Alberto Contador puts Tadej Pogacar on par with Eddy Merckx after Tour of Flanders 2025: "He will likely be regarded as the greatest in history by the end of his career"
Cycling
The 2025 Tour of Flanders saw Tadej Pogacar cement his place in cycling history with an unforgettable performance. The Slovenian rider attacked with lightning speed on the final climb of the Oude Kwaremont, 19 km from the finish, leaving Mathieu van der Poel unable to keep up. Pogacar crossed the line solo, securing his second Tour of Flanders victory and the eighth monument of his illustrious career — a remarkable achievement for someone just 26 years old.
His victory was yet another testament to Pogacar's extraordinary talent, one that has left many experts in awe. Among those, Spanish cycling legend Alberto Contador spoke candidly to Eurosport, highlighting the magnitude of Pogacar’s accomplishments: "At times, it may seem almost routine, but we must acknowledge that we are witnessing a rider who, while not yet on the level of Merckx, will likely be regarded as the greatest in history by the end of his career," Contador stated.
What strikes Contador most about Pogacar is his versatility across all race types. Unlike many other top riders, Pogacar competes in both the grand tours and the major classics, consistently as a favourite for victory. This sets him apart from the likes of Van der Poel and Vingegaard, riders who have yet to venture beyond their specialist domains.
Contador drew comparisons to demonstrate just how unique Pogacar’s approach is: "Consider Mathieu van der Poel racing the Tour de France, or Jonas Vingegaard tackling Paris-Roubaix. Neither seems likely to win those races, but Pogacar enters nearly every race as a contender," he explained.
As for Pogacar’s future, Contador refrained from predicting exactly how many victories the Slovenian will amass in his career. However, one thing is clear to the former champion: Pogacar’s potential is boundless. "He is a rider who defies expectations. The only comparison that makes sense is with Eddy Merckx. It will be fascinating to see just how many grand tours and monuments he will add to his palmarès. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wins them all multiple times," Contador concluded.
Tadej Pogacar wins the 2025 Tour of Flanders in style!
— Mathew Mitchell (@MatMitchell30) April 6, 2025
He joins Merckx as the only multiple Tours de France + multiple Rondes van Vlaanderen winner
Pogacar is the 7th rider to win De Ronde in the WC jersey
One half of the RVV + Roubaix double is in the books#RVV25 #RVVmen pic.twitter.com/DRy8lWMajF
Definitely, he is a great rider, and this season might even be as good as last (in a perfect world, a few more Monuments, a Tour-Vuelta double, and the Worlds again), but he has to do this for years on end to compare to Merckx’s results from roughly 69 to 74. Yes, times have changed, yes competition is different, yes speeds are higher, and so on, but let’s let Pogacar be Pogacar and give him time. We can evaluate his career when he retires. Until then, let’s enjoy it while we have it.
Just in
Play for FREE! Fantasy Paris-Roubaix
Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter today!
Popular news
Latest comments
- Apart from a few outliers, in athletics, premature developers who held age group records didn’t get very far later and most athletes who became world stars never had early age records, I’d be surprised if in cycling it was any different.Mistermaumau12-04-2025
- You can enjoy it by all means but will you also take responsibility for the consequences of encouraging it through that? Because we all pay the price of the way it affects people, moods, behaviour, illness, violence, crime, social degeneration, etc, no real good comes of it or what do you feel there is to gain from it other than experiencing a momentary emotional high some might not be able to achieve any other way?Mistermaumau12-04-2025
- There's no reason we can't live in the real world while enjoying the doped up sport.Veganpotter12-04-2025
- Tadej definitely wasn't terribly out of the ordinary as a junior. Just goes to show what great coaching and a proper "supplement" regiment can turn someone into.Veganpotter12-04-2025
- Nice one. Not 100% officially a placebo but in my early days of group training in Mallorca I and another guy were reputed to ride without food (and once I paid the price for it having to be pushed back to base). On one particularly long outing things started getting difficult and the other guy mentioned he could really do with something to eat, one of the jokers offered him a home-wrapped snack, the latest nutritional supplement on the market and he started flying, showing and boasting all the way home how good he was feeling. At dinner, in front of 40 or so of his mates it was then revealed it had simply been a premeditated prank with a cheap doggy biscuit. Don’t know if anyone later ever considered experimenting with dogfood doping, was just happy not to have been selected as the victim.Mistermaumau12-04-2025
- Veganpotter, I’d take that as a compliment, like not knowing how to manufacture a bomb :-)Mistermaumau12-04-2025
- Most of us really overlook the reality of what happens physically when a bike tire goes over cobbles, we are too focused on experience, feeling and intuition to actually look at what should be a microscopic slow-motion analysis. I think it would help many to better imagine what is happening by comparing the situation to differing boat types advancing on wavy waters. You start with typical boats and play around with wave height and amplitude and then you progress onto more advanced designs, motorboats, catamarans, hovercraft, jetskis, gliders on different types of waves. Nce you can eliminate most of the wave and just skim the tops, the wave topography reduces to something minimal, this is the grail of bike design for cobbles, tough because no cobbled sector has exactly the same pattern. Does anyone know if wheel size is UCI regulated or is there a margin?Mistermaumau12-04-2025
- Alsene, I tend to agree but it’s incredibly complicated to calculate who has what advantage in which particular situation as the variables are largely interrelated. As you note, the rolling resistance alone is affected by numerous criteria, all things equal it is easy to change one variable to determine whether the heavier or lighter rider has an advantage, however, when EVERY rider is free to play with ALL variables (tire pressure, bike stiffness, wheel seperation and dozens more), many of the advantages/disadvantages melt into a smaller overall a/d much harder to determine when there is not an enormous weight difference (we have riders from mid 50 - mid 90kg but most are much closer together). In the meantime each team has optimised the set-up for each rider so differences are nowhere near what they used to be 30-40 years ago but obviously there is and always will be some but without highly advanced scientific research (which no-one is likely to provide for free and investing teams will keep for themselves) I feel there is now little point in people like us trying to make any factor or point the determining one, none will ever outweigh the gains from drafting and strategy :-)Mistermaumau12-04-2025
- Firstly, it’s not them, it’s their doctors and consultants and people contacting them trying to sell their wares. Secondly, now that there’s money in the sport, they can afford it, and peddlers see lucrative opportunities to separate them from their earnings, not very complicated to follow, in fact, wasn’t the whole modern thing started by someone having access to an oversized sponsor budget as there was a good marketing alignment of nationalistic and feelgood stories?Mistermaumau12-04-2025
- Yeah, let’s just discuss important matters while the world goes to bits ;-) Enjoy your entertainment but stay responsible!Mistermaumau12-04-2025