Analysis: They’ve drilled him, raced him, dodged him — nothing works. For the past 48 months, cycling’s best still can’t crack the Pogačar code.
Pogačar is riding a two-year wave of utter dominance. (Photo: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)
Published October 6, 2025 02:08AM
What can anyone do about Tadej Pogačar?
Sunday’s thrashing at the European championships proved yet again that Pogačar is in a league of his own.
That’s the question echoing through team buses and training camps as another season closes with the Slovenian sitting on top of the cycling world.
In what’s becoming his trademark long-range solo move, the Slovenian superstar made mincemeat of the world’s best riders and his most direct rivals in a back-to-back grand slam at the UCI road worlds and European championships.
That comes ahead of a likely fifth straight Il Lombardia crown that will tie him with Fausto Coppi and after another season of demolition.
This winter will be a rough one for team managers, sport directors, tacticians, and coaches trying to find a weak spot to exploit going into 2026.
Despite trying to grind him into the ground, take him on directly, or in some cases avoid him at all costs, the conclusion is the same: there’s almost no way to beat Pogačar.
Also read: Why Evenepoel needs a big win before the Red Bull era begins
Cycling’s first Tour-worlds double — winning the yellow jersey and rainbow jersey two years in a row — leaves only one final, brutal option: acceptance.
At this point, there’s no more hiding what’s been obvious since the decade began. Pogačar is simply better than everyone else.
His consistency, depth, and aggression have lifted him to a level where tactics, coaching, calendars, and ambitions do not apply.
And if the peloton finally accepts that Pogacar is simply better, what is everyone left to do? Hoping, waiting, and praying for a bad day that may never come.
It ain’t pretty, but that seems to be just about the only option right now. Here’s the reality:
Drill him: Well, that doesn’t work
Visma’s grinding tactic backfired at the Tour. (Photo: Bernard PAPON / AFP)
Visma-Lease a Bike came into the 2025 Tour de France with one plan: throttle him and then crack him.
The team had reason to believe. It happened with dramatic effect in 2022 and again in 2023.
So after Pogačar’s near-perfect 2024 romp coming on the heels of Vingegaard’s Itzulia crash, the Killer Bees believed if they had a healthy Vingo and if they piled on even more in the first half of the 2025 Tour, they would crack Pogi.
Instead, they broke themselves.
Matteo Jorgenson, who started as the team’s No. 2, flamed out in the Pyrénées. Gir0 giant-killer Simon Yates was never at that pink jersey level. Sepp Kuss looked back at his best, but no one could follow Pogacar, let alone turn any screws.
Vingegaard showed promise early but flamed out like the Hindenburg on Hautacam and again in the climbing time trial.
Visma keep digging, going all-in on Mont Ventoux and again on the Col de la Loze, but by then, Pogi was on cruise control and Vingegaard was a spent force.
Trying to bury him early only drains everyone else.
The yellow jackets were almost like additional teammates for Pogacar, who came over the top to deliver the sting. Visma learned that the hard way in July.
Take him on: Someone’s got to try
Evenepoel gave it all and stayed close, but couldn’t beat Pogačar/ (Photo: Bernard Papon – Pool/Getty Images)
Vingegaard and Visma deserve kudos for at least trying at the Tour de France.
Most don’t.
Vingegaard even reprogrammed his racing style to match Pogačar’s explosiveness. The Dane who once dominated long climbs turned his focus toward the short, savage ramps that define modern racing.
It made sense, because Pogačar’s most dangerous on explosive finales when he can open up gaps and hoover up time bonuses.
He was close at Mur de Bretagne, but when the Tour hit the real mountains, Vinge’s long-range, diesel sputtered, and Vingegaard lost his wedge against Pogačar.
Enter Remco Evenepoel, whose ambition, ego, and ever-improving engine is one of the few who can take it straight to Pogačar.
With the climb-heavy courses in Rwanda and France turning away the cobble-bashers like Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel, Evenepoel took up the challenge.
A temper tantrum in Rwanda gave him a bit of cover, but the Belgian was blatantly spanked down in France at the Euros.
Evenepoel is under pressure to be able to beat Pogacar, and it’s the one-day races like worlds and Euros that give him the best chance, but like Vingegaard at the grand tours, Pogacar has Evenepoel’s number.
Over the past 48 months of Pogačar’s ruthless run, only MVPD has been able to take it straight to Pogačar and beat him.
Avoid him: At least there’s a chance for a win
Roglič’s unconventional approach saw him crash out of the Giro and be eclipsed by a teammate at the Tour. (Photo: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
If you can’t beat him, avoid him.
That could be the new tactic going into 2026, but that’s no guarantee either.
Primož Roglič gave that a go in 2025, targeting the Giro as a clean shot at pink, with the idea of coming into the Tour as a wild card.
That backfired on both scores. Roglič crashed out of the Giro and left Italy with nothing, and then came to the Tour under-cooked and was surpassed by teammate Florian Lipowitz inside the Red Bull machine.
Everyone knows that going up against Pogacar means second place, so will more riders try to avoid him going forward just to get some wins on the board?
The number of times the “Big 4” actually face off is already pretty rare. In fact, Evenepoel and Pogačar have only faced off four times in stage races so far in their careers (spoiler alert: Pogačar won them all).
The peloton could split into two camps — those chasing wins where Pogačar isn’t racing, and those brave (or foolish) enough to try.
It’s a tough spot for the peloton’s top riders. Avoiding Pog might yield results, but not relevance. You can pad a palmarès, but history won’t remember who won the Tour de Suisse when Pogačar won everything else.
Accept it: Waiting for a bad day
Vingegaard congratulates Pogačar with another win. (Photo: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)
The final, most humbling option is one that everyone wants to avoid — acceptance.
The pack seems now to realize that racing in the Pogačar Era means racing for second. And just like Merckx or Indurain before them, there’s a growing sense of inevitability of the outcome among fans, media, and race organizers.
Everyone will keep training harder and racing smarter, but what can anyone do when the gap never closes?
Especially since his partnership with new coach Javier Sola began in late 2023, Pogačar has been borderline untouchable.
The only thing that can beat Pogačar now is himself, and unfortunately for everyone else, Pogačar is racing smarter. He’s not getting caught out in traps anymore on the Col du Galibier circa 2022.
The only thing that can — and has — beat him are crashes or bad luck. A broken wrist in the 2023 Liège-Bastogne-Liège haunted him all season long.
He was lucky to avoid serious injury in crashes this year at Strade Bianche and in the first week of the Tour de France. And sooner or later, that luck will run out.
And that leaves everyone else hoping for that one bad day.
It’s a terrible way to race, but it’s the brutal reality right now. Riders like Vinegegaard, Evenepoel, and some up-and-comer we might not have even considered might yet will someday get the better of him.
But will it be because they’re better, or because Pogačar made a mistake or had something happen to him?
Pogačar has reached that rare space in professional cycling where he is simply better than everyone else. It’s something that happens about every 10 years or so. What was once relative parity is now a race for second in almost every race on the calendar.
And now that he’s been pounding that into everyone’s head with brutal consistency for 48 months and counting, it’s only going to get worse. His contract runs through 2030 — that’s five more years.
If he stays healthy and keeps doing the work, Pogačar will win a fifth yellow jersey, and probably two more to equal the now-erased Armstrong record. He’ll probably add one more on top of that.
Pogačar isn’t unbeatable forever — no one is — but he’s in that rare, untouchable moment where the cycling stars all align.
And until that window ends, the rest of the world is simply hoping for a bad day.