European cycling has witnessed a new exhibition of Tadej Pogacar. The Slovenian once again left the peloton without a response at the 2025 European Championships. On the demanding course in the French region of Ardèche, Pogacar launched with 75 kilometers to go and that was the last time his rivals saw his bib numbers.
A performance reminiscent of his sweep at the World Championships week earlier reignited the debate about his overwhelming superiority. Journalist and analyst Thijs Zonneveld, in his podcast In de Waaier, spared no praise in describing what many already consider an era dominated by the Slovenian prodigy.
"Maybe cycling has a problem," he dares to say, although he qualifies, "Not because Pogacar is doing anything wrong, quite the contrary. What he is doing is so exceptional that it can go on for years." Zonneveld points out that the Slovenian's versatility is almost unprecedented in modern cycling history.
"He wins in grand tours, classics, World Championships, and now also the European. If it weren't for Van der Poel, he would have won literally everything this season," he notes. Pogacar's superiority seems to be unwavering.
In a sport where historically specialists dominated certain disciplines - the climbers in the mountains, the sprinters on the flat - he is competitive (and dominant) in each of these terrains. "He's not the best at any one thing, but he's in the top three in everything," claims Zonneveld with a statement that seems to be rather underplaying Pogacar's greatness.
Tadej Pogacar successfully defended his world champion title in Rwanda
Even his supposed "weakness," Paris-Roubaix, is relative. "There he faces riders who weigh 15 kilos more than him, which complicates it. But even that is not a real weakness. It's hardly noticeable," says the analyst.
What really makes the difference is the impressive physiological basis on which Pogacar builds his performances. "In competitions like that in Rwanda, he barely came close to his threshold, while the others finished exhausted. That control allows him to stay fresh and dominate without wearing himself out," explains Zonneveld.
Superhuman-level training
Pogacar himself revealed in a previous interview how he trains at paces that, for most, would amount to extreme efforts. Then it's not as shocking that a 2-hour solo slightly above his threshold is not a problem.
"He does long-distance rides at 4.5 to 5 watts per kilogram, which he doesn't consider intense training. He can maintain that pace for hours, even a whole day," Zonneveld relates. "While others are at the limit, he hardly seems to push himself. That's why he can attack with 75 kilometers to go and maintain the lead with apparent ease."
Beyond simple fitness, Zonneveld considers Pogacar to be "on another level." "We are no longer talking about a one-off performance peak, as is often the case with other riders. His consistency, his ability to regulate and his tactical mastery are a sign that he has redefined the threshold of high performance in this sport."
Pogacar's season is slowly coming to an end with 18 victories within 48 race days at the moment - an impressive 37.5% win-rate. Pogacar will have the opportunity to round off his season record at 20 with two more competitions this week; the Tre Valli Varesine on Tuesday and finally Il Lombardia on Saturday. There, the world champion can aim for a fifth consecutive title.
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Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- I think that they're not really used to dealing with this type of incident in a cyclocross race, and the situation has been magnified because it was a race for a championship title. It's very unfortunate that the race had to be decided in this way.
santiagobenites07-11-2026 - Seriously why do they keep doing stupid things like this. Its one thing to relegate when the placings are minor, when the action is blatant. But when it is ambiguous, why dont they at least take advice from some higher up to avoid embarrassing themselves. This is similar to the Halland goal when his teammate was clearly offside and interfered in play and VAR gave them the goal. if you dont have evidence you cannot convict. Even for doping they have these rulesabstractengineer07-11-2026
- So all those who went to watch, including all from abroad, waled there, spent nothing? Most places hosting events of the sort manage to make it worthwhile. If it was so obviously fruitless, don’t you think by now they’d have run out of hosting candidates? Why do you think the Tour can command such high prices for departure and arrival locations? If it didn’t bring anything locally they’d have to pay to get authorisation to use cities.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- What a travesty ! That little deviation did nothing to impede Brand !frieders307-11-2026
- I also wanne beat Pogacar in the tour but it aint gonne happen. Jonas unfortunately getting dropped by del toro and seixas several times this TDF and jonas team is very weak and joinas on way down, it aint happening thats clear. its also clear it only happened cause Pogacar was hurt and had a broken wrist that time everytime both full strenght its not close we just have to be honest about it :/miguel07-11-2026
- They do this but literally let cars on courses to run over riders.mij07-11-2026
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