{"id":63678,"date":"2025-08-12T09:56:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T09:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/63678\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T09:56:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T09:56:12","slug":"is-pogacar-really-bored-with-winning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/63678\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Pogacar really bored with winning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before the Tour de France even ended, online cycling publication\u00a0Domestique asked in a headline, Is Pogacar bored by his own dominance?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Soon after the Tour ended,\u00a0Velo offered answers to the question with an article describing Why Poga\u010dar Was Bored at the Tour.<\/p>\n

A search for \u201cbored Poga\u00e7ar\u201d yields dozens more results. It\u2019s a topic that cycling journalists have decided is worth writing about \u2014 presumably because we readers find it worth reading about.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Speaking with my fellow\u00a0tifosi,\u00a0I hear not just interest, but indignation. How dare the Tour winner exhibit\u00a0ennui?<\/p>\n

Why such frustration from us fans? After all, some of the highest praise we typically grant our athletes is that they \u201cmake it look easy\u201d \u2014 and when you find a pursuit especially easy, you\u2019re likely bored by it.<\/p>\n

(Mind you, I haven\u2019t actually seen evidence that Poga\u00e7ar has entered full eye-roll mode; while he didn\u2019t exhibit the same\u00a0joie de vivre that we\u2019d seen in past Tours \u2014 no full-kit pool antics<\/a> on Rest Day \u2014 he never grumbled in a press conference or avoided fans. But maybe that reinforces the point: even a\u00a0hint of insouciance is annoying to us fans.)<\/p>\n

My hypothesis: Because cycling fans are disproportionately cyclists themselves, we want to believe that we\u2019re not\u00a0so\u00a0different from our heroes, and that we feel what they feel. And what we feel when we ride bicycles \u2014 and especially when we race them \u2014 is suffering.<\/p>\n

Fans of other sports remark at their idols\u2019 grace, their artistry, their efficiency, or their might; we can imagine that these qualities are what the athletes enjoy exhibiting as well: How must it feel to soar gracefully (and powerfully) like\u00a0Anthony Edwards<\/a>\u00a0or to swim with the sleek efficiency of\u00a0Michael Phelps<\/a>? We can quite literally only imagine.<\/p>\n

\"Holy<\/p>\n

The most beautiful piece of sportswriting I\u2019ve ever encountered is David Foster Wallace\u2019s\u00a0description<\/a>\u00a0of Roger Federer playing tennis. It\u2019s thousands of words long, but can be summarized as: No one else will ever play tennis like this; it\u2019s stunning to watch; and no one but Federer can know how it feels to play tennis like this.<\/p>\n

But if elegance, harmony or raw, explosive power are honored in other sports, it\u2019s suffering and joy that we cyclists hold dear \u2014 because we\u00a0can\u00a0know how these feel. What weekend group-ride warrior hasn\u2019t felt their lungs heave, their quads sear as they close in on a wheel or drag themselves up a local climb and thought, \u201cThis\u00a0is cycling; I\u2019m suffering, just like a pro.\u201d<\/p>\n

We pay homage to the riders who clearly do suffer: the Enric Mases, the Sarah Gigantes, the Romain Bardets, the \u2014 I\u2019ll dare write it \u2014 Jonas Vingegaards. An entire book is devoted to\u00a0The Art of Suffering<\/a>; I\u2019ve just pored over its photos, fascinated, because I believe that at some point, somewhere on an ascent of Mt. Diablo or in the closing meters of the Tuesday Night Hammerfest, I\u2019ve suffered, just as these pictured riders so evidently have suffered.<\/p>\n

\"strade<\/p>\n

Not to suffer, then \u2014 to\u00a0make it look easy\u00a0\u2014 is a violation of a cycling norm. Cycling fans get very close to their champions, both literally and emotionally: We can touch them when they ride by, and we believe that we can feel what they feel.<\/p>\n

So when Poga\u00e7ar appears bored, even telling us he may be done with cycling within the next few years, he distances himself from those of us who would otherwise be his most devoted followers, we who watch bike races, and who ride bikes, and who for occasional moments believe we share his experience.<\/p>\n

Please don\u2019t misunderstand: I don\u2019t even know what it\u2019s like to win a master\u2019s criterium, so I certainly can\u2019t relate to winning the Tour de France. But I can believe that I suffer when I chase a KOM, or a buddy\u2019s attack, and I can believe that my suffering is something like the G.O.A.T.\u2019s.<\/p>\n

I just can\u2019t believe it\u2019s that easy for him.<\/p>\n