"I don't know if disillusionment is the right word" - Pogacar's dominance explained by two WorldTour riders in grim assessment

Sam Oomen and Koen Bouwman have offered a grim assessment of the peloton's level compared to Tadej Pogacar. After the Slovenian dominated the Tour de Suisse, taking a commanding general classification victory and two stage wins, he prepares to start the Tour de France in search of a fifth crown.

But for the rest, training hard and arriving at Suisse for a WorldTour test of the legs, were left disappointed as Pogacar attacked with 72 kilometers remaining in the first stage. He left everyone in his wake as he put minutes into the field, effectively ending the GC competition before it started.

For Lidl-Trek's Sam Oomen, he described coming across Pogacar as stepping in to a boxing ring - with the Slovenian ready to unload several blows to the competition.

"I trained hard, trained for the heat, with the idea that I would be in reasonably good shape at the start of the race," Oomen said on the 'In het Peloton' podcast. "In the GP Gippingen, the prelude to the Tour of Switzerland, I was in the firing line. But in the Tour of Switzerland, I stepped into a boxing ring and took some blows."

'Disillusionment' comes to mind for the 30-year-old Dutch rider, who describes Pogacar's strength as near incomprehensible for some in the peloton. He claimed that most riders had never experienced anything like his opening stage solo win at the Tour de Suisse.

"One team, and especially one guy, stands so far above the rest that you can't really wrap your head around how hard he actually cycles, even though you do everything you can for it yourself. I don't know if disillusionment is the right word, but that is the first word that comes to mind."

He added: "On day one, I heard it a lot, that many guys were saying to each other: 'I’ve never experienced anything like this."

Bouwman uses an analogy to put into perspective the difference in level. First, describing a scene of him arriving at a regional club's evening race. While amateur riders can ride fast and keep pace for a period of time, Bouwman knows that he can step it up a gear and leave them behind.

Bouwman explains: "Every regional club has a summer evening race. We have one at my place in Doetinchem too, and there I race against amateurs who are landscapers, who lay tiles and haul trees from seven in the morning until five in the evening.

"By then, I’ve usually already ridden for three or four hours myself, but you can play around with that a bit. They ride incredibly fast, but if you want to, you can drop them."

Bouwman then likens the difference between him and those amateurs as similar to Pogacar and the rest of the WorldTour peloton.

He added: "I really think the difference between the amateurs and me is the same difference as the difference between Pogacar and me."