<\/p>\n
The former Paris\u2013Roubaix specialist also insisted that anyone questioning Merckx\u2019s status \u201cdoesn\u2019t know what they\u2019re talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gregori pushes back: \u201cUnacceptable\u201d<\/p>\n
Gregori, who has covered twelve Olympic Games and decades of Grand Tours, did not hide his reaction. In conversation with Bici.Pro, he said: \u201cDe Vlaeminck\u2019s remarks are unacceptable. Look at the riders he competed against, especially Merckx, who beat him many times.\u201d<\/p>\n
He argued that De Vlaeminck\u2019s comments fail to consider the broader picture: \u201cHe is also a very different type of rider from Pogacar, but in the end he is not analysing the victories; the numbers also need to be weighed. Modern cycling is very different from theirs \u2014 everything is calculated down to the millimetre.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rather than choosing a side in the heat of the debate, Gregori stressed that context matters. He highlighted the difference between eras and pointed out how performance characteristics vary between riders who never competed under the same conditions.<\/p>\n
Comparing eras without nostalgia<\/p>\n
Gregori insisted that comparisons between Pogacar and Merckx require nuance, not provocation. \u201cPogacar and Merckx are two different riders who competed in different eras,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Using a simple physical comparison, he noted: \u201cPogacar is definitely stronger than Merckx on the climbs\u2026 Merckx, however, certainly had a more powerful engine.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Italian journalist emphasised Pogacar\u2019s versatility, citing examples from his racing style rather than relying on rhetoric. He pointed to the Slovenian\u2019s aggressive long-range attacks and exceptional consistency in the Monuments as evidence that he is forging his own place in cycling history.<\/p>\n
\u201cA champion of the highest order\u201d<\/p>\n
Gregori also addressed the numbers themselves \u2014 not to diminish Merckx, but to highlight what Pogacar has achieved in the modern era. \u201cPogacar is a champion of the highest order,\u201d he said. \u201cHe has won 5 Il Lombardia out of 5 participations, an incredible statistic.\u201d<\/p>\n
He noted that even Merckx\u2019s fabled record did not prevent the Slovenian from doing things few thought possible: \u201cPogacar finished second at his very first Roubaix \u2014 something unthinkable until just a few years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gregori further argued that Pogacar\u2019s style restores something cycling had lost: \u201cIn modern cycling it seemed impossible to excite with long-range solo attacks, yet he has rediscovered this way of racing\u2026 That\u2019s what makes him so beloved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evenepoel, Vingegaard and the rivals shaping Pogacar\u2019s era<\/p>\n
One common counter-argument in the De Vlaeminck debate is that Pogacar allegedly dominates without rivals. Gregori rejected that outright. \u201cIt\u2019s not true that Pogacar has no rivals at his level,\u201d he said, pointing to recent battles with Vingegaard and identifying Evenepoel as a major long-term threat: \u201cHe is two years younger\u2026 he has shown he can fight in Grand Tours.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gregori concluded by placing Pogacar\u2019s place in history within a longer timeframe rather than in the heat of a single argument. \u201cFor now, the definition still holds: \u2018Merckx the strongest, Coppi the greatest.\u2019 But in three years, I believe that between those two we could no doubt include the Slovenian champion.\u201d<\/p>\n
By responding with analysis rather than provocation, Gregori\u2019s comments provide one of the clearest counterpoints yet to De Vlaeminck\u2019s blistering critique \u2014 and shift the conversation back toward performance, context and perspective, rather than nostalgia-driven declarations.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The former Paris\u2013Roubaix specialist also insisted that anyone questioning Merckx\u2019s status \u201cdoesn\u2019t know what they\u2019re talking about.\u201d…\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-329055","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\/329055","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=329055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329055\/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=329055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}