"He makes everyone else look so amateur" - Experts stunned by latest Tour de France exhibition of Tadej Pogacar

Tadej Pogacar proved to the world he is head and shoulders above all his Tour de France rivals on stage 12, dominating the first high mountain top finish and putting more than two minutes into his long-time rival Jonas Vingegaard on Hautacam. It's fair to say, experts are impressed.

"He's just unbelievable. We're running out of things to say about him," said TNT Sports cycling pundit and former British national champion Adam Blythe on The Breakaway post-stage 12. "He's just on another planet. I know it sounds disrespectful, but he makes everyone else look so amateur. He's just an absolute monster on a bike, and I don't know who is going to beat him."

"Even a bad day on Tadej’s terms is still going to be so difficult to beat him. He is just on another level of cycling," adds Blythe, somewhat in disbelief. "He’s completed cycling now. He’s going to invent a 'new cycling' and complete that as well."

The legendary Sean Kelly was also in the studio, and despite the Irishman having seen a lot over the course of his time in the sport, the four-time Green Jersey winner insists he's never seen anything quite like Tadej Pogacar. "I’ve never seen such a dominant ride against his main rival," said Kelly. "I was expecting a much bigger battle, a closer fought one, in the first big test in the Tour this year. We were talking about who would come out with the strongest hand at the end of the day and Pogacar has taken a big lead that will be difficult to recover."

So is that it now for the Maillot Jaune fight? Is Tadej Pogacar's 4th Tour de France victory already wrapped up barring a crash?

"There is a long way to go, a lot of big mountain stages, but it will be a big uphill battle for the man challenging Tadej Pogacar," analyses Kelly. "Vingegaard has a real difficult one in his hands now. This morning, I thought it would be a close battle but it turns out Pogacar dominated. He [Vingegaard] really suffered compared to Pogacar who looked so much more at ease. This is a really bad day for Vingegaard. He must just continue on in this race but it will be a big one to ask him to come back from here."