Tadej Pogacar at the gala for the "Vélo d'Or" in Paris - will the 26-year-old continue in the same style in 2025?
Image: Keystone
25 victories in one year, including the Giro, Tour and World Championship triple: Tadej Pogacar rode his opponents into the ground in 2024
Image: Keystone
Pedro Delgado, the 1988 Tour de France winner, is convinced that Pogacar's dominance will continue for another five years
Image: Keystone
"Perhaps he is already the best of all time," says Irishman Stephen Roche, who was the last rider to win the Giro, Tour and World Championship triple before Pogacar in 1987
Image: Keystone
Tadej Pogacar is following in the footsteps of Eddy Merckx, who dominated cycling in the 1960s and 1970s
Image: Keystone
Tadej Pogacar at the gala for the "Vélo d'Or" in Paris - will the 26-year-old continue in the same style in 2025?
Image: Keystone
25 victories in one year, including the Giro, Tour and World Championship triple: Tadej Pogacar rode his opponents into the ground in 2024
Image: Keystone
Pedro Delgado, the 1988 Tour de France winner, is convinced that Pogacar's dominance will continue for another five years
Image: Keystone
"Perhaps he is already the best of all time," says Irishman Stephen Roche, who was the last rider to win the Giro, Tour and World Championship triple before Pogacar in 1987
Image: Keystone
Tadej Pogacar is following in the footsteps of Eddy Merckx, who dominated cycling in the 1960s and 1970s
Image: Keystone
Tadej Pogacar believes it will be difficult to repeat his magnificent 2024 season. However, the cycling world expects the Slovenian to continue to dominate and shake Eddy Merckx's throne.
25.12.2024, 14:18
25.12.2024, 15:21
SDA
As the main protagonist at numerous galas and award ceremonies, Tadej Pogacar experienced a turbulent autumn. The hype illustrates the new dimension of a champion who is on his way to becoming a global star of the sport beyond cycling.
In October, Pogacar extended his contract with Team UAE until 2030 for an estimated annual salary of 7.5 million Swiss francs, and he returned to regular training in early December to prepare for 2025. In this year, he has an incredible record of 25 victories to defend.
"A super nice guy"
Repeating a raid like the one in 2024 seems "almost impossible" to him, as he told the AFP news agency. The dominance of the ogre from Slovenia was so great that the Spaniard Pedro Delgado, winner of the 1988 Tour de France, is convinced that Pogacar has "established a dictatorship" that will "last another five years".
"Compared to our generation, he has much more support, a press officer, an agent and a manager to protect him," explains Irishman Stephen Roche, the last rider to win the Giro, Tour and World Championship triple before Pogacar in 1987. "Pogacar is a super nice guy. He would have trouble saying no. But he has someone who does that for him."
Because Roche does not recognize any loss of motivation in Pogacar, he believes that the Slovenian will also celebrate great successes in 2025: "He is a dreamer who does not set himself any limits. He's not necessarily trying to become the best of all time. He says to himself: I'll take whatever comes my way and then we'll see. Maybe he's already the best..."
Is he already the GOAT?
Is Pogacar already the GOAT (Greatest of All Time)? This question has been posed since this season - even if Pogacar does not yet have quite the same track record as Eddy Merckx in the 1960s and 1970s and the eras are difficult to compare. Pogacar has 88 victories, has won the Tour de France three times, the Giro d'Italia once, a world championship title and seven monuments. He also stands out with his offensive riding style.
"To be the GOAT, you have to win big races, do it with style and over a long period of time," says Briton Luke Rowe, who retired this year. "Pogacar fulfills the first two conditions and practically already the third. If he has another season like this, he'll be the best of all time, that's for sure."
In an interview with the "Gazzetta dello Sport", Bernard Hinault expressed his conviction that Pogacar will end up ahead of him and Merckx. The 70-year-old Frenchman sees the 26-year-old in particular as the first to win the Tour de France six times. He himself had won the Tour five times between 1978 and 1985.
The competition avoids him
Winning all five monuments is another challenge for Pogacar. He still has to win Milan-Sanremo, where he has come closer every year, and Paris-Roubaix, which he has never ridden. Four-time Roubaix winner Tom Boonen has "no doubt" that Pogacar will also win these two monuments "one day".
As for the Vuelta, it seems to be a formality for Pogacar if he decides to compete there. This could be the case in 2025, against an almost resigned competition. Primoz Roglic, for example, when asked about his program for the coming season, explained his recipe for not suffering from the dominance of his compatriot: "I will first look at his program and then go where he won't be."
