"There's no doubt he's at Merckxian levels at this point" - G.O.A.T. debate reignited after Tadej Pogacar's legendary performance at Strade Bianche 2025
CyclingSaturday, 08 March 2025 at 17:54
Tadej Pogacar seemingly cannot be stopped. Even what looked like a truly brutal crash at 50km to go during Strade Bianche 2025 barely registered on the all-conquering Slovenian as he soared to a record-equalling 3rd win on the Tuscan gravel roads. For a while now Pogacar has been considered an all-time great and with this latest exhibition, the debate around himself and Eddy Merckx has been raised once again.
Understandably, in the immediate aftermath of Pogacar's incredible comeback win on Saturday afternoon. Ex-pro and former Eurosport pundit Daniel Lloyd was glowing in his post-race recap. "Tadej Pogačar has now won 10 of the last 11 races he started," noted the Brit on X (Twitter), reeling off the list of victories recently added to the generation-defining palmares that the UAE Team Emirates - XRG leader is quickly building. "There's no doubt he's at Merckxian levels at this point."
On the day, Lloyd's compatriot, Tom Pidcock finished runner-up. Afterwards, the Brit also had to simply doth his cap to Pogacar. "I wanted to try and win, but I think I did a good performance let's be honest. I came pretty close," Pidcock assessed in his post-race interview. "I don't think anyone else has followed Tadej yet this year! Okay, he's only done one race but also last year and the Tour de France. So yeah, I'm happy. That's a good step. But of course, in the end he still attacked and rode off. So it's bittersweet."
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Okay, nevermind. 🇸🇮 Pogacar is gone, what a man … 🥵#StradeBianche pic.twitter.com/zh4qYJ4GsL
— Domestique (@Domestique___) March 8, 2025
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- I'm sure in the Giro you will be brilliant... (maybe fight for GC? this Giro is soft). I can't wait! I will go to watch and cheer for you!
maria2024202419-04-2025 - C’mon, she « married » an infidel, the hijab is just the missing cherry on their fatwa cake ;-)Mistermaumau19-04-2025
- Its not the innovations. The top speed is decided by the top riders. MVDP, Pogi, Pedersen all started the hostilities on the Arenberg but it also ended there. In the past the Arenberg was just the start for the first selection and with attrition it kept reducing till the finaleabstractengineer19-04-2025
- She does not wear the Hijab. So doubt they will be very welcomed by the orthodox communityabstractengineer19-04-2025
- I would say that most people would rather see an exciting or strategic race than a boring one with record average speed. Proof of this is that people have rarely complained about a past race being slow but often that it was boring. Fast speeds are often the result of wind direction though it may be true that headwinds or tailwinds influence the way a race is run and on average one may result in more interesting outcomes than the other. Obviously a high speed can become a talking point but that’s about it. I doubt any spectator could tell the difference between riders averaging 43 or 45km/h as they go past so if it weren’t for the data being presented (often wrong anyway like the gaps between different riders) on screen, no-one would know or even try to guess.Mistermaumau19-04-2025
- Agree with the first part totally, not the second. It may not be a perfect solution or needed for everyone but what’s wrong with protecting non fully developed kids? It starts when they’re born when you instinctively know you shouldn’t try to make them stand or put them in push-up positions as they’re not ready strength, bone shape or -resistance wise (amongst many things). You don’t send small kids with huge backpacks full of books to school and you don’t expect teens to lumber around building sites chucking cement sacks. There were good reasons for this and the gearing issue was a result of this, especially considering the frail stature of cyclists in general. HOWEVER, the rule has been abandoned as being unnecessary. The original idea wasn’t bad for kids in general but what it overlooked was that by the time kids actually reach the level to enter junior race level and compete seriously, they’ve done enough training to strengthen their mechanisms and over enough time for bone composition to adapt to new loads so they are unlikely to get injured from excessive loads as no-one can push more than a certain human power and they’ve worked their way close to that already. If you think it was overkill, fine but reflect on this, I trained for and had done several marathons and one day decided to enter the first edition of our local one. Despite being used to and perfectly prepared, I was in pain for weeks after and a year later the local media was full of reports of an explosion or injury related visits to doctors post-race by participants. What nobody realised in advance was that the course was very demanding on joints as much of it was in the city centre with short straights and sharp corners with pavements to mount so you were constantly also stepping up and down and leaning hard, just to show how sensitive you can be to new solicitation on the body.Mistermaumau19-04-2025
- Let us know when he beats a quality field of sprinters!frieders319-04-2025
- Agreed. What is the point of this? The pros should just start a new league and break away from the UCI. Let it sinkmij19-04-2025
- Who even cares? It’s the goal of a bike race to ride as fast as possible? And that’s what we want to see?? This is maybe the dumbest article ever.mij19-04-2025
- This is one of the worst ideas I've ever heard. It's an advantage to the person who does his best power at the highest RPM. This rule was dumb in junior races and would be dumb at the pro level.acem8219-04-2025