Tadej Pogacar is a cycling phenomenon rewriting the rulebook before our very eyes

Tadej Pogacar celebrates adding the Amstel Gold Race to add to his palmares after conquering the steep climbs of the Dutch leg. Credit: EPA-EFE/Shutterstock/Vincent Jannink

Tadej Pogacar's victory in Sunday's Amstel Gold Race, which Eddy Merckx recently described as a «blessing for cyclists», was further proof — if needed — that the Slovenian is now the best cyclist in the world. world.

Of the 17 racing days he has started this year, Pogacar has crossed the line of arms in the air nine times and has also recorded an overall score in both multi-day races he has entered. However, the most impressive thing is not the number of races won, but the wide range of canvases on which he created his masterpieces.

While Jonas Wingegaard, the current champion of the Tour de France, collected Races for fun — seven stages and two victories in total standings over 17 days of competition — in the kind of terrain where you'd expect a Grand Tour rider to push for further success, Pogacar goes the other way.

From the Spanish gravel at the relatively unknown Jaén Paraiso Interior one-day race to the unforgiving cobblestones of the Tour of Flanders, and now, in the Netherlands on Sunday, on the horrendously steep climbs of the Amstel Gold Race, Pogacar crushes the sport's thinnest dogma under its belt. Ignoring tradition, the 24-year-old is rewriting the rulebook and it's amazing to watch.

Having made a name for himself in Grand Tour racing, the two-time Tour de France winner, finishing second to Wingegaard last year and third in his first three-week race at the 2019 Vuelta a España, has now, unlike many of his predecessors, decided to take the sport seriously. classic, the biggest one-day race on the busy cycling calendar.

Pogacar on track for second consecutive Tour de France general classification win in 2021. Photo: AFP/Anne-Christine Puzula

Of recent winners of the biggest race, only the now-retired Vincenzo Nibali also had a monument — one of the calendar's five one-day pillars — in the palm of his hand, while we have to go back to 1985 to find the winner of the Tour de France (Bernard Hinault). who also had a cobbled monument on his list of victories. Pogacar, however, has won four monuments in just 10 starts, including Liège-Bastogne-Liège (2021), Lombardy (2021, 2022) and the Tour of Flanders (2023), and narrowly missed the podium twice in Milan. Sanremo, a race that until recently was considered a sprint race. classic.

It's no surprise that Pogacar has been compared to Merckx, the racing driver whose insatiable appetite for victories in cycling has led to him being nicknamed «The Cannibal». However, unlike Merckx, who worked his way to victory in all five monuments — he was one of only three drivers to accomplish this feat — along with all three Grand Tours, road and track world titles, and the legendary watch record, Pogacar has perhaps more in common with another great athlete. While Merckx is widely regarded as the greatest cyclist who ever lived, the late Fausto Coppi — 'Il Campionissimo' is a man whose legend of graceful, balanced and dapper riding continues to resound through the ages.

Like Il Campionissimo, Pogacar isn't a rider meant to excel on cobbles, but he does, and as witnessed at Oude Kwaremont earlier this month — see heavier kit specialists born for the classics. And all this from a rider who seems to be touching his pedals with the divinity of an angel.

Finally made an Oude Kwaremont yesterday and it didn't disappoint. #RVV2023 pic.twitter.com/CXV4hO2GCl

— John McLeary (@JohnMacLeary) April 3, 2023

When the road climbs to dizzying grades, as we saw on Sunday, Pogacar can throw punches with ease — and in the high mountains, soaring in the clouds is like being on a one-man mission to take cycling to the next level and take the sport beyond the realm of mere mortals.

< p>Pogacar is a phenomenon, a once-in-a-lifetime example of sportsmanship . He flies like Johan Cruyff, stings like Muhammad Ali. Pogacar is the greatest rider this correspondent has seen in 40 years of observing cycling and, as Merckx said after his win in Flanders earlier this month, is a «blessing»; for sports.

Tadej Pogacar: rewriting the history of cycling before our very eyes