{"id":398528,"date":"2026-01-30T09:57:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T09:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/398528\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T09:57:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T09:57:11","slug":"its-complete-nonsense-tadej-pogacar-dismisses-eddy-merckx-comparisons-as-he-targets-fifth-tour-de-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/398528\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It’s complete nonsense’ \u2013 Tadej Poga\u010dar dismisses Eddy Merckx comparisons as he targets fifth Tour de France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a> has said that comparisons between himself and Eddy Merckx<\/a>, the Belgian considered to be the greatest cyclist of all time, are \u201ccomplete nonsense\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Slovenian is a two-time world champion and four-time Tour de France<\/a> winner. This season, he has the chance to join two exclusive clubs alongside Merckx by winning a fifth Tour and completing the set of all five Monuments; Poga\u010dar is targeting victories at Milan-San Remo<\/a> and Paris-Roubaix<\/a> to add to his previous at the Tour of Flanders<\/a>, Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge<\/a> and Il Lombardia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere is so much talk about me and comparing to Eddy [Merckx] etc. For me, it\u2019s complete nonsense,\u201d Poga\u010dar told Cycling Weekly on Wednesday, as he announced his role as global ambassador for crypto exchange KuCoin.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI like to live in the moment, in the present, not thinking too much about the records or whatever. I want to keep having fun, that\u2019s the most important [thing] in cycling, in sport, in life, too; that what you do is for fun, that you have some sort of challenges, that you have some goals, but that you don\u2019t overdo it also and overthink it.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Poga\u010dar\u2019s victory at the 2024 UCI World Championships in Switzerland, where he won with a 100km attack<\/a>, Merckx told French publication L\u2019\u00c9quipe<\/a> that it was \u201cobvious [Poga\u010dar] is now above me \u2013 deep down, I already thought as much when I saw what he did on the last Tour de France, but tonight there\u2019s no more doubt about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Merckx later backtracked on his comments, telling Spanish outlet Relevo<\/a> that the Slovenian had \u201ca long way to go\u201d to be considered greater than him.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Poga\u010dar completed the Triple Crown<\/a> of cycling, winning the Giro d\u2019Italia<\/a>, Tour de France and World Championships in the same year, a feat Merckx achieved in 1974. The Belgian, now 80 years old, retired in 1978 with more than 500 wins.<\/p>\n

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Poga\u010dar has been the UCI\u2019s number-one ranked male cyclist for the past five years, and reached a milestone 100 career wins<\/a> at the Tour de France last summer, aged 26.<\/p>\n

Asked about his legacy, the Slovenian told Cycling Weekly he hopes to be celebrated for more than his victories.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe the results are not everything that I want people [to remember me for], just saying \u2018Yeah, this guy won this and this, and won everything\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe I also want to show the young generations that everything is possible. When you do this, you also need to play it as a game. It\u2019s not all about cycling, you also need to enjoy your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar is scheduled to begin his 2025 season at Strade Bianche <\/a>on 7 March.<\/p>\n

A more extensive, feature-length interview with the world champion will be published in Cycling Weekly magazine this spring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tadej Poga\u010dar has said that comparisons between himself and Eddy Merckx, the Belgian considered to be the greatest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-398528","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\/398528","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=398528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}