"Beyond demotivating" - Classics rival says Tadej Pogacar's dominance has taken away all hope from the peloton

Tadej Pogacar’s latest Tour of Flanders victory did more than add another Monument to his palmares. It left even those racing against him struggling to explain what they are up against.

Among them was Decathlon CMA CGM Team rider Oliver Naesen, who offered one of the clearest reflections on just how far the Slovenian has pushed the limits of the sport. “What Tadej is doing goes beyond demotivating,” Naesen said in conversation with HLN after finishing 13th in Flanders. “This is something else. It takes away all hope.”

Pogacar’s win in Flanders followed a pattern that is becoming increasingly familiar. The race fractured on the key sequence of climbs, and when the decisive move came on the Oude Kwaremont, even Mathieu van der Poel was unable to respond.

For Naesen, that is where the difference lies compared to more traditional forms of dominance. “Demotivating is when someone is very good, you can’t drop him, and he beats you in the sprint,” he explained. “This is something else.”

Rather than a race decided in the final moments, Pogacar is now shaping outcomes much earlier, forcing separation in a way that leaves little room for alternatives.

Naesen also pointed to how that level of performance is changing the structure of the race itself. “He’s a ten-star rider,” he said, describing a hierarchy that is becoming harder to ignore. “Even they can’t stay with him when the course gets a bit harder.”

In Flanders, that reality played out clearly. Pogacar rode clear, Van der Poel was left chasing, and behind them, riders like Remco Evenepoel and Wout van Aert were forced into their own race.

It is not simply that Pogacar is winning. It is how cleanly he is separating himself from riders who would normally define the outcome.

That shift has consequences beyond a single result. At Milano-Sanremo earlier this spring, Pogacar had already shown he could force a selection in a race that rarely produces one. In Flanders, he did it again on terrain designed to create differences, but with a level of control that removed any doubt about the outcome.

For those behind, the familiar responses are becoming less effective. Each time the gap is closed, it opens again. Each attempt to follow becomes harder to sustain. Over time, that begins to change how the race is approached altogether.

Naesen’s conclusion reflects that growing sense inside the peloton. “It takes away all hope,” Naesen explains.

The question now is whether that same dominance carries into Paris-Roubaix, a race that traditionally resists this kind of control.

The flatter terrain and longer cobbled sectors offer fewer opportunities to force the repeated accelerations that have defined Pogacar’s recent wins. In theory, it brings more riders into contention. In practice, though, Flanders has already shown how difficult it is to rely on theory alone.

For Naesen and the rest of the peloton, the challenge is no longer just finding a way to beat Pogacar. It is working out whether that way still exists at all.