1. Win the Tour six times
At 26, Eddy Merckx, five-time winner of the Tour de France, already had three major loops to his name. Like Tadej Pogacar at the same age. But the times have changed, Kylian Mbappé could say. And athletes today have technological and scientific means that allow them to have greater longevity. Winning five or six Tours de France is therefore within the Slovenian’s reach, even if he will still have to tame Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel in these future years.
2. Be an Olympic champion
Among the challenges that still remain to be accomplished, winning the Olympic road race is undoubtedly the most complicated of all. For two reasons, beyond his control. The first is that the Games train only passes once every four years. After having snubbed the Parisian edition, Pogi could, if he never manages to be Olympic champion, regret not having been present. Because in 2028, the Slovenian will be approaching thirty and no one can say if his state of form will be the same as the one he has today. The second reason lies in the route, which we do not yet know if it will suit him. Even if we know that he can shine on all terrains.
3. Glean the five monuments
In a dozen days, the Tour of Lombardy will close the season of big goals for Tadej Pogacar. And to see him win for the fourth time and win his 7th monument, already, would be anything but a surprise. But if he wants to establish his legend, he will have to step out of his comfort zone to try to go hunting for the five monuments. If seeing him triumph at Milan San Remo only seems to be a matter of time, the Roubaisian challenge seems more complicated. The proof is that he has never aligned himself with it before. “You will see me at Paris-Roubaix one day”, declared the Slovenian glutton to RoadCoad in 2023.
Allan Peiper on Pogacar: “Tadej thrives on challenges and is phenomenal, Paris-Roubaix would be the ultimate challenge for him”
4. Win all three grand tours in the same year
We’ll never know. But if Pogi had lined up at the start of the Vuelta last August, no one can prevent us from believing that he would have put on the red jersey in Madrid, given his state of form. And thus achieve an unprecedented feat: winning the three grand tours in the same year. Will we see him attempt this challenge one day? Not so sure. “Winning every Grand Tour is a major goal for me, but to do it in the same year… It might be a little too crazy.” But since madness is one of his character traits…
Pogacar’s 100 shot after a more than perfect season
5. Become the most successful world champion
Sunday in Zurich, Tadej Pogacar resolved, in style, an anomaly, that of never having been world champion. But the Ogre Pogi is not yet done with the Worlds, despite his brilliant success. He still has the goal, if he wishes, of becoming the greatest world champion in history. To do this, he will have to wear the rainbow tunic three more times. Not obvious again, but not impossible. Especially since the Slovenian sometimes seems to be running backwards as was the case on Sunday. Erasing its strategic imperfections could allow it to meet these numerous challenges.
And now, Tadej Pogacar still has a lot of things to do.
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