Just because it’s Holy Week doesn’t mean Lance Armstrong was trying to spread some sort of gospel truth when describing Tadej Pogačar as the greatest cyclist of all time.
Some people will always have a hard time believing in anything Armstrong says or does, and for good reason, although his latest sermon on Pogačar is worthy of closer reflection.
This, of course, being cycling’s Holy Week – nothing to do with Easter, but the week that divides last Sunday’s Tour of Flanders and this Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix, two of cycling’s five great monument races. In a special edition of his cycling podcast the Move, Armstrong heaped mountains of praise on Pogačar after his victory in Flanders. It was his second in three years, won in his now trademark rampaging style.
In the company of George Hincapie, his former lieutenant at US Postal, and Bradley Wiggins, a rider who first made his name in Flanders (Wiggins was born there), Armstrong posed the greatest-of-all-time (Goat) question and then answered it for himself. And this was before Pogačar attempts to become the first reigning Tour de France champion to win Paris-Roubaix since Eddy Merckx in 1973.
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“Honestly, every time I get asked about him [Pogačar], you just shake your head in disbelief. I mean, he’s just that good, and he is just that special ... I just think we have to all agree, and I don’t see who would disagree, that this is the greatest cyclist of all time. Whenever they put the numbers on his back, he’s there, right? I don’t feel like I’m getting ahead of myself here, I think we’ve got to call him the Goat.”
The thing about the Move is it doesn’t take itself that seriously, by turns brilliantly informative and hilariously overstated. Armstrong, however, wasn’t messing around, before Wiggins gently reeled him in on the young Slovenian.
“I disagree ... Give him another five years of victories at this level, at this dominance, then he’s getting close to something of Eddy Merckx. Every race he goes out and does, he goes out to win, in the same style. If he carries on like this, he will surpass Eddy as the greatest.”
If Pogačar wins Paris-Roubaix on Sunday, and the forecast for the first rainy edition in 20 years makes that a little less predictable, he’ll jump to nine monument wins. This will be in addition to his three Tour de France victories and his Giro d’Italia-Tour-World Championships triple last year, only the third rider in history to achieve that feat after Merckx (in 1974) and our own Stephen Roche (in 1987).
He’ll have to beat Dutch superstar Mathieu van der Poel, the defending champion who eventually got the better of Pogačar in last month’s Milan-San Remo. No rider, not even Merckx, has been the reigning Giro, Tour, Flanders and Roubaix winner at the same time. And no rider since Merckx has been consistently smashing records for the fastest outright wins or the fastest climbs and time trials. Given that Pogačar doesn’t turn 27 until September, Wiggins’ prediction of another five years of dominance is no overstatement.
Known by romantics as the Queen of the Classics and by realists as the Hell of the North, Paris-Roubaix may be the most famous one-day bike race in the world and by all accounts the hardest to win. Sunday’s 122nd edition, from Compiègne to the Roubaix Velodrome, covers 260km in all, including 29 sections of the infernal granite pavé paving, where anything can and often does go wrong.
“Paris-Roubaix is a horrible race to ride, but the most beautiful one to win,” Seán Kelly once said, the first and only Irish rider to land cycling’s most coveted one-day trophy, in 1984 and 1986.
Kelly was also writing about Pogačar this week, in his Classics Column for Cycling News, and like Armstrong, believes the Slovenian’s main strength is his lack of weakness.
“Like I’ve said many times about Pogačar in the Tour de France or any weeklong stage race, where can you beat him? With Pogačar, there’s nowhere you can find a weakness – he can time trial against the best, he can ride well on the flat and in the wind, he can ride downhill, he can do every bloody thing ... It’s just insane what he’s able to do, he’s a talent in a class of his own.”
All this kind of talk naturally assumes you believe in Pogačar in the first place. Pogačar, himself, admits he has his doubters. He’s never failed a doping test, and his career has steadily soared since he first joined UAE Team Emirates in 2019, winning the Tour of California that May, at age 20 the youngest rider to win a UCI World Tour stage race.
After winning last year’s Tour de France by more than six minutes from two-time defending champion Jonas Vingegaard, and six stages along the way, Pogačar was asked directly about his credibility as a clean rider, given all that’s happened before with riders of similar dominance.
“There will always be doubts,” said Pogačar. “Because of cycling before my time, in any sport, if someone is winning, there’s always jealousy and haters ... I tell you now, it’s not worth it. Taking anything to risk your health is stupid.”
Merckx, remember, was involved in three separate doping incidents during his career, even if that didn’t do his lasting reputation any harm. For now, there is no denying Pogačar’s popularity within cycling, although there was a dig this week from rival French team boss Jean-René Bernaudeau of Total Energies.
“Let him provide guarantees; some riders have done that,” said Bernaudeau of the need for more transparency around Pogačar’s parameters. “We live with suspicion, we went through the Festina affair. I don’t think cycling can afford to fall into another scandal. The sport is just trying to keep its head above water.”
There’s no such doubting from some of his main rivals, including Mads Pedersen, the 2019 World champion from Denmark, who finished second to Pogačar in Flanders last Sunday.
“Tadej is just incredible in the way he’s riding, he’s just on another level,” said Pedersen. “This man is the best cyclist in the world, like, ever.”
Time will tell on that one.
