{"id":224978,"date":"2025-10-25T16:14:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T16:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/224978\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T16:14:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T16:14:08","slug":"perhaps-the-greatest-cyclist-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/224978\/","title":{"rendered":"Perhaps the greatest cyclist of all time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom Dumoulin<\/a> was one of the best and most popular riders in the 2010’s and faced off against some of the mythical figures in modern cycling, but did not really have head-to-heads with Tadej Pogacar<\/a> with both at their prime. Perhaps that was best for the Dutchman who believes he may be watching the greatest of all time, and does not have a problem with his dominance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love watching him race. He\u2019s perhaps the greatest cyclist of all time, and it\u2019s special to see the best win almost every race,” Dumoulin said in an interview with Marca. “Of course, we\u2019d like to see more battles to the finish, like in the 2017 Giro, when four riders fought for the win. But I admire his level and his mentality. I’m not bored watching him win, although I enjoy it when there’s excitement right up to the last day.\u201d<\/p>\n

It’s a different style of rider than anything seen in modern cycling, but also one who is very aggressive and popular with the fans, creating race situations that open up earlier than what they used to. Still making the comparison with the other riders who are termed the best in history is always hard.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen Eddy Merckx race, so it\u2019s difficult to compare eras. They were very different times,” the former Giro d’Italia and time trial World Champion said. However in a few years’ time, if the Slovenian continues to perform in the same way as he has these two seasons, then he may reach that status almost unanimously.<\/p>\n

This is despite his rivalry with Jonas Vingegaard which already ‘took’ from him two Tour de France victories, which at this point would’ve had him become the record holder for Tour victories. \u201cI think we\u2019ll see that rivalry continue for several more seasons. It\u2019s a clash that defines an era”.<\/p>\n

Dumoulin on Juan AyusoWith the Spanish news outlet, Dumoulin talked about Juan Ayuso<\/a>, with whom he agrees on the move to Lidl-Trek after spending several years in the overly-competitive environment of UAE Team Emirates – XRG.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand that in UAE, with Pogacar as leader, it\u2019s difficult to get opportunities. At Lidl, he\u2019ll be able to go it alone, and I think that\u2019s good for everyone.\u201d And the Dutchman believes Ayuso is the real deal and a future Grand Tour winner: \u201cYes, absolutely. He has the talent and mentality to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSpain will always have great cyclists, but it must be admitted that the overall level is lower than in the era of Contador, Valverde, or Purito (Joaquim Rodr\u00edguez, ed.)… In Indur\u00e1in’s time, Spain led the world of cycling, and now it’s no longer in that position.”<\/p>\n

Lastly Dumoulin was also asked about Chris Froome<\/a>, who is set to retire this year after suffering another serious injury and having his contract with Israel – Premier Tech expire at the end of the season:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he enjoys competing, I\u2019m happy for him,\u201d he said. \u201cI would have made a different decision, but he is who he is, and I respect him greatly. He\u2019s a four-time Tour de France champion and deserves all my respect for continuing to do what he loves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Dumoulin was one of the best and most popular riders in the 2010’s and faced off against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-224978","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}