Goodbye Eddy, it’s been fun, there’s a new sheriff in town. The Tour of Flanders confirmed it, Tadej Pogačar is officially the GOAT, the greatest male road cyclist of all time.
Mountain monster, cobble king, Monument man, time-trial terminator. There is nothing Tadej Pogačar can’t do (and before you say it, he is a good sprinter). With two Tours de France and three different Monuments ticked off the list, Pogačar is head and shoulders above any other rider right now and I think it’s safe to say he’ll go down as the greatest rider to ever do it when he hangs his cleats up.
Yes, Jonas Vingegaard beat him at last year’s Tour, but that was in large part due to the massive discrepancy in their teams; Vingegaard needed a super-team, clever tactics, the perfect parcours and Pogačar’s naivety and willingness to follow every attack.
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But the thing about Pogi is that he always learns from his mistakes. That Flanders loss, that Tour loss, he has rectified one and he knew exactly how to do it, and you’d bet on him sorting the other out in July. We’ve already seen a change from last season in early 2023 – he came out the blocks all guns blazing, taking no prisoners and winning big and small, including making Vingegaard look very human at Paris-Nice.
Take a quick look at 2022 Pogačar and 2023 Pogačar. While he thought he could just win with his legs before, he’s gone full aero with an aero helmet, skinsuit and even narrow handlebars with flared drops. Pogačar in 2023 has a point to prove.
That’s just part of the GOAT mentality. He’s taking notes from Michael Jordan’s motivational playbook, riding with a chip on his shoulder like people are still doubting him, and even using his own version of Jordan’s ‘and I took that personally‘.
Motivation for today
— Tadej Pogačar (@TamauPogi) April 2, 2023
It's obvious that he could breeze the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España if he wanted to, but the Tour is a bigger fish, and you'd imagine he'll carry on down that road until he at least matches the record five wins. For goodness sake, he could win seven before he's 28. He'll surely take a Vuelta or two post-Tour but at this stage neither he nor his team will risk Tour form for the Giro. In terms of ticking all the boxes Monument-wise, Paris-Roubaix will be his biggest obstacle; he has run Milan-San Remo close, changing the whole dynamic of the race in the process – sprinter's Monument no more – and it surely won't be long before that's his as well.
The thing standing in the way of him winning the final two Monuments is the risk of injury – and he says he probably needs to put on a few kilograms to stand a chance at Roubaix – but the more wins he ticks off the less that matters.
Barring disaster, he will win all Grand Tours and all Monuments before he retires. And World and Olympic Championships will be light work, too. And he'll do it all while being a good bloke; the hero we need, not the hero we deserve.
And who does he need to usurp to be the greatest of all time? Eddy Merckx is the consensus, Lance Armstrong apologists are wrong, and yes you can't deny Merckx's superior palmares but you also can't deny his doping history either. Yes, it is pretty much impossible to confidently identify anyone from cycling's murky past as the greatest ever clean rider, so why bother?
Of course, with that territory comes those in certain corners of the internet keen to doubt Pogačar, and a healthy amount of scepticism will be what helps keep the sport clean – along with more advanced testing than most other sports – but until proven otherwise Pogačar is clean and his greatness undeniable.
Muhammad Ali, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Michael Schumacher, Marianne Vos, Roger Federer, Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, Lionel Messi, Richie McCaw, Lindsey Vonn, Serena Williams, Tony Hawk, Marta, Simone Biles, Kristina Vogel, Eliud Kipchoge, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, Armand Duplantis, Patrick Mahomes, Shohei Ohtani, Tadej Pogačar.
GOAT.
