This winter, AFP asked dozens of runners if the Slovenian was going to dominate as much in 2025. Most answered yes, before adding: “I’m afraid so”.
“It’s not just the talent of a generation, it’s the talent you only see once in your life. I don’t expect it to slow down,” says American veteran Larry Warbasse.
“I expect it and I fear it. I don’t see any reason why it would be any less strong. He’s always hungry,” adds Belgian Dylan Teuns.
“There’s only one runner like him every 30 or 40 years. I think he really has an exceptional gift. It’s God on a bike,” even believes Warren Barguil, when asked if he sometimes had doubts about the Slovenian’s performance.
“I always thought he would be at his best when he was 26 or 27. He is reaching the prime of his life (the Slovenian turned 26 in September). It’s a shame for the followers, but I think he will still dominate,” adds Valentin Madouas. The prospect frightens more than one, starting with TV commentators.
“Like Michael Jordan”
“How are we going to continue reporting Pogacar’s almost weekly exploits? In March, when he won (the Strade Bianche) by attacking 80 kilometers from the finish, I said we would never see that again. How wrong I was! We have a story to tell and we don’t want it to be the same every week,” summarizes Rob Hatch, who commentates on the races for Eurosport.
In 2024, Pogacar struck the spirits not only by his results (25 successes including the Giro-Tour de France-Mondiaux) but also by the way, with long solo raids (81 km at the Strade Bianche, 51 km solo at the Worlds after attacking 100 km from the finish, 48 km at the Tour of Lombardy,…).
“It’s incredible what he does on the bike. Never seen before. But I hope to see other riders win this year. It would be better for the show,” insists Rémi Cavagna.
-“Last season, we followed his exploits and said to ourselves: wow, it’s incredible, no one had ever done that,” explains Luke Rowe, sports director at Décathlon-AG2R after a long career as a runner at Ineos. “If the race itself wasn’t exciting, we consoled ourselves by witnessing something historic. But if it continues, from a spectator point of view, it will be a bit shitty,” he adds.
For Warbasse, it’s the lot of all champions who dominate: “We can consider it boring but others will say that it’s cool to witness a kind of greatness, like when we watched Michael Jordan play in basketball. »
Easier routes?
His teammate at Tudor, Luxembourger Luc Wirtgen even sees it as an advantage: “The teams have to find a way to beat him and for me that makes the bike more attractive. We saw him at the Tour of Lombardy in October with a breakaway of thirty riders, all strong, to try to trap him. »
It did not work and the teams must learn new lessons from it, underlines Benjamin Thomas, one of the few to think that Pogacar will do less well in 2025.
“We are going to see anti-Pogacar tactics come out. At the Tour of Lombardy, the guys played into Pogacar’s hands with such a hard start to the race that all the teammates were dead. Me, after 60 km, I was in the car. Afterwards, it’s difficult because sometimes, Pogacar is so strong that there isn’t much to do,” says Thomas.
“The harder it is, the better it is for him”, also believes Julian Alaphilippe, fan of Pogacar “a phenomenon who is a magnificent world champion for cycling”.
“The trend in recent years has been to make the race harder and harder. But we realize that this favors dominant runners like Pogacar, notes Warbasse. So perhaps we should return to easier routes to give a greater number of runners a chance. »
