I think he could have beaten them all": Kristoff favors Van der Poel over Cancellara and Boonen in a hypothetical clash

Alexander Kristoff spent close to two decades at the highest level. Besides the invaluable experience, that also offers the 37-year-old Norwegian unique perspective on how would the previous generation of Classics stars such Fabian Cancellara and Tom Boonen compare to the nowadays overlords, namely Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar.

Fabian 'Spartacus' Cancellara won both Paris-Roubaix and Tour of Flanders three times, Boonen one-upped him at Roubaix. Neither of them ever faced off against the 30-year-old Dutchman who already equalled Cancellara's record and is well on the way to catch up to the Belgian this year. But could he top the other two, had they clashed heads in the same era?

"That's a difficult comparison," says Kristoff on a Domestique podcast. "But I think Van der Poel would be hard to beat. I think he could have beaten them all," the 2015 Tour of Flanders champion shares his strong opinion of Van der Poel.

He continues: "I have no idea if we've seen his peak yet. When he has a top day, he's simply incredible. Even Pogacar struggles against him then. Well, then you have to be very good..."

And even though Kristoff retired from racing last winter, he's looking forward to watching the two world-class athletes clash against each other again this spring. Sitting in his sofa and watching TV should be far less exhausting than trying to hold their wheel on Oude Kwaremont, he points out:

"And especially not being part of the race anymore, and trying to follow them. I think it'll be a lot more fun on television."

There was no doubt that Tadej Pogacar was on a trajectory to become a GC star when he podiumed the 2019 Vuelta a Espana on his Grand Tour debut at the age of 20.

"I didn't expect him to win the Tour so quickly, but we immediately saw how good he was at such a young age. He destroyed every climber from UAE, like Formolo and Majka. They had no chance to train."

However not even his then teammate Alexander Kristoff foresaw he'd win the Tour de France just a year later. And that he would do so in a rather fascinating fashion.

"We knew he was a huge talent who could win the Tour in the future, but in 2020… I didn't expect that. The goal was top five. On the rest day, the goal went to third place, but later the goal became to win. He did it. It was great to be part of that."

And the Slovenian didn't stop at just winning Grand Tours. He's also collecting Monuments and World titles like they're any other races. And he can timetrial as well. You would hardly find a more complete cyclist. "It's impressive. He's the best climber, the best classics rider, he can time trial... He's an all-arounder, but you can't really call him that. He's the best at almost everything. Except sprinting, but secretly he's pretty good at that too," Kristoff laughs.