{"id":344577,"date":"2025-12-31T11:40:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T11:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/344577\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T11:40:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T11:40:09","slug":"we-are-seeing-the-best-cyclist-ever-can-mathieu-van-der-poel-be-the-one-to-upset-tadej-pogacars-plans-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/344577\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We are seeing the best cyclist ever’ \u2013 can Mathieu van der Poel be the one to upset Tadej Poga\u010dar’s plans for 2026?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the final Classic of the season, Il Lombardia has often flown a little south of the radar, despite its Monument status and stunning setting in the foothills of the Italian Alps. This year, that changed \u2013 all eyes were on the race as fans contemplated a fifth consecutive victory from Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a>. He did not disappoint. As if by action-replay, he tore away on yet another long-distance breakaway and took the win, matching the record of Fausto Coppi, five-time winner of the race between 1946 and 1954.<\/p>\n

Not everybody was delighted. Amid the cheering Pogi fans, there were dissenting voices <\/a>\u2013 voices that had begun to gain a critical mass over the previous few weeks. \u201cIt\u2019s the same thing again and again,\u201d one fan wrote on CW\u2019s Facebook page. Another said the dominance was lessening their interest in the sport. For some, yet another barely contested Poga\u010dar victory was too much to bear. The great entertainer was starting to become boring.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Tadej\n<\/p>\n

Tadej Poga\u010dar wins Il Lombardia 2025<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Of course, the 27-year-old is only doing what he is paid to do, or even what he was born to do, if you want to be romantic about it. There is no question that Poga\u010dar tends to win in dramatic, fan-pleasing fashion. But the same story repeated time and again becomes tiresome, and it has started to feel like ‘Poga\u010dar fatigue’ is setting in.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Questions have already been raised over how long the world champion can continue to tick off prestigious race wins with apparent ease. Many have speculated on when he might retire \u2013 even his mother said she would understand if he left the sport in the near future, having seen how tired he was after the Tour de France<\/a> \u2013 when he admitted that he couldn\u2019t wait \u201cfor it to be over\u201d<\/a>. He remains under contract with UAE Team Emirates-XRG until 2031.<\/p>\n

Entertaining dominance<\/p>\n

To assess the scale of Poga\u010dar\u2019s dominance, former pro and TNT cycling<\/a> commentator Brian Smith suggests stepping back from his latest Il Lombardia victory and taking in the broader landscape. \u201cThere are 36 WorldTour events in the year, he’s won eight of them,\u201d Smith tells Cycling Weekly. \u201cI covered a lot of these races, and I can totally understand that nobody likes dominance. Nobody likes what Team Sky did to the Tour de France in the overall \u2013 people weren’t entertained. But [with Poga\u010dar] I think they have been entertained.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Smith, Il Lombardia<\/a> was the only race that was too predictable. “You could argue that all the other races have been pretty competitive,” he says, pointing out that the Slovenian races “with flair” and “in an entertaining way”. Poga\u010dar remains a supremely popular rider, of course, and while his team is the strongest in the peloton, it doesn’t seem to snuff out competition in the way that, say, Team Sky<\/a> or US Postal Service did in their heyday.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Team\n<\/p>\n

Team Sky apply the pressure in the Tour de France, 2012<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Those teams would routinely suffocate their rivals on key Tour de France stages before unleashing their leader to seal the GC. It was brutally effective but drained the drama from what should have been the race\u2019s most thrilling moments, leaving neutral fans disillusioned. Under UAE-Poga\u010dar, the dynamic is different: the dominance is no less real, but it\u2019s far more individual than systematised. Even if you can safely bet that the eventual winner of any given race will be a Slovenian with the initials \u201cTP\u201d, it usually comes after an exciting turn of events \u2013 even if it is a carbon-copy audacious long-range attack<\/a>. Not so long ago, such attacks would have had us rapt.<\/p>\n

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

Still, for fans \u2013 and certainly for his rivals \u2013 there is an appetite for closer-run battles, says Andy McGrath, author of the new biography Tadej Poga\u010dar: Unstoppable<\/a>. It\u2019s how the Slovenian reacts to defeat that reveals his true greatness, reckons McGrath. \u201cYou need lows to have highs,\u201d he says. \u201cIt wouldn\u2019t be very interesting if he just won everything for the last five or six years. Probably, my favourite defeat was the Tour of Flanders in 2022, when he somehow finished fourth, and he was swearing at everyone else. You saw he had that edge \u2013 that\u2019s easy to forget\u2026 That moment said more than a thousand words could. He\u2019s an inveterate winner, that\u2019s how you win these races, you have to be wired slightly differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Eddy\n<\/p>\n

