Alejandro Valverde: "Tadej Pogacar is an exceptional rider but Remco Evenepoel is the best in the world by far"
Cycling
Alejandro Valverde is very clear about who for him is the best cyclist of the moment. The rider from Murcia, who this weekend makes his debut with Movistar Team in the gravel discipline, gives his opinion on Tadej Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel who headline this Sunday's Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
"Tadej Pogacar is an exceptional rider but Remco Evenepoel is the best in the world by far. Evenepoel does things that surprise everyone, so for me he's the best," he told Cyclingnews.
The Spanish cyclist finished his professional career with 133 wins, many of them prestigious, but believes the young Belgian is going to be better than him. Ahead of Liège-Bastogne-Liège where the two will meet for the first time this season and be the main favourites to win La Doyenne, the number 1 and 3 in the UCI rankings stand apart of almost the entire peloton.
However the World Champion has something different, according to 'Bala': "With what he has already shown so far, for sure he is going to be better than me. To win the World Championships so young, to win the Vuelta a España, the Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Clásica de San Sebastián, all that is impressive," he concluded.
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The best of Complaining you mean? He complaining more often, than doing actual racing... 🙄🙄🙄. He is the King of Primadone 🤐🤐🤐. His obnoxious antics often rubbing me the wrong way🤦🏻
Time will tell. We have only seen the tip of the iceberg with Evanpoel. Whatever happens in the future - we sure are in for some great cycle racing to watch.
It's only the tip of the iceberg for Pogo too, despite having palmares that would be great to retire with. He's just about to start tickling his prime too.
Guys, I hope you’re both right but I wouldn’t put my hand in the fire for either of their careers. Unlike the older MVDP and WVA who are also not past their peak, these two rose to such a high level so fast so young with so much volume, you have to worry about premature burn-out. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have 2-3 more great seasons before experiencing a slump and both are not the type to be able to deal well with something like that so not sure they’d adapt and work their way out of it for a comeback.
The problem with Valverde's statement is that just a couple of weeks ago Evenepoel wasn't even better than Primoz Roglic. He has won some monster races and is clearly one of the 6 "galacticos," but how can we say he is "far" better than a rider he has not beaten this year? Pogacar has not won a World Championship, but other than that his palmares is far greater than Evenepoel's. I don't think anyone will be surprised if/when Evenepoel does beat Pogacar at a big race, but until then there is just no basis for Valverde's position.
I respect Valverde, but I don't agree with him here. Pogacar has won the tour de France as well as several monuments and numerous week long stage races. Yes, Remco has the world title, but until he wins a tour de France you can't really compare. It's a big step up from the vuelta to the tour, something which Valverde was never able to achieve.
Although I am Belgian myself, I beg to differ. There in no denying Remco is an exceptional rider but Pogi is even more exceptional. All the arguments Valverde applied for Remco, are valid for Pogi as well. The way he rode away from the competition uphill this spring, is beyond anything I have ever seen. He almost won all races he participated in. Unlike Remco. In his first big test he was beaten by Roglic. If Pogi stays healthy, nobody stands a chance in the tour, not even Vingegaard with a much better team. He was a little lucky last year at the tour that Pogi was not at his best due to private problems.
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- We all hope it, like parents, but those type of children only learn from their own mistakes ;-) Yeah, feel lucky I heal pretty fast, even at advanced age but we don’t really get to see how things look under their clothes. For sure they have better pain killers but I don’t ever remember feeling much pain when in a state to ride on, the adrenaline seems to just focus on that one objective. Later is another thing, I once (only time ever) fainted in the shower an hour post accident when trying to clean a wound, luckily another rider who’d witnessed it had sacrificed himself not to leave my side.Mistermaumau13-03-2025
- Yep. But if you hit something stationary at 40 mph, your life is changed. And even just sliding ... the fastest I ever crashed was 35 mph in a race, and it was almost 2 months before the last scabs disappeared. These guys heal much faster, but the pain is the same. I am hoping P is more careful so that he has a long career that ends when he decides. But he doesn't seem built that way.
Barney13-03-2025 - He’s lucky Mohoriç warned him not to follow (and that for once he listened to wiser) because the way M only just avoided disaster that day, T would have done a Senna. Regarding the 40mph, it’s not usually hitting the deck that’s crucial, it’s acrobatics and stationary objects that refuse to move much that do the damage.Mistermaumau13-03-2025
- If you consider ALL the details, things were not as bad as we’ve come to expect from organisers, especially lately, however much can still be improved, especially communication wise. I guess saying the race is neutralised is maybe not enough to be clear in the “heat” of the action, perhaps adding a warning to stay tuned and not remove earpieces, to know if and when the race might resume would help. Weather is completely random so it can go both ways when things reach a limit and BOTH sides should always be prepared for that. As for harshness of conditions, 10cm of snow is less dangerous and difficult than sleet or iced roads, riding on without stopping is easier than restarting after cooling off, everyone is different, Hinault was kind of a European average built man with his 173/68 at the time, Jonas could play an extra in a concentration camp scene, all respect for him and all the others for finishing, some people’s moaning (from their comfy sofa) made it sound like he abandoned before complaining.Mistermaumau13-03-2025
- I was thinking the exact same thing as Kelly in the moment before the crash: if Pidcock is backing off your wheel while bombing a descent, you are going too fast. So many people talk about how dominant Pogacar is and how boring this makes cycling. However, with the stomach-churning risks he takes, his era could end on any day, just as it did for Froome and Bernal. I was surprised to see him remount after hitting the deck at 40-plus mph. I understand why his girlfriend can't even watch his descents. I am going to enjoy his time while it lasts.Barney13-03-2025
- Another brain dead take from the org. While they stayed cozy in their warm carsabstractengineer13-03-2025
- Ahhh, and there was me watching and thinking we might finally get an uncommented article. Now you leave Frieders no choice but to participate ;-)Mistermaumau13-03-2025
- I don’t think that was the sense he was conveying. Anyway, can’t change him much more, Tadej is a little like the Senna of cycling, will do as he wants and has to live with the consequences. MAYBE the fall will swing the heart/mind balance. For cycling popularity and fan discussions it won’t hurt to now have a Tour with a fit Jonas and Tadej having to recover from a nasty crash at P-R.Mistermaumau13-03-2025
- After destroying many careers due to his cheating and pettiness, he suddenly became a saint due to helping out Wiggins /sabstractengineer13-03-2025
- All these ex riders give a brain dead comment now and then. Pogi is three time TDF winner, there are less than 10 riders who have done that. Its not a fluke. Last year he beat Pantani's record by 3.5 minutes. Thats not a fluke. Pogi and Vingegaard have nothing to prove in terms of winning the TDF. They are not one-off. Can we call Kelly's wins in each of the monuments flukes, he never win more than 3abstractengineer13-03-2025