{"id":314568,"date":"2025-11-29T15:25:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T15:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/314568\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T15:25:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T15:25:08","slug":"it-doesnt-bother-me-it-doesnt-change-anything-in-my-life-tadej-pogacar-responds-for-first-time-to-roger-de-vlaemincks-brutal-criticisms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/314568\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt doesn\u2019t bother me. It doesn\u2019t change anything in my life\u201d \u2013 Tadej Pogacar responds for first time to Roger De Vlaeminck\u2019s brutal criticisms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/tadej-pogacar\" title=\"Tadej Pogacar\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tadej Pogacar<\/a> has delivered his first public response to the fierce criticism levelled at him by <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/roger-de-vlaeminck\" title=\"Roger De Vlaeminck\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Roger De Vlaeminck<\/a>, breaking his silence during <a href=\"https:\/\/www.raiplay.it\/programmi\/radiocorsa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">an appearance on Rai Sport Radiocorsa.<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/cycling\/tadej-pogacar-isnt-fit-to-lace-eddy-merckxs-shoes-if-i-were-in-the-peloton-he-wouldnt-be-dropping-me-roger-de-vlaeminck-blasts-mythicalisation-of-world-champion\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">De Vlaeminck had made headlines earlier this year for a blistering attack on the four-time Tour de France winner.<\/a> Speaking in typically uncompromising fashion, the former Paris-Roubaix specialist dismissed the growing mythology around Pogacar with striking bluntness, saying: \u201cTadej Pogacar isn\u2019t fit to lace <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/eddy-merckx\" title=\"Eddy Merckx\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Eddy Merckx<\/a>\u2019s shoes! If I were in the peloton he wouldn\u2019t be dropping me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also labelled Pogacar \u201coverrated\u201d, remarks that quickly became a talking point across the cycling world.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Asked for the first time about De Vlaeminck\u2019s assessment, Pogacar declined to engage in any back-and-forth. He offered only a brief, composed response. \u201cI evaluate myself. If someone overrates me, it doesn\u2019t bother me. If someone underrates me, it doesn\u2019t bother me either. It doesn\u2019t change anything in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The contrast between the tone of De Vlaeminck\u2019s original words and Pogacar\u2019s quiet reply is striking. Where the former delivered a fiery broadside, Pogacar kept the focus entirely on his own outlook, offering no counter-argument and no commentary on the claims themselves.<\/p>\n<p>A clash of eras without escalation<\/p>\n<p>De Vlaeminck\u2019s comments sparked debate largely because of who they came from. A rider renowned for his forthright views and fierce loyalty to the Merckx era, he has long been one of Belgian cycling\u2019s most unfiltered voices. Pogacar, however, has chosen not to prolong the discussion.<\/p>\n<p>He neither challenges nor engages with the comparisons \u2014 he simply makes clear that outside opinions have no bearing on how he evaluates his career.<\/p>\n<p>By remaining restrained and avoiding any escalation, Pogacar shifts attention back to his racing rather than any war of words with one of the sport\u2019s most outspoken figures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tadej Pogacar has delivered his first public response to the fierce criticism levelled at him by Roger De&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314569,"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-314568","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\/314568","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=314568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}