"The ones he is, it’s often a waste of time" - Iván Romeo honest about avoiding competition with Tadej Pogacar

Iván Romeo is no prospect: he is a reality who has already started winning. His stage win and overall at the Vuelta a Andalucía confirmed what the peloton already knew: Spanish cycling has a complete rider, a world-class time trialist, and a competitor with insatiable hunger.

On COPE’s El Partidazo mic, the rider from Valladolid offered more than headlines. He showed character. The season has barely begun and Romeo has already thrown his arms aloft. After Juan Ayuso’s win in the Algarve, the spotlight also swung to Movistar Team’s youngster, who at 22, blends ambition with a mindset that captures attention quite easily.

“Starting the year on the right foot, as you say,” he sums up calmly, still digesting the impact of a 'pretty intense' week in Andalucía. He now lives in Andorra, though the cold, he says, is still a Valladolid trademark.

Some riders race on the bike. Others, like Romeo, live on the bike. His is a vocation. “If they gave me two weeks’ holiday, I’d go ride with my mates, listen to music, and I get paid for that. It’s beautiful, really.”

It’s not a canned line, but a statement of principles. Romeo speaks of cycling as a way of life: “I think it’s a very hard sport, but in terms of quality of life I’d say it’s very good.” Do you enjoy racing? The answer is as honest as it is revealing: “In a race yes, it depends how it’s going, but it’s more complicated. And when things go well I’d say sometimes you enjoy them even less, because you’re very stressed.”

He stands 1.93m and is a former under-23 world time trial champion. And though he shuns grand comparisons, the template inevitably recalls Miguel Induráin. “If I manage to do a tenth of what Miguel did, I think that would be a very good career,” he says with humility.

His idol, however, was always Alejandro Valverde: “My idol has always been 'Bala', even if he has nothing to do with me as a rider.” Romeo knows what he is and what he isn’t. He knows pure climbing is not his natural terrain, but he doesn’t hide: “You can go well uphill. You can’t go like the very best, that for now seems very difficult.”

The question is inevitable: are we looking at a future Grand Tour winner, or a dominator of classics and week-long races?

His reply shows a clarity beyond his years. “Most likely week-long races and classics. I’d like to say the other, but I think that would be lying. I’d have to improve a lot to be able to contest Grand Tours.”

“The level has changed massively and it’s very hard.” When asked about the dream race, he doesn’t hesitate: “An elite world championship is the biggest thing there is. It has a different aura. And the jersey is the most beautiful in sport.”

Those who have seen him race know Romeo doesn’t hedge. He attacks. He makes mistakes. He cries if needed. But he never hides. He admits it himself: “That’s how I am. For better and for worse. I set goals that are often out of reach, but I also know how to shake off that bad feeling as quickly as possible.”

He doesn’t believe in changing his nature. And in cycling that’s increasingly calibrated to the millimetre, that is competitive gold.

To speak about cycling’s present is to speak about Tadej Pogacar. And Romeo doesn’t dodge the elephant in the room.

“The races he’s in are something hard to explain. You know it’s going to be practically impossible. He controls everything and he also has the best team. When he wants, he’s going to. Sometimes you try to pick races he’s not doing because in the ones he is, it’s often a waste of time.”

Modern cycling is nutrition, data, and 24-hour control. Romeo lays it out naturally: “We’re pretty much robots during the season.” An app to log every meal, constant weight monitoring, meticulous planning... But there’s room for pleasure too: “Two or three days a week some treat slips in. Usually a pastry," describing how he usually burns 5,000 calories a day in heavy weeks.