Armstrong and Bruyneel share ominous verdict on Pogacar after the Flèche Wallonne: "If he always raced like this he wouldn't lose any race"

Following Tadej Pogacar's victory at La Fleche Wallonne, Lance Armstrong took to his podcast WEDŪ, with Johan Bruyneel and George Hincapie, to discuss just how impressive the Slovenian was. 

"I won this race 29 years ago in 1996," said Armstrong. "Another day with another great performance by Tadej Pogacar who, as I said a few weeks ago, when this is all over is going to be considered the best cyclist in history."

He made it clear that, although he won the race from the breakaway, it is normal to win the race on the final climb, as Alejandro Valverde did 5 times and as Pogacar did again yesterday.

"It was very good, he waited, it's what you have to do in this race, it's very low percentage that has won this race in a breakaway, that's how hard the finish is."

Johan Bruyneel went further in his analysis, assuring that if Pogacar always raced as he did yesterday, he would win and would not encounter surprises like last Sunday's shocking defeat at Amstel Gold Race.

"I think Pogacar rode the perfect race, he didn't want to make any show or attack from a distance, I think if he had attacked probably he and Remco could have gone and then gamble it on the Mur du Huy, but in the end UAE carried the pace while he had riders and in the end he made an attack. If Pogacar rode like he did he wouldn't lose any races."

Bruyneel disagreed with this opinion of his former boss George Hincapie, who added an interesting reflection to the debate.

"I disagree with you, Johan. I think if I had ridden like today in the Tour of Flanders I would have lost to Mads Pedersen or Mathieu van der Poel.

"So it depends on the race lines. On Sunday we thought whether he was tired and whether he was a human or a robot, but he has shown his superiority again. And people are not aware of how much stress the rain causes to the race. We saw guys like Skjelmose go to the ground. Pogacar makes it look easy but it's not."