"These athletes do not come around very often" - Experts give lavish praise to 'absolute phenomenon' Tadej Pogacar
Cycling
Tadej Pogacar has continued his complete dominance of 2024's Grand Tours at the Tour de France. After winning the Giro d'Italia by nearly ten minutes, the UAE Team Emirates leader is now over five minutes ahead of main rival Jonas Vingegaard with two stages to go in France.
On stage 19, the Slovenian put the exclamation mark on his Tour de France with a 4th stage win of the race and utterly dominating the likes of Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel. "We are witnessing something very special here. These athletes do not come around very often and we have to enjoy it," Eurosport expert Dani Rowe says on the channel's coverage of the Grand Tour. "Team Visma | Lease a Bike did everything they could, it was clear that Jonas did not have the legs, he didn't try on La [Cime de la] Bonette, he couldn't follow on that attack of Pogacar. This man is in a league of his own."
With his four stage wins this Tour de France taking his overall tally to 15 at cycling's most iconic race, Mark Cavendish's newly broken record may soon be at threat by Pogacar. Also, with his six stage wins from the Giro d'Italia earlier this year added, the 25-year-old now has an incredible 10 Grand Tour stage wins already this calendar year, in the process breaking Eddy Merckx record of the most days spent in a Grand Tour leader's jersey in one year.
"It [10 wins] is enough to make about 8, 10 or 12 careers, what he's won this season alone," Australian sprinting legend and 24-time Grand Tour stage winner in his own right, Robbie McEwen on Eurosport's The Breakaway. "You hear of riders that win one Tour de France stage in their career and [say] 'I made it'. That makes a career, and he just does it time after time after time. He is an absolute phenomenon."
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- lol yeahmij08-11-2026
- I know, their headlines can be so misleading. Pidcock had a great season with 5 wins. and some solid 2nds. no reason to take away from that with a fake headline.mij08-11-2026
- You can clearly see the the posture change from slightly sitting to again out of the saddle while changing of gears