"Such a big humiliation" - Dutch pundit on Pogacar defeat against Remco Evenepoel

Remco Evenepoel and Tadej Pogacar are the two biggest stars at this year's World Championships and were the main favourites for both elite men's time-trial and road race, but the first face-off was a slaughter. Thijs Zonneveld

"What a disappointing list of participants. If you watched that time trial, it was pointless. The first half of the time trial... I understand the background, and it's a sport that requires a lot of money, knowledge, and facilities. But for an hour, I thought, ‘What on earth was I watching?'," Zonneveld put it bluntly on the In de Waaier podcast. But the attention soon turned to the 'elephant in the room'.

“Holy shit, he was so good. It must have hurt. Evenepoel started as if he were on a rocket. And then you start to think: suppose he keeps this up until the end, then he'll come very close to Pogacar. But for it to actually happen, the fact that Tadej Pogacar is overtaken by a rider who started 2.30 behind him...”

It was staggering, and an unseen scenario in the world of cycling. Evenepoel's perfect performance and the Slovenian's sub-par ride led to an overtake, despite the very large starting gaps between the riders. “How often has Pogacar been beaten like this? It's such a big blow, such a big humiliation, that it's iconic".

But could that be easily explained? “The difference is that Pogacar has been busy all year, riding from one big goal to another since the beginning of March. He was great in the spring classics and the Tour, but then he ran out of steam a bit. Evenepoel started the season with a lot of problems, didn't do well in the Tour, and dropped out. His peak comes later in the season.”

However at the GP de Montréal Pogacar looked his best self, comfortably dropping the competition and aiding Brandon McNulty to the victory in Canada. Potentially the lack of an altitude camp and focus in preparation is what made the difference between the two, also with travel factor possibly coming into play.

"I understand that those laps in Canada are really useful; they are World Championship-like courses. I understand that he wanted to ride two more races, but you do end up with double jet lag. I really wonder to what extent those races are the ideal preparation," the Dutchman argues.

But in the road race things may change. “I do think he will be in better physical shape on Sunday than he is today. And I think he's right that missing that time trial block has had an impact. But even if he had done it, if he hadn't been ill and had been in top form today, he still wouldn't have beaten Evenepoel.”

However this defeat certainly opens up a lot of room to believe that Pogacar may not be unbeatable in his attempt to renew the world title. "He's not that good; he's not at his best. But he's still Pogacar, and he can still win the race, break away solo in the final laps, and ride to victory. But he's not at his best, and you could see that in Canada too."