purely theoretical exercise. What would Lidl have won by not letting Skjel go?
Nys was over as a captain but still had a good deal of gregario work potentially in the legs, watching the rest of the race. If you need to maximise the “bring Pogi back” options, better to help in the chase, in any “normal” scenario, just look at the effect of a fully committed Van Wilder. Of course that (investing in a concerted chase) would mean *less* probabilities of getting a general good result for your captain compared to having him attack the rest as if Pogi didn’t exist. They went for a strategy that without a peculiar set of unique factors would have favoured Pogi actually disrupting the chase (Skjel directly attacked – and very properly so, of course – countering a QS forcing, which normally blows out the chase both physically and mentally). Obviously, the whole thing worked because Remco and QS were ready to produce an exaggerate effort while at the same time putting their own options seriously at stake – and in fact they eventually lost the race.
Theoretical, as you say, but it makes you see very well how and why athletes going from far have an easier life these days. With no kamikaze Remco, Pogi wins it. And being a kamikaze, Remco loses it. Of course they all raced reasonably, in a way, as it’s not deterministic, rather about probabilities.
But, to expand on the above, what about Visma not deploying soon enough (before they were cooked) Tulett and Valter? Fighting hard for that “Rojillas” prize which Wout is so close to take home? I guess Benoot can’t be forced to accept Van Aert as a 100% captain to commit to, yet the latter was stronger at the end (although not went intensity went up).
I can understand a bit more the Powless/Healy or Matthews/Schmid thing, but even in that case I wonder if those teams can afford in strategic terms the luxury of having double captains…
I the main, I agree but the devil is in the details of the small-peloton dymanics. When you have only 1-2 riders left and sit in a group of – say – 25-35 riders, and at least 20 of these guys know that the only chance they have is to get others to do all work, the result is given. Its the nature of pro cycling. We saw the exact same discussion after the Worlds where some asked why didn’t the chasers just agree to do a text-book run to catch pogi. Of course you know this stuff but my point is that the dual-captaincy trends just reinforce this and makes it even less likely to have an organized chase.
@MediumMig
Absolutely so.
I’m not strictly criticising strategic styles, on the contrary, I think that a race like this made manifest what some DSs have in their mind as the perfect golden scenario they hope for when they appear to be giving out a race to Pogi & C., i.e., it’s not like they’re simply headless chickens running circles.
When I wrote: “it makes you see very well how and why athletes going from far have an easier life these days”, I meant that this is an explanation of sort, it was not a rant. Even less so as I actually like long solo raids, and on top of that I can’t avoid rooting for Pogi, MvdP and Remco, too ROTFL
In fact, I totally agree with your sketched analysis of small group dynamics, that’s precisely it.
“If I personally were a DS” (luckily Larry isn’t here to yell at me), I’d try to find cohesion across teams as in this specific historical moment ‘we all’ need to face a very superior rival (or three), and that sort of good will usually needs to express itself with some self-sacrifice of sort. The main objective would be working on general racing style/peloton approach across a season or more, not thinking about winning a single race (more often than not you end up losing all the same). But I’d be fired before any change happened, I guess.
Of course, we could debate what strategy actually maximises each team’s options in the middle to long run, but that’s complicated, and that’s the beauty of the sport. It nearly constantly reacts to its own evolutions, so without changing a course you can have a whole different race from decade to decade.
Great points Mig and Gab! 🙂
I took the dog out for a walk with Pogacar above 30 seconds thinking “Well, that’s over barring a flat or a crash…” and returned with 10 km to go and what?!?”
Did he bonk? Or did Eveneepoel and Skjelmose ride well together? Or was Pog pooped from Roubaix?
I hope the result inspires teams to try to work together to catch Pogacar in similar situations…
Skjelmose didn’t help at all (his own admission) until the last dozen of kms. And even then it’s not like he did much ROTFL. Well done, by the way.
Remco had used up the team, especially Ilan Van Wilder, to keep Pogi as close as possible. Other teams didn’t help despite having more than one rider and some supposedly clear roles. Then the usual disruption started. Hence Remco throw in 2-3 killer accelerations until nobody could keep his wheel. And then again… he just slowly brought Pogi back. Pogi’s version is that due to a strong headwind he felt he was fading and he’d better wait to keep powders a little drier for a reduced sprint.
Essentially, Remco won the one against one, probably also having benefitted of a longer stint in the wheels (but he then had to put in more attacks then Pogi in order to go free, plus endure the chaos in the chase).
Frankly, teamwise this had all the aspect of a disaster chase à la last Worlds, only this time Remco was stronger than last Autumn so he could get away with a company he deemed acceptable (even if at the end of the day that cost him the race) and go full gas from then on. And he had more gas, of course, then, say, at last Lombardia. Or Pogi had less (or both, which looks plausible).
Great win for Skjelmose – proving Tadej and Remco are mere mortals – and further indicating that the rest of the year is going to be great to watch.
LOL – I did *exactly* the same. We had a great walk but imagine my surprise and delight when I learned that Pog was not the winner. 🙂
May be the odd man out here, but boy i’m happy pog didn’t win today. What a race and what a ride from Remco and Matthias!
We’re Skjelmose and Vingegaard separated at birth?
The women did a better job with the beer/bier than the men … Pogacar excepted.
Does Islam allow Remco to drink alcohol?
Or was it just that for a Belgian (and same for a Dane, perhaps) an Amstel is not a proper beer?
Excellent race Yesterday! And I have to say that even though I ackowledge the pro-pogi slant among this blogs readers, I think this kind of race is far better for pro-cycling than the staple 3-minute victories… 😉
Agreed. Even if Pogacar had won it still was better with the change in terrain from cobbles to hills.
Agree on all points 🙂
But with no previous 3-minute solo victories at all to set the context, let’s say yesterday was business as usual, well, then such a race wouldn’t even look special, it rather would look like Pogi Rolland being “dumb” once more and Remco Kolobnevenepoel making a gift to Alexandre Skjelmokourov for “no clear reason” (it woukd be more like Vino-Voigt but the Kolobnev example is funnier).
Absolutely! But thats exactly the joy of it. Much as I respect Pog’s talent and capacity, I’m more and more in the “old-business-as-usual” and “anyone-than-Pog” category.
Precisely!