"He's just riding his bike at a totally different level" - Tadej Pogacar gets nothing but praise from former pros Jens Voigt and Bobby Julich

Tadej Pogacar has achieved history this year with a season unlike anything else in modern cycling. Two Grand Tour victories with 12 stage wins collected amongst them, the World Championships road race, two monument victories and still much more; the UAE Team Emirates rider has done what was believed to be unthinkable. He is praised by two riders who have been part of the same peloton.

"Let's just say cycling changes at the drop of a hat. You could have a season like he had this year, and next year not nearly as good. Hopefully he will be healthy, hopefully he will not have any crashes, but there is no way at this moment to keep him from winning at least a quarter of the race he's entering," Bobby Julich said in the Odd Tandem podcast. "He's just riding his bike at a totally different level. Its going to be very interesting but I'm sure he's not going to have any issues with the curse of the rainbow jersey next year".

The rainbow jersey curse could in theory have been thrown out the window already, taking into consideration the Slovenian absolutely dominated the competition in both races he's taken part in with his new jersey. Pogacar ended the 2024 season the same way he started it, with a victory in Italy carrying minutes over the competition. Next year we do not know whether he is able to repeat such extreme success but surely he will not have the pressure to do it, whilst his main goals will likely lie in the Milano-Sanremo/Tour of Flanders double; Tour de France and World Championships again which will take place in a hilly course in Kigali.

"Definitely no curse of the rainbow jersey for him, and I'm a big fan of Tadej Pogacar," Jens Voigt agrees. "But after a year like this where everything did fall in line for him, he achieved history make the 'Grand Slam' of cycling with the Giro, Tour and the Worlds. It would be almost impossible to repeat it, have another 25 wins like that," the former German pro argues. However he does not doubt that Pogacar is likely to continue being a dominant figure in the sport. "He wins anything between 10 and 15 races for sure, but again 25 - and I wish the best for him - but to have another season like that would be almost unheard of. But I'm sure he will be spectacular, he will great, and easily win 10 to 15 races next year".