‘The Cannibal’ Eddy Merckx having everyone for dinner on the final stage of the 1970 Tour de France<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images \/ Central Press)<\/p>\n

Cast your mind back to the late Sixties and early Seventies, the era of Eddy Merckx<\/a> \u2013 now remembered as a \u201cgolden age\u201d. At the time, though, the all-conquering Cannibal wasn\u2019t universally adored; many complained that his dominance was \u201cboring\u201d. Only after his retirement did the perspective on his achievements shift and consensus form that he was the sport\u2019s greatest legend.<\/p>\n

As McGrath puts it: \u201c[Pogacar] shouldn\u2019t be taken for granted. Why is excellence boring? When Poga\u010dar goes, probably in five years\u2019 time, we won\u2019t see someone like that for decades, probably ever. It\u2019s tricky.\u201d Yet McGrath also acknowledges the tension at the heart of Poga\u010dar\u2019s dominance. \u201cOn one hand, I would say enjoy this, and cherish this, and on the other hand, sport requires unpredictability and rivalry, and we\u2019re not getting much of that when he is attacking from 50km to go in every race and winning quite comfortably.\u201d<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

The rivals<\/p>\n

While Poga\u010dar\u2019s dominance looks set to continue for years to come, a few rivals are capable of challenging him \u2013 particularly in the one-day races he covets. At Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix<\/a>, Mathieu van der Poel<\/a> has already asserted his authority. The Dutchman, winner of both those Monuments in 2025, appears to be the rider who can disrupt Poga\u010dar\u2019s ambitions. On the capi of Italy and the pav\u00e9 of northern France, recent results have shown Poga\u010dar meeting his match.<\/p>\n

Smith notes that Van der Poel dominates cyclo-cross in a manner reminiscent of Poga\u010dar on the road. \u201cIt’s a bit like watching Formula One,\u201d he says. \u201cYou watch the start and after that there are gaps everywhere \u2013 there’s really no excitement.\u201d Yet Van der Poel thrives in the unpredictability of long, one-day Classics, and has demonstrated he can match Poga\u010dar. There\u2019s a strong chance he will keep these races compelling next spring by preventing Poga\u010dar from having it all his own way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fire burning within Pogacar is the fact that he hasn’t won Milan-San Remo yet,\u201d says Smith. \u201cHe hasn’t won the Vuelta yet. I say yet, because I believe that he can. [After that] what else has he got to prove? What else is he going to do?\u201d<\/p>\n

Joining the ‘Club Cinque’<\/p>\n

What about Poga\u010dar\u2019s other targets? Another Tour de France win would see him join the celebrated ‘Club Cinque’ of five-time champions, while Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge<\/a> and a third World Championships remain tantalising opportunities. Is there any hope for his rivals?<\/p>\n

There is, but it may require ingenuity, says Smith, who believes opposing teams need to be more collaborative and inventive. He points to Lidl\u2013Trek\u2019s Quinn Simmons at Il Lombardia, whose attack from the gun left Poga\u010dar’s UAE team, by their own admission, \u201ca little afraid”.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re not infallible, you know,\u201d Smith adds. \u201cSome of the teams are just riding to help them, and they shouldn’t. I know it’s a difficult thing to organise between the teams, because there has to be a lot of trust and friendship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Jonas\n<\/p>\n

Jonas Vingegaard has beaten Tadej Poga\u010dar before \u2013 can he do it again?<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

For Smith, teams often appear to be racing for podiums rather than victories when facing Poga\u010dar, settling for the UCI points available for second and third. But there are riders who can beat him \u2013 Jonas Vingegaard<\/a>, for instance, who\u2019s proven it twice at the Tour de France. Smith also highlights Remco Evenepoel<\/a>. \u201c[Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe<\/a>] have got a really strong team for next year, and the fact that Remco thinks that he can still beat [Poga\u010dar] is a good thing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to believe that.\u201d Whether Poga\u010dar\u2019s rivals can ultimately topple him or not, his status is indisputable. \u201cHe’s the complete athlete at the moment,\u201d Smith adds, \u201cand what we are seeing, in my eyes, is the best cyclist ever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the final Classic of the season, Il Lombardia has often flown a little south of the radar,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-344577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344577","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=344577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}