Eddy Merckx doesn\u2019t hesitate when asked about Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2019s place in cycling history. The five-time Tour de France winner is convinced the Slovenian is on track to eclipse his record \u2014 and that no current rider is close to standing in his way.<\/p>\n
\u201cPoga\u010dar has never, never, never been in trouble,\u201d Merckx said in an interview with De Telegraaf<\/a>, reflecting on the 2025 Tour. \u201cThere was no real tension in the race. Jonas Vingegaard wasn\u2019t a rival this time \u2014 he just held on.\u201d<\/p>\n Merckx<\/a> said that Poga\u010dar is enjoying a different level of competition than he did in his own era. \u201cIf there was stronger opposition, it would be harder for him to win so many,\u201d he said. \u201cBut will he win more than five? Absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n The Cannibal doesn\u2019t see any real contenders rising to challenge Poga\u010dar over the next few years. \u201cRemco Evenepoel? No, certainly not,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s more suited to time trials. In the mountains, he\u2019s not at the same level.\u201d As for Juan Ayuso, Merckx was even more blunt: \u201cHe\u2019s not strong enough to hold up for three weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n There is, however, one rider Merckx believes had the potential to unsettle Poga\u010dar \u2014 but not anymore.<\/p>\n \u201cMathieu van der Poel \u2014 fantastic! What an athlete,\u201d Merckx said. \u201cHis Tour was incredible. He rides with so much heart and does things no one expects. It\u2019s a shame he\u2019s no longer focused on the Tour, because he\u2019s the only one who could have really challenged Poga\u010dar.\u201d<\/p>\n On Sunday, the world champion took his fourth Tour\u2013and he did so in style. On the final, tough stage in Paris\u2013this year with the additional several passes up the cobbled Montmarte climb, Pogi could have sat up.<\/p>\n The organizers decided that given the torrential rain, times would be taken with 50 km to go. But the UAE Emirates rider was having none of the. Instead, he animated the race, attacking multiple times on the Olympic course that was use for this year\u2019s final stage. In the end, it was Visma \u2013 Lease a Bike\u2019s Wout van Aert that managed to counter Pogi<\/a>, and take a brilliant win. Still, the Slovenian showed that he loves to race\u2013and even more to win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eddy Merckx doesn\u2019t hesitate when asked about Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2019s place in cycling history. The five-time Tour de France…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-30131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30131","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=30131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}