Former pros bored with Tadej Pogacar's dominance: "I'm sick of always having the same guy win"
CyclingSaturday, 03 May 2025 at 09:44
Speaking to EFE before the Titant Desert in Morocco, the riders Luis Angel Maté (Cofidis, Euskaltel) and Andrey Amador (Movistar, INEOS, EF) have criticized the extreme professionalisation of cycling today, that, according to them, makes everything more predictable and boring.
Maté, who hung up his bike after the Vuelta a España in 2024, directly mentioned the name of Tadej Pogacar to make clear his opinion on the lack of excitement in the races because the watts riders produce in training make it clear who is going to win a given race:
"I'm sick of running with Pogacar and having the same guy win every time. You see the watts they move and you know the result. Seeing the watts each one moves, you know who's going to win."
He then goes further by talking about cycling as a 'mechanized activity that moves it away from its romantic origins of the Coppi and Bartali era:
"A mechanized activity, where everything is technical, which allows exhibitions like those of Pogacar and Van der Poel. These demonstrations take cycling away from its origins. It used to be the romantic sport of Coppi and Bartali, close to the people.
"Cycling is the sport of the people and we cannot move away from it. With so much tech and control, we have lost contact with the people."
He says that now that he is racing other types of events, he is falling in love with cycling again because he doesn't have to keep an eye on the watts, "Now I get together with different people, with another cycling, cycling is not just watts, and I want to recover the origins of cycling with people who have the same concerns. I always say that cycling will change the world."
Andrey Amador, for his part, also makes it clear that he does not like the current state of cycling, from which he retired a few months ago for reasons that he explains clearly below.
"Cycling is becoming too professionalized and the cyclist is distancing himself from the public. Before I felt like a machine, I always did the same thing, I didn't enjoy cycling, the fact of being able to stop for a coffee..."
Do you agree with the two former pros? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, and the poll:
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- Pog 2025 is supposedly better than Pog 24 who was already better than Pog 23 and all previous Pogs, Evenepoel is still a youngster but looking at Pog at his age, I doubt you can say they’re not closely matched. Affini had wind assistance, no mention of KV?Mistermaumau10-07-2025
- One the one hand yes, on the other, TT is more of a measure of individual performance than positioning during hours of being pulled. In a tdf where each rider is alone all the way, it’d be interesting to see how the GC would look.Mistermaumau10-07-2025
- But very strong and convinced it need only be applied to othersMistermaumau10-07-2025
- Sorry, I pressed send by mistake. I agree with that Tadej has usually been more playful, but when he's obviously having a tough time, everyone can see it, he seems to hold back from crying.Hill3310-07-2025
- Vauquelin made him look like an old man when he passed him.Renz10-07-2025
- It seems too ingrained that he's in a tough sport and mustn't cry.Hill3310-07-2025
- Does he or his team work on his TT to the extent of the top teams?abstractengineer10-07-2025
- Yes, it's likely there was tension with his wife too, which would have aggravated the emotional destabilization. Regarding Tadej, I was referring to the sporting aspect. I never saw him cry, not even when he won something or when he brutally lost the Tour de France 2023. He takes the sport more playfully.
maria2024202410-07-2025 - The 2 causes you mention are certainly possible. A couple of things sprang to mind as I read them, though. One is that Jonas's wife might expect him to support her right to speak out, so she may be more upset than his team. The other is that Tadej has come close to crying at various times, but the English-language media doesn't seem to care. Like when he looked frazzled in the first stages of the Tour last year, and the fact that his grandfather had just died and he got Covid while going home for the funeral never occurred to them as contributing to this.Hill3310-07-2025
- IMO, 2 causes: 1- His wife's media scandal. Jonas is very emotional, he probably didn't sleep well and the atmosphere with his colleagues must have become strained. Another big difference with Tadej. Has anyone ever seen Tadej cry? emotionally is a rock. 2- his efforts to keep up with the two best Classics riders (Tadej and Mathieu). Becoming unnatural in this mode is an effort that comes at a price.maria2024202410-07-2025