'An Absolute Monarchy - one of the Greatest Classics Campaigns in History' was how L'Équipe titled its front page report on Tadej Pogačar's one-day track record this Spring following his latest victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège last weekend, and a series of raw data on his performances, also published by the newspaper on Monday, showed that the dramatic headline was anything but unjustified.
It's relatively well-known that securing nine Monuments – one more than archrival Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) – now puts Pogačar on an equal footing with such all-time greats as Fausto Coppi, Sean Kelly, Costante Girardengo and equal third in the all-time ranking behind Eddy Merckx and Roger De Vlaeminck, too.
But as L'Équipe pointed out, it's also true that the UAE Team Emirates-XRG pro is now the first rider ever to take six Monument podiums in succession and just the third in history, after Merckx and Kelly, to finish in the top three of the first four Monuments of the season.
Run off at a record-breaking speed of 41.983kph, Pogačar's third and most recent victory at Liège also raises his Monument 'win-rate' to nine victories out of 19 starts, a total of 47%. Furthermore, in the last 16 Monuments he's finished - barring his crash-out of Liège in 2023 – Pogačar has never been outside the top five.
Bridging the gap between the Ardennes and the cobbled Classics has hitherto been viewed as almost impossible in modern-day cycling. But Pogačar is not only the first rider since Merckx in 1975 to win both Flanders and Liège in the same season, LÉquipe reported. He's also the first rider since Merckx 50 years ago to finish on the podium of the first four Monuments of the year and to round that with top-three placings in Flèche Wallone, which Pogačar won for a second time, and Amstel Gold Race, where he was second.
Nor is it only about the victories. Staying in the thick of the action for such a long time, be it on the cobbles or in the hills, from Strade Bianche all the way through to Liège-Bastogne-Liège requires keeping in top condition for nearly two months, something only Pogačar has proved capable of managing in recent cycling history in the Spring Classics.
But as manager Joxean Fernández Matxin pointed out to L'Équipe, not only did UAE meticulously plan out Pogačar's periods of rest alongside his standout performances to enable him to do that, but the absence of organised opposition to 'the Absolute Monarch' also helped him maintain that domination.
"It's the first time in my life that I've seen 40 riders reach Liège altogether" - to fight for the fourth place overall - "and if they had worked together, they could have maybe brought Tadej back," Matxin said.
At the same time, "Tadej hasn't raced so much, just 14 days, and he's barely travelled and that's helped him recover well, too. Three days between Amstel and Flèche, then four leading up to Liége, it's not like the Grand Tours where you have to be attentive all the time and the stress is constant."
Pogačar himself has said, though, that while the Classics campaign was "tough - and I'm not going to lie about that", as well as there being "some ups and downs", the good weather in Belgium this Spring has smoothed his pathway as well.
"That made it easier to stay here for a long time. Every race I rode and got closer to Liège, it got better for me," Pogačar explained in his post-Liège press conference, according to a Wielerflits report.
"I never expected that I would be able to do that," said the Slovenian. "But I have been able to experience a lot of special things this spring. It was the perfect Classics period."
Whether he could repeat such a long and intense Classics campaign again in the future, Pogačar said, "It depends which major Tours you ride. If you do the Giro, it is more difficult to complete such a spring program."
"It will be difficult for me to do what I did this spring again. I don't think I can do this every year."
As for the idea that he's making cycling history – as the statistics have shown time and again – Pogačar replied that that was anything but his primary concern when he races. As he said, "I get asked that a lot, but I’m not here to write any books."
