{"id":332587,"date":"2025-12-07T10:46:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T10:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/332587\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T10:46:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T10:46:09","slug":"marc-madiot-praises-tadej-pogacars-sense-of-history-of-cycling-but-picks-wout-van-aert-as-his-favourite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/332587\/","title":{"rendered":"Marc Madiot praises Tadej Poga\u010dar’s ‘sense of history’ of cycling, but picks Wout van Aert as his favourite"},"content":{"rendered":"

Never shy about sharing his opinions – good or bad – on riders and other teams, longstanding Groupama-FDJ<\/a> manager Marc Madiot was surprisingly complimentary on Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a> at the V\u00e9lo d’Or awards on Friday night.<\/p>\n

At the event held in Paris, Poga\u010dar was awarded two trophies to close his superlative 2025 season<\/a>, which included a fourth Tour de France title, a second consecutive rainbow jersey at the World Championships in Rwanda, the European road title, a fifth straight Il Lombardia win, and many other victories. The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider also took the wins in the one-day races Strade Bianche, the Tour of Flanders, La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne and Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge.<\/p>\n

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The Slovenian also took the runner-up spot at Paris-Roubaix<\/a>, after trying multiple times to break clear.<\/p>\n

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For Madiot, a French winner of Paris-Roubaix in 1985, seeing Poga\u010dar take the start at Paris-Roubaix was a \u201cbeautiful symbol,\u201d and something he was \u201chopeful\u201d to see.<\/p>\n

After all, the last time a Tour de France champion took the start of the Hell of the North was Greg Lemond in 1991.<\/p>\n

Madiot couldn\u2019t resist adding, with a sly smile, that \u201cat first glance, I’m not a huge fan of Tadej Poga\u010dar, my chouchou is Wout [van Aert], for me, he’s the ultimate rider.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I’m impressed by Tadej’s mental strength,\u201d he continued in comments shared by L\u2019Equipe on social media<\/a>. \u201cWhen he commits to a race, he never misses an opportunity, and what I really admire about him – something that hasn’t been demonstrated by previous Tour de France winners in recent years – is his sense of history. He has a deep understanding of his sport. And when a rider of his calibre and standing respects and commits to the major events in his sport, we have to give him credit, encourage him, and support him.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cFrom time to time in the press, people say, ‘Yes, if he does Paris-Roubaix, he’ll take risks in the Tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. No,\u201d Madiot emphasised.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that in his life, winning Roubaix will be just as important as winning the Tour because he’s steeped in the very essence of cycling. And for that reason, we must encourage him in this direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar said that both Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix – two races missing from his palmares – would be part of his program for 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Never shy about sharing his opinions – good or bad – on riders and other teams, longstanding Groupama-FDJ…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-332587","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\/332587","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=332587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}