{"id":348381,"date":"2025-12-14T23:04:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T23:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/348381\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T23:04:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T23:04:08","slug":"johan-museeuw-questions-pogacar-and-uaes-dominance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/348381\/","title":{"rendered":"Johan Museeuw questions Pogacar and UAE’s dominance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Axel Merckx<\/a>, the son of the great Eddy Merckx<\/a>, offered a contrasting perspective. He admires what Pogacar is doing and finds many similarities between him and his father. \u201cI prefer not to compare generations, but today he dominates the way my father once did. Beyond his incredible list of achievements, what impresses me most is the freshness he still shows after the finish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite praising Pogacar\u2019s physical capabilities, Merckx warned that the main risk to the world champion may lie elsewhere. “Wherever he goes, there’s always a kind of constant attention on him. And that’s what’s so exhausting. I was too young to realise it, but when my father talks about the end of his career, it was mainly the mental fatigue, much more than the physical fatigue, that bothered him most. At a certain point, your brain signals your legs to stop.”<\/p>\n

Museeuw agreed with Merckx’s assessment, adding that post-season criteriums are not doing any good to the Slovenian. \u201cIn my opinion, this period should mainly be a mental break. His mind needs to recharge, and I’m curious how the Slovenian will handle all of this… A few years ago, I think it was the same lifestyle that contributed to [Peter] Sagan’s decline. Even when you’re at the top, you need a bit of rest.”<\/p>\n

Both Museeuw and Merckx agreed that Mathieu van der Poel<\/a> remains the principal obstacle to Pogacar\u2019s ambition of winning all five Monuments. \u201cThe biggest problem for Pogacar in La Primavera, but also in Paris-Roubaix, is Van der Poel,\u201d said Merckx. “Without the Dutchman, Pogi would already have won all the Monuments. It\u2019s that simple. Fortunately for those who think Pogacar is too dominant, Mathieu can make life difficult for him in one-day races.\u201d<\/p>\n

Museeuw went further, offering Van der Poel really high praise. \u201cIf I could reincarnate as a current rider in the peloton, I would choose Van der Poel without hesitation. Pogacar is obviously the best rider in the world, but I love the class Mathieu exudes and the fact that he only races to win. That\u2019s the only thing that interests him.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Axel Merckx, the son of the great Eddy Merckx, offered a contrasting perspective. He admires what Pogacar is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,191678,784,28545,165458,77973,85,6494],"class_list":{"0":"post-348381","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-axel-merckx","11":"tag-cycling","12":"tag-eddy-merckx","13":"tag-johan-museeuw","14":"tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-tadej-pogacar"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348381","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=348381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}