Tadej Pogacar tackles doping questions head on: "Maybe in a few generations, people will forget about the past, about Armstrong and these guys"

Tadej Pogacar has won Strade Bianche, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and World Championships among other races this year to have what is likely the most successful season a professional rider has ever had. Doping questions, obviously, arise in a sport that has in the past been marked from it. The Slovenian has talked about this topic ahead of Il Lombardia.

"There are always people who are jealous and suspicious and there's nothing I can do about it," Pogacar said in a pre-race press conference. "Cycling is a sport where in the past, people were doing everything they could to their bodies, to be better, unknowing what it does to your health, and they were risking their life". Whilst in the team hotel the expectations were mostly regarding his words about tomorrow's monument, where he can his fourth consecutive edition, the topic of doping and sports dominance took over.

"A lot of guys that you don't even know, not even the winners, are probably now sick or have some other health problems or mental problems because of what they were doing to their bodies in the past 20 or 30 years. In my honest opinion, my humble opinion. I think cycling suffered a lot from those years. There was no trust and it was up to us the cyclists to regain the trust," the rainbow jersey argues. "But there's nothing we can do. We just race our own race, and we hope that people will start to believe us". 

The Tour de France performances specially, mainly on the Plateau de Beille stage, saw the number of doping accusations increase significantly due to the massive power outputs that we're seeing in modern cycling, which have grown exponentially over the past few years. "You need to have a winner and always a winner will get the most eyes on him that he's a cheater. Maybe in a few generations, people will forget about the past, about Armstrong and these guys, that were doing what they were doing, and maybe they will move on".

After his historical performance in Zurich, attacking with over 100 kilometers to go and then spending over 50 kilometers by himself, it has sealed the deal when it comes to the question of whether this was the best ever season for a pro rider. Over 20 World Tour wins in total, and at the Giro dell'Emilia his dominance only proved to be even more clear as he soloed away with ease on the first climb of San Luca. Ending the season this Saturday, he is the ultimate favourite to add another prestigious title to his palmarès.

But he argues that his domination is something that in the big picture, makes sense. "You see domination everywhere. You see domination in the business world, you see domination in tennis, in golf, in the NBA, in football. In any other sport, you see domination from teams and from individual athletes," the Slovenian argues. !I think there's always domination for a few years, a maximum of a few years and then at some point, a new talent comes along, a new hungrier guy, a new and better team. There's a generation change and there will be someone else dominating. It's like that in life."

"From my personal experience, I think cycling is one of the best sports where people are looking to be more healthy and not more unhealthy, just for the performance. We now realise that cycling is a really dangerous sport. Like with an accident with your heart, you cannot push it over the limit, you need to stay healthy. And if you want to risk your health for a 10-year career, it's a waste of your life and it can be stupid".