{"id":276795,"date":"2025-11-11T17:53:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T17:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/276795\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T17:53:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T17:53:09","slug":"former-italian-pro-slams-de-vlaemincks-absurd-attack-on-pogacar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/276795\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Italian pro slams De Vlaeminck\u2019s \u2018absurd\u2019 attack on Poga\u010dar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former professional Riccardo Magrini has weighed in on the recent comments by Belgian cycling icon Roger De Vlaeminck, who questioned Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2019s standing among the sport\u2019s greats. Speaking to quibicisport.it<\/a>, Magrini described De Vlaeminck\u2019s remarks as \u201ccompletely out of place\u201d and cautioned against comparing athletes from different eras.<\/p>\n

De Vlaeminck had told Hln.be<\/a> that Poga\u010dar \u201cdoesn\u2019t even come close to Merckx\u201d and suggested that, were he racing today, he wouldn\u2019t be dropped when the Slovenian accelerates on climbs. Magrini, who raced alongside De Vlaeminck for several years and later became a director and commentator, said the comments ignore how much the sport has changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s absurd to compare eras,\u201d Magrini said. \u201cToo many things have changed. Team dynamics, preparation, nutrition. Merckx was Merckx<\/a>, Hinault was Hinault, Poga\u010dar is Poga\u010dar. Period. Sometimes people ask, \u2018What if Merckx were here?\u2019 \u2014 but it\u2019s meaningless. He lived his era and shaped it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Merckx: Only Van der Poel could challenge Poga\u010dar<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Reflecting on De Vlaeminck\u2019s perspective, Magrini added: \u201cMaybe he\u2019s a little too focused on his own achievements. As a commentator, I feel privileged to follow today\u2019s cycling and appreciate it fully. Poga\u010dar is a rider I admire, and I don\u2019t understand those who say he has no competition or makes races boring. Modern cycling is full of top-level talent; perhaps some races could use a bit more head-to-head rivalry, but overall it\u2019s exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Magrini dismissed the notion of testing legends against modern riders. \u201cIt\u2019s like asking how Maradona or Sivori would fare against today\u2019s defenders. Roger was a champion and would have been competitive in any era, but speculating about whether he could match a Poga\u010dar attack makes little sense. I prefer to enjoy the sport as it is, appreciating today\u2019s stars as much as those from the past, without forcing comparisons.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments reflect a wider debate in cycling about the relevance of cross-era comparisons, with some former stars embracing nostalgia and others, like Magrini, urging fans to judge riders on their own terms. Although, sure there is some recency bias sometimes when discussing performances, perhaps comparing a rider to someone 50 years ago is a debate we can finally just\u2026let go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former professional Riccardo Magrini has weighed in on the recent comments by Belgian cycling icon Roger De Vlaeminck,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,29027,126514,82,1422],"class_list":{"0":"post-276795","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-eddy-merckx","12":"tag-roger-de-vlaeminck","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tadej-pogacar"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}