{"id":827263,"date":"2026-07-26T14:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T14:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/827263\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T14:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T14:00:10","slug":"eddy-merckx-believes-tadej-pogacar-is-ready-for-a-new-goal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/827263\/","title":{"rendered":"Eddy Merckx believes Tadej Poga\u010dar is ready for a new goal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2019s fifth Tour victory is within reach. The current yellow jersey holder in the Tour de France has a comfortable lead<\/a> over his competitors heading into the final stage in Paris and thus appears set to claim his fifth overall victory in this Grand Tour. And that would tie the record.That record has been held for years by four cycling legends: Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault, Miguel Indurain, and, of course, Eddy Merckx<\/a>\u2014all of whom won the Tour de France five times. Poga\u010dar is set to join this list after the 2026 edition, following his previous overall victories in 2020, 2021, 2024, and 2025.However, Merckx\u2014who was consistently one of the Tour favorites in the early 1970s\u2014doesn\u2019t expect it to end with just a tie. \u201cI congratulate him, but I believe that he will not only match me and the other champions\u2014he will soon break our record for Tour victories,\u201d said the Belgian champion in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar has impressed 81-year-old Merckx. \u201cEvery era has its champions; I don\u2019t like making comparisons.\u201d Ever since he turned pro, it was clear, of course, that he had exceptional talent. Well, maybe I didn\u2019t think he\u2019d become so impressive on the climbs\u2014it seems to me that he\u2019s breaking climbing records in every stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo<\/p>\n

\"tadej-pogacar\"\/Merckx on Poga\u010dar: ‘Reaching his level seems unattainable at the moment’<\/p>\n

However, Poga\u010dar\u2019s dominance also has a downside. For example, the Slovenian rider from UAE is still regularly booed by the crowd. The same thing happened to Merckx in his heyday. \u201cPeople want to see a show; they get passionate about the duels. But when Poga\u010dar decides to attack, he dominates and has no rivals. It happened to me, too, when I challenged Anquetil and Poulidor, the home favorites, and this year the French have Seixas in the top positions: perhaps they expected him to be closer to Poga\u010dar.\u201d<\/p>\n

As France\u2019s new hope, Seixas made his Tour debut\u2014and did so with distinction. Could he become Poga\u010dar\u2019s most formidable rival in the future? \u201cHe\u2019s young; let\u2019s let him develop without too much pressure,\u201d said Merckx. \u201cHe certainly has talent, but let\u2019s not forget that the Slovenian isn\u2019t even 28 yet and seems to be getting more well-rounded and stronger every season. Reaching his level right now seems to me to be a virtually impossible feat.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s left for Poga\u010dar to achieve? Perhaps this all-around talent will set his sights on winning the Giro, the Tour, and the Vuelta in the same season. Merckx: \u201cIf anyone can do it, it\u2019s him. If the conditions are right, I think he can do it.\u201d The Giro takes place in May, so you have two months to prepare for the Tour and nearly two more months to get ready for Spain. As long as there are no health issues, you can maintain your fitness throughout the entire period.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2019s fifth Tour victory is within reach. The current yellow jersey holder in the Tour de France…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":827264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,29027,82,1422,262636],"class_list":["post-827263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-eddy-merckx","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tour-de-france-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827263","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=827263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}