ANALYSIS: What must Tadej Pogacar do to catch up with cannibal Eddy Merckx?

Tadej Pogacar's recent victory in the Giro d'Italia 2024 has only confirmed that the Slovenian is currently the best cyclist in the world, and for all that he has achieved, one of the best in history. In fact, the UAE Team Emirates star is already being compared to the greatest of all time, Eddy Merckx.

So, What must Tadej Pogacar do to catch up with cannibal Eddy Merckx? This is the question posed by our colleagues at Ciclismoaldia. Pogacar won the 2024 edition of the Corsa Rosa, where he was making his debut, with a 10-minute lead over second overall, Daniel Martinez. In addition, he also took the mountains classification and six stage wins in a race where he wore the Maglia Rosa following his stage 2 win, all the way to the finish in Rome. But now that the comparisons have begun to be taken seriously, will Pogacar be able to catch up with Merckx, is there any factor that could stand in the way of that goal, and how close is he really to catching the legendary Belgian rider, at least as far as his record is concerned?

The main handicap when trying to catch up with Merckx.

Eddy Merckx managed to achieve 276 victories during his career because he was a rider capable of winning even on the Champs Elysees. He was a very good sprinter and that's why, for example, he was very good at winning a Milano-Sanremo (he won 7 in total) which it seems that Tadej Pogacar will have a hard time winning because of his characteristics on the bike.

In addition, Merckx was also an animal in individual time trials. Of his 276 victories, 67 came in the time trials, which is crazy. Meanwhile, `Pogacar, without being a specialist, can perform outstandingly well in time trials, but the difference with the Belgian is big, as the Slovenian has 6 in his personal account right now. That's why Pogacar, with 77 total wins since 2019, looks like he'll have a tough time. What the Slovenian can do is focus on accumulating as many wins as possible in races like Il Lombardia, where he has proven he is the best by far having won the last three editions (2021, 2022 and 2023). But can it be enough in this way? It's time to compare the palmarès of both riders.

A monstrosity that seeks to equal a greater monstrosity.

To begin with, we review Eddy Merckx's achievements between 1966 and 1977:

On the other hand, and before mentioning how far Pogacar still has to go to catch up with Merckx, we review the Slovenian's track record so far:

This is what Pogacar must achieve to equal Merckx.

Having already gone over the track record of each, and also explained that it will be very difficult for Pogacar to reach Merckx's 276 victories because of the ease with which the Belgian also competed for wins in peloton sprints and time trials, this is what the Slovenian needs to match the greatest cyclist of all time: