Lance Armstrong: "Tadej Pogacar again proved that it's not that he's the best cyclist of this generation, but that he's probably one of the best in history"

In the past Lance Armstrong has criticized the tactics of UAE and Tadej Pogacar, but after yesterday's exhibition of the Slovenian in the Strade Bianche winning solo despite suffering a hard crash, he has surrendered and for the first time puts him in the Olympus of the gods of cycling history.

"This I know may sound like every other show we've done in the past, but it's not. Beyond some drama, Tadej Pogacar again proved that it's not that he's the best cyclist of this generation, but that he's probably one of the best in history," he commented on his podcast The Move analyzing the Italian classic. "He was able to overcome the crash, finish in front, prove that he's the best, this guy is a beast."

The Texan declared himself, on the other hand, completely in love with the Strade and recommended the Tuscan area as one of the best in the world to enjoy cyclotourism: "It's a race that's always a lot of fun to watch. It's a very special race. If someone wants to enjoy a few days cycling with little traffic this is one of the 5 best places in the world to do it".

Returning to the race, his co-host and former teammate George Hincapie spoke of its extreme toughness: "It's a crazy race. The top 10 have come in one at a time, which definitely shows how incredibly tough the race is."

"There are 4,000 meters of elevation gain and it's not that there are long climbs, they are all short, but if you look at the profile nothing is flat, it's a constant up and down," Armstrong confirmed about the hardness of the race.

Johan Bruyneel, Armstrong's former sports director at US Postal, explained perfectly the change in the Strade Bianche in recent years: "Over the years they have made the race much harder, Fabian Cancellara won it 3 times in the first editions and I don't think he could win today with 4,000 meters of elevation gain, they have been adding more climbs and more sterrato sectors, you have to be a great climber to win, if we look at the top 5 with Pogacar, Pidcock, Wellens, Healy and Bilbao, they are all climbers, if you are more classicist you can't win."

HIncapie talked about Tadej's incredible attack: "When he attacked with almost 80 kilometers to go he didn't even look back to ask Pidcock for help, for 4 or 5 km he pulled without looking back and stayed in the lead. He is a guy without fear and with a lot of confidence".

Lance spoke of UAE's superiority: "It wasn't the same performance as last year, and we spectators appreciate that, and yet it was still dominant, also from their team. 3 or 4 guys pulling at the front of a reduced peloton with a rider like Tim Wellens there speaks of UAE's huge dominance, a great demonstration."

Bruyneel to this day continues to be amazed by the UAE team and how they ride: "I'm amazed at the confidence they have, they just go to the head of the race, they know exactly how much power they can put out for a given time and when Isaac del Toro was pulling Pogacar looked back knowing that when Wellens made the last effort the peloton was going to be minimal and he was going to be able to attack."

"I'm really impressed with Pogacar, and even a little envious with how nice it is to be young," Armstrong continued before Hincapie delivered the punch line: "For all of us who have had crashes like that and ended up in a ditch with a mangled bike, the normal thing is to get back in the peloton and he went ahead and caught Pidcock, it was an incredible performance.