\n\u201cWhen you get older, you tend to only think about what you did\u201d<\/p>\n
Magrini\u2019s words carry a mixture of affection and exasperation. He acknowledges De Vlaeminck\u2019s greatness but suggests the outburst reflects an increasingly common generational mindset \u2014 one resistant to accepting that modern cycling can produce its own giants.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe Roger\u2019s just getting a bit old \u2014 let\u2019s put it that way. When you get older, you tend to focus only on what you did yourself,\u201d he said. \u201cPersonally, I really enjoy modern cycling and I really enjoy watching Pogacar. I don\u2019t understand those who say he has no rivals or that he makes races boring. Modern cycling is full of phenomenal riders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, Magrini points to the sport\u2019s current \u201cgolden generation\u201d \u2014 Pogacar, Van der Poel, Vingegaard, Evenepoel, Roglic and others \u2014 as evidence that cycling has evolved, not declined. \u201cPeople forget how fast, tactical and physically demanding the modern sport is,\u201d he added off-air in the same discussion. \u201cThe peloton is deeper than ever, and it\u2019s not easy to dominate like Pogacar does.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cComparing eras makes no sense anymore\u201d<\/p>\n
To Magrini, the entire debate over whether Pogacar could match Merckx \u2014 or whether De Vlaeminck himself could keep up with Pogacar \u2014 is fundamentally misguided.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like asking how Maradona or Sivori would perform in football today, against modern defences,\u201d he argued. \u201cRoger was a champion, and I\u2019m sure he would have been one in any era, but it makes no sense to wonder whether he\u2019d hold Pogacar\u2019s wheel. I prefer to just enjoy today\u2019s champions as I enjoyed those of the past.\u201d<\/p>\n
His comments reflect a growing divide in how cycling\u2019s history is interpreted \u2014 between those, like De Vlaeminck, who view the 1970s as the sport\u2019s golden age, and those like Magrini who see today\u2019s evolution as proof that greatness adapts with time.<\/p>\n
While De Vlaeminck\u2019s bluntness remains a defining part of his legend, Magrini\u2019s response underscores a different truth: that the sport he and Merckx helped shape half a century ago continues to produce riders whose brilliance deserves to stand on its own terms \u2014 not forever in comparison with the past.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cWhen you get older, you tend to only think about what you did\u201d Magrini\u2019s words carry a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-279356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}