![\"Tadej](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/tadej-pogacar-6a3a468c95ead.jpg@webp.webp\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I take from all of this, Spencer, isn\u2019t the numbers. It\u2019s what I saw and especially what Pogacar said. He said: \u2018I\u2019m better than last year.\u2019 That\u2019s what sticks with me. And I think he is better. We\u2019ve said it several times, but I really believe he\u2019s better than last year. So everyone will have to raise their level for the Tour,\u201d said the former Belgian sports director.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Are Pogacar’s watts really superior?<\/p>\n
Pogacar\u2019s remarks have set off alarm bells among his rivals. The Slovenian already delivered a historic 2024, winning the Giro d\u2019Italia, the Tour de France, and the World Championships, but according to Bruyneel he may have taken another step forward.<\/p>\n
The definitive display came on the final stage of the Tour de Suisse. Pogacar attacked more than eight kilometers from the line on a climb averaging close to 8.5% and dropped everyone. Bruyneel highlighted the figures from that ascent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw some data. It wasn\u2019t an extremely steep climb, but he had a VAM of 1,940 meters per hour. That\u2019s insane. I also read some calculations that put it at close to seven watts per kilo for 27 minutes,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
Spencer Martin went even further, mentioning estimates that put the world champion at around 7.2W\/Kg on the climb to Villars-sur-OIlon. Though both acknowledged the figures are approximate, they agreed the performance was extraordinary.<\/p>\n
However, Martin raised an intriguing question. Is he really better than the Pogacar of a year ago? The American analyst recalled some of the Slovenian\u2019s rides at the Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9 2025 that he rates among the most impressive ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, he seems better than last year, but is he really? Because last year, at the Dauphin\u00e9, he delivered one of the most impressive performances I\u2019ve ever seen. I still don\u2019t know if he\u2019s truly better than that,\u201d Martin commented.<\/p>\n
Bruyneel replied that, while exact comparisons are hard, what impresses him most is the gap that still exists to the rest of the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year we knew he was incredible because he did those rides against Jonas Vingegaard. Now we don\u2019t know because they\u2019re not facing each other directly. But you see someone like Richard Carapaz try to follow and lose two minutes in just twenty-two minutes of climbing. That\u2019s staggering. I think he\u2019s really in a great place,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
The sense of superiority is such that both believe the Tour de France once again hinges almost entirely on Vingegaard. For Bruyneel, no other rider seems in position to mount a serious challenge to the Slovenian.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Pogacar dominated the 2026 Tour de Suisse<\/p>\n
\u201cWe keep saying it over and over, but it bears repeating. Only Jonas Vingegaard can get close to Pogacar and maybe beat him if something happens. That\u2019s the scenario we\u2019re going to see again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Moreover, the Belgian believes UAE arrive at the Tour with an even stronger unit than in previous seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith this team he has now and all those powerful riders around him, some who were injured are back and stronger. The team is in a very good place,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
Martin also underlined Pogacar\u2019s versatility across the week. He not only won the queen stage, but also took the time trial by just 31 hundredths of a second over Mathieu van der Poel. A result that shows he remains one of the world\u2019s most complete specialists.<\/p>\n
\u201cWatching Pogacar win that time trial is yet another confirmation of just how good he is,\u201d Bruyneel said during the analysis.<\/p>\n
For the former US Postal director, the Slovenian has virtually no weaknesses at the moment. Even in a discipline where riders like Remco Evenepoel should make the difference, he believes the gains would be minimal.<\/p>\n
\u201cPogacar is always going to be ten or fifteen seconds from anyone in a time trial, unless it\u2019s a completely flat chrono for pure specialists. He doesn\u2019t need to worry about time trials in stage races,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
![\"Tadej](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/tadej-pogacar-and-marlen-reusser-6a3927fa3bdf6.jpg@webp.webp\")
<\/p>\n
Tadej Pogacar and Marlen Reusser at the 2026 Tour de Suisse<\/p>\n
Not even a great Lenny Martinez could match Pogacar in Switzerland<\/p>\n
Another performance that impressed the analysts was how he neutralized Lenny Martinez on the final stage. The Frenchman looked set for a prestige win after making the break, but Pogacar reeled him in and rode straight past as if they were in different races.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe simply mowed him down and went by as if he wasn\u2019t there\u201d, Martin remarked.<\/p>\n
The episode\u2019s overall takeaway was clear. Beyond numbers, time gaps, or victories, the visual impression Pogacar is leaving is devastating. It looks as if he\u2019s racing with a fluidity no one else can match.<\/p>\n
Martin admitted it\u2019s still hard to compare this version with last year\u2019s, but conceded the level remains frightening. Bruyneel, for his part, had no doubts.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if he\u2019s not better than last year, he was so far ahead of everyone else that they still have a huge problem. Even being the same 2024 Pogacar, the others are in trouble,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n
With the Tour de France just around the corner, the message from The Move is unequivocal: Pogacar seems to have reached another level. If he truly is better than the rider who won the Giro, Tour, and Worlds in the same season, the rest of the peloton will need more than a simple uptick in form to stop him pulling on yellow again in Paris.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cWhat I take from all of this, Spencer, isn\u2019t the numbers. It\u2019s what I saw and especially…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,110286,101,8782,6549,132338,12183,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-654132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-johan-bruyneel","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tour-de-france","tag-tour-de-suisse","tag-uae-team-emirates-xrg","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654132","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=654132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}