Pogačar may never equal Merckx's exploits and palmarès but he is the Cannibal of 2024 and his generation
Tadej Pogačar lifts his bike aloft after taking stunning wins at Strade Bianche and Il Lombardia, his first and last races of the season(Image credit: Getty Images)
Prior to last weekend, Pogačar had already won Liège-Bastogne-Liège plus 12 Grand Tour stages, the Volta a Catalunya, the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal and the Giro dell'Emilia. Then on Saturday Pogačar beat double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel by 3:16 in Il Lombardia, a winning margin not seen in the race since Eddy Merckx beat Franco Bitossi by 3:31 in 1971.
La Gazzetta dello Sport has calculated that Pogačar spent 967km on the attack during 9959km of racing in 2024. At Strade Bianche he took off with 81km to race. He pulled off a second win at Liège-Bastogne-Liège with 35km alone in front. He attacked with 100km to go at the World Championships before riding 51km solo and then rounded off a stunning year of solo attacking 48km from the line at Il Lombardia.
We are in a far different era but the comparisons with Merckx and Coppi gather pace every time he completes a race.
L'Equipe put Pogačar and Coppi on the cover of Sunday's newspaper after his Il Lombardia victory. The day before La Gazzetta dello Sport created a similar montage with Merckx included to highlight a fourth Il Lombardia victory. Pogačar is no longer comparable to his current rivals, only with the legends of the sport from the previous century.
Pogačar is the first rider to win the World Championships, two Grand Tours and two Monuments in the same season and his 2024 success is being compared to Merckx's incredible season when he won the Giro, Tour, Milan-San Remo, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Il Lombardia, before travelling to Mexico to break the Hour Record in 1972.
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Pogačar may never equal Merckx's exploits and palmarès but he is the Cannibal of 2024 and his generation.
With dominance comes suspicion
Pogačar dominated the 2024 Tour de France, with his fifth of six stage wins picture here (Image credit: Getty Images)
"From Strade Bianche to Il Lombardia, he crushed his opposition, working to demonstrate his superiority, his difference from the rest, the world of difference that separates them from him," Alexandre Roos wrote in L'Equipe on Sunday.
"He is in a race against history to be the best but is already out front and alone. Around him, there is now a desert."
L'Equipe also highlights how Pogačar's dominance sparks suspicion and even boredom.
"This is the nature of the reigns of despots," Roos wrote. "We remember the great anthology pieces about Merckx's career, not the feeling of exasperation or discouragement that his gluttony provoked.
"Like with the champions before him, there is what we can understand and what we're unable to explain, it's the nature of the extraordinary.
"In this grey area nestles doubt. It is often healthy, natural and essential, but part of the beliefs which belong to each of us."
Pogačar replied to the suspicion on Friday, as a French television crew followed him around and quizzed him about his success.
The Slovenian star suggested domination is everywhere in life but also has a start and an end, that it is cyclical. He indicated he would not take the health risks linked to the doping of previous generations.
"You need to have a winner and always a winner will get the most eyes on him that he's a cheater. Maybe in a few generations, people will forget about the past, about Armstrong and these guys, that were doing what they were doing, and maybe they will move on," Pogačar said.
"From my personal experience, I think cycling is one of the best sports, where people are looking to be more healthy and not more unhealthy, just for the performance."
L'Equipe concluded their analysis of Pogačar's historic season with a final, extra level of responsibility for the Slovenian, one he perhaps can never escape with an acceleration, nor a surge on the pedals.
"The World Champion knows that he has to answer everyone's doubts. It's the burden on his shoulders as well as his responsibility. The price to pay when one aspires to be the greatest."
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Stephen is the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters, Shift Active Media, and CyclingWeekly, among other publications.
