{"id":956716,"date":"2026-11-08T05:32:14","date_gmt":"2026-11-08T05:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/956716\/"},"modified":"2026-11-08T05:32:14","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T05:32:14","slug":"anatomy-of-a-g-o-a-t-45-minute-long-film-on-tadej-pogacar-features-praise-from-merckx-contador-and-thomas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/956716\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Anatomy of a G.O.A.T.&#8221; &#8211; 45-minute long film on Tadej Pogacar features praise from Merckx, Contador and Thomas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Pogacar, 28, has won five editions of the Tour de France and next year could become the sole record holder of the sport&#8217;s centerpiece race. Aside from that, his countless victories throughout the calendar and his many triumphs on the monuments have carved out a career that very few in the sport&#8217;s history could even match.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Drawing on unique data and analysis from WHOOP, supplemented by expert testimony, the documentary presents verified statistics and brings them to life through original graphic design,&#8221; said the press release issued. &#8220;Divided into five chapters, it explores various facets that help explain why Poga\u010dar stands out from his opponents during a golden age of cycling&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The film will not only include an exclusive interview with Pogacar, but also Eddy Merckx himself &#8211; the man whom most believe still stands in the Slovenian&#8217;s way of becoming cycling&#8217;s best ever.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/tadej-pogacar-and-isaac-del-toro-6a673f976b333.jpg@webp.webp\" class=\"w-auto h-auto\" alt=\"Tadej Pogacar and Isaac del Toro at the 2026 Tour de France\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Tadej Pogacar won his fifth Tour de France this summer<\/p>\n<p>Thomas, Contador, Trentin and more provide special insightThe 45-minute long film will also feature former professional cyclists <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/geraint-thomas\" title=\"Geraint Thomas\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Geraint Thomas<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/alberto-contador\" title=\"Alberto Contador\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Alberto Contador<\/a>; former teammate Matteo Trentin; former coach I\u00f1igo San Mil\u00e1n; Pogacar&#8217;s parents Mirko and Marjeta; sports scientist Jean-Benoit Morin; WHOOP vice-president Kristen Holmes and TNT Sports presenter Matt Stephens.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe Tadej Poga\u010dar is the greatest cyclist of all time,&#8221; Alberto Contador said. &#8220;Tadej wants to win everything. I think he aims to secure as many Monuments, Tour de France titles, and world championship titles as possible, in addition to winning as many individual stages as he can at the Tour de France.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;El Pistolero&#8217;, a legend in modern cycling and current presenter at Eurosport, believes the Slovenian has already reached the great of all time status.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you really think about it, it\u2019s very difficult to find an athlete from any other sport throughout history who has been so vastly superior to their rivals. I was reflecting on this and thought of Usain Bolt. But, of course, Tadej Poga\u010dar displays this level of dominance in every single race he enters, from February through October.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Geraint Thomas, 2018 Tour de France winner, shared a story in which Pogacar&#8217;s ability on the bike became clear: \u201cThere was one time when I was riding with Pog in Li\u00e8ge, and he was cruising along at over 400 watts. He pulled up next to me and just started chatting. And I thought, \u2018Mate, I can\u2019t really talk right now; I need to focus on getting up this climb as best I can.\u2019 But he\u2019s definitely got an extra gear or two compared to me\u2014there\u2019s no doubt about that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eddy Merckx believes Pogacar is above him<\/p>\n<p>Merckx, now 81 years old, holds many of cycling&#8217;s records and has been for decades regarded as the best of all time in the sport. But the Belgian &#8216;Cannibal&#8217; believes he might have been surpassed now:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s bringing back a form of cycling that we had forgotten. At this moment, he&#8217;s ahead of me,&#8221; he said in the film.<\/p>\n<p>Pogacar shares insight on his career<\/p>\n<p>The film will feature plenty statements from Pogacar himself, currently signed to UAE Team Emirates &#8211; XRG. \u201cAs long as we enjoy practicing this sport, the results will eventually come. When we stop having fun, we need to find something else that makes us happy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the most difficult moments, we have to realize: \u2018I am here because I did all the necessary preparation, because I sacrificed everything to get to this point.\u2019 We cannot give up. We must keep fighting, because after a bad spell, there are always better times ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; Pogacar, 28, has won five editions of the Tour de France and next year could become the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":956717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[175833,64,63,784,28545,79612,85,6494],"class_list":["post-956716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-alberto-contador","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-eddy-merckx","tag-geraint-thomas","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956716","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=956716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/956717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=956716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=956716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=956716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}