{"id":320977,"date":"2025-12-01T17:33:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T17:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/320977\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T17:33:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T17:33:11","slug":"pogacar-wasnt-anything-special-in-slovenia-let-alone-the-rest-of-europe-this-new-biography-tells-the-origin-story-of-how-cyclings-new-goat-was-built-not-born","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/320977\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Poga\u010dar wasn\u2019t anything special in Slovenia, let alone the rest of Europe’ \u2013 this new biography tells the origin story of how cycling’s new GOAT was built, not born"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re writing a biography of a rider like Tadej Poga\u010dar, one of your biggest issues has got to be when to stop typing.<\/p>\n

Since he appeared on the pro scene in 2019, the Slovenian has developed an appetite for winning that\u2019s as voracious as anybody\u2019s since the great Eddy Merckx in the \u201960s and \u201970s. At the time of writing, his total wins are up to 108.<\/p>\n

Even as Andy McGrath was approaching the deadline for his latest book, Tadej Poga\u010dar: Unstoppable, his 27-year-old subject continued to win massive races, including the UCI Road World Championships in Rwanda and the final Monument of the season, Il Lombardia.<\/p>\n

For many other riders, such victories might be career-defining. For Poga\u010dar, he was merely increasing his win tally at both races \u2013 a record fifth straight Lombardia and second consecutive world title.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just a question for McGrath of when to draw the line, either, but one of making definitive judgements on a rider who\u2019s still very much active. \u201cIt\u2019s probably the hardest thing I\u2019ve ever done,\u201d he says of the project.<\/p>\n

SQUIRREL_13619073<\/p>\n

The author\u2019s previous two books were about deceased cycling champions \u2013 Tom Simpson (the Brit who tragically died on Mount Ventoux during the 1967 Tour de France) and troubled Belgian Frank Vandenbroucke, who battled drug addiction and died while on holiday in 2009.<\/p>\n

\u201cWriting about the yesteryears has its pros and cons, but I suppose it was a little easier to get fully close to those around those champions than it was pinning a current superstar, who\u2019s a moving target,\u201d McGrath says.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, when it comes to the Merckx comparison, it\u2019s like calling a cycling race when there\u2019s still 70km to go.\u201d That said, Unstoppable is a book that arrives at an opportune moment.<\/p>\n

Not just because we\u2019re in the calm of the off-season, when Poga\u010dar is forced by dint of the calendar to take a break from winning, but because he\u2019s almost certainly closer to the end of his career than the beginning.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar declined to be interviewed for the book, and his team, says McGrath, had \u201cmixed feelings\u201d about it being written now. <\/p>\n

But they certainly didn\u2019t stonewall the writer, and he spoke with many of the key characters who\u2019ve shaped Poga\u010dar\u2019s life and career, from his parents, teachers and friends to teammates and rivals from across his working life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould it be nice to have a one-hour sit-down with Poga\u010dar?\u201d McGarth asks rhetorically. \u201cNo one gets [that]. He doesn\u2019t win the biggest races by giving the very little free time that he has to journalists.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Poga\u010dar\u2019s voice, from different stages of his life, runs through the book, which was important to McGrath, \u201cto make sure you have his input and his personality, coming across in his own words, whether from past interviews we\u2019ve done, press conference interactions or his dealings with other international media over the years\u201d.<\/p>\n

A head for heights
\n\"FansMcGarth travelled to Poga\u010dar’s hometown. JURE MAKOVEC\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

When reading, say, a biography of a rock star such as David Bowie, some 40 years after his heyday, it\u2019s the wild stories of his time in the public eye that I want to read about.<\/p>\n

For a book like Unstoppable, about a rider whose career we\u2019re following closely as it happens, the early years are the most illuminating, and so it is here.<\/p>\n

How does a one-off like Poga\u010dar even happen? McGrath visited his hometown of Komenda, a village 20km north of Slovenia\u2019s capital Ljubljana, and spoke to key people in his life, to piece it all together.<\/p>\n

One of the striking things about Poga\u010dar now, even in these remarkable years of winning, is his humour and the way he carries himself.<\/p>\n

Perhaps you could describe it as approaching his job with the utmost seriousness while never forgetting the absurdity or good fortune of being able to race a bike for a living.<\/p>\n

But this is nothing new for anyone who\u2019s known him throughout his life. McGrath speaks of Poga\u010dar as a kid who \u201cradiated a sense of calmness, patience and joyfulness\u201d that his family cottoned onto early.<\/p>\n

However, the monstrous physiology and powers of recovery that professional trainers such as I\u00f1igo San Mill\u00e1n have spoken of weren\u2019t immediately apparent.<\/p>\n

\"\"A fresh-faced Poga\u010dar (right) as a junior in 2016. Getty Images Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I found interesting is that in interviewing sports scientists who tested him when he was 16, he wasn\u2019t anything special in Slovenia, let alone the rest of Europe,\u201d says McGrath.<\/p>\n

When I put it to the writer that he might have had worries of finding the friction or drama in a story like Poga\u010dar\u2019s, who had a seemingly wholesome childhood in Slovenia and appears extremely well-adjusted, he disagrees.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t realise the setbacks he had, the growing pains, and that the difficulties were mainly out of the public eye,\u201d suggests McGrath.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar wasn\u2019t a winning machine when he was a younger rider, and it\u2019s well known that he had to wait for his body to mature before it caught up to the thoughts he had as a schoolkid daydreaming in class of a career on his bike.<\/p>\n

However, when he showed up to his first training camp in 2018 with the UAE squad in which he\u2019s spent his whole career, this cherubic kid with barely any definition in his chunky legs was holding his own on long climbs with seasoned professionals such as Dan Martin.<\/p>\n

It was the ceiling that got everyone excited about Poga\u010dar, as much as what was in front of their eyes.<\/p>\n

In his image
\n\"\"Celebrating his fifth Il Lombardia win in early October 2025. Getty Images <\/p>\n

Seven years later, and the now 27-year-old Poga\u010dar is the senior rider at UAE Team Emirates-XRG \u2013 if not in age, then in rank and longevity.<\/p>\n

Only the 36-year-old Norwegian Vegard Stake Laengen has been there longer. And the effect has rubbed off.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re the world\u2019s number one team, but they don\u2019t act that way. What I\u2019m hearing is they\u2019re not disrespectful in the bunch, but also when you go to the team bus, it\u2019s so different to how Team Sky was,\u201d says McGrath.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to [the bus] during this year\u2019s Tour de France, the morning after Poga\u010dar had crashed. This was the Hautacam stage, where he\u2019d go on to definitively win the Tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut no one knew how he was, how he was going to be \u2013 would it be curtains for his Tour challenge? But they were just, like, super relaxed. I could hear Journey\u2019s [song] Don\u2019t Stop Believin\u2019 coming from the bus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PARIS,Poga\u010dar has the support of a well-resourced team. Jean Catuffe \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

If they don\u2019t act like a top team in that sense, they\u2019ve certainly upped their game behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

Ex-teammates such as Dan Martin and George Bennett have gone on record in the book, saying that the setup and science know-how at the team has lagged behind other top outfits in the past.<\/p>\n

That seems to have changed now, with 96 wins in 2025. \u201cThe team have grown with Poga\u010dar and Poga\u010dar\u2019s grown with the team,\u201d reckons McGrath. \u201cIt certainly isn\u2019t just \u2018The Poga\u010dar Show\u2019 \u2013 very few of those wins have been sprints.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, they\u2019re a talented, committed squad \u2013 backed handsomely by the UAE, of course \u2013 but if Poga\u010dar\u2019s happy-go-lucky exterior has an infectious effect on his team, McGrath says we also need to remember what a ferocious competitor he is.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe call it a kind of fa\u00e7ade, but everyone has to have that \u2018bastard\u2019 in them, you know, to be a top pro cyclist. He does kill with kindness and charisma, but he does have that killer in him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite his dominance, particularly over the past couple of seasons, Poga\u010dar\u2019s personality means that, unlike other such champions, he hasn\u2019t collected many enemies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI talked to people on and off the record about him, and there wasn\u2019t any dirt,\u201d says McGrath.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I found really interesting, though, was the growing sense of defeatism and the psychological aura that he now has, especially when turning up for a stage race.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s almost a despair among his competitors, and [a feeling] that you need a masterplan, like Jumbo-Fisma had [at the Tour de France] in 2022, to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Even crashes, like at the 2025 Strade Bianche, aren’t enough to derail him. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Even with that, a stronger UAE team and a Poga\u010dar at his peak mean that a multi-pronged attack like that no longer comes with any guarantees.<\/p>\n

His fellow riders warm to him, however, even when he\u2019s put them on their knees, because of the way he goes about his business, believes McGrath. Take the final week of this year\u2019s Tour, where a knee injury took the smile off his face.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t quite stagger over the line, but he looked like he wanted the finish to hurry up.<\/p>\n

Even then, he lit up the final stage, on the newly designed route through Paris, to put on a show for fans and satisfy himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of me sees what he\u2019s done and wonders why he isn\u2019t more unpopular. He has every right to have more haters than he does.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think it\u2019s partly the kind of charisma and partly this racer that refuses to die. Look at Paris-Roubaix this year \u2013 how can you hate a Tour de France champion risking everything to try to win this cobbled race?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s the most impressive second place in modern cycling, because anything could have happened. Even when he doesn\u2019t win, he\u2019s contributed to a spectacular race,\u201d muses McGrath.<\/p>\n

Pogmania
\n\"\"His impressive stature helps him to challenge bigger riders on their own terrain. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The peloton is bloodied, then, but unbowed and there are riders \u2013 current champions and those coming up \u2013 who can still challenge Poga\u010dar, whether it\u2019s through his imperious level dropping or them rising to meet the challenge.<\/p>\n

It was only a couple of years ago that many wondered if he could ever crack Jonas Vingegaard again at the Tour after the Dane\u2019s two dominant wins.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be Vingegaard, it could be [Remco] Evenepoel. Evenepoel\u2019s is a really interesting transfer.<\/p>\n

\u201cRed Bull aren\u2019t in pro cycling to be second best. They want to win the Tour, and they have the money, the clout and the new managerial signings to maybe change something. So, I think Remco could be the one to get closer.\u201d<\/p>\n

First, however, they\u2019ll need to crack the aura that surrounds the Slovenian, which is helped by an impressive physicality these days too.<\/p>\n

For a man who\u2019s all of 175cm and 64.5kg at Grand Tour weight, he looks massive on a bike compared to his climbing rivals \u2013 a combination of broad shoulders and a tree trunk of a bottom half.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see him at races surrounded by the entourage of a champion,\u201d says McGrath.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe does have that Merckx aura, like you\u2019re in the presence of [someone special]. I remember him walking into the press conference of Strade Bianche in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt helped that we were in this medieval palace, but he exuded this charisma. You don\u2019t get Beatlemania or Taylor Swift mania in pro cycling, but this is the closest thing I\u2019ve seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

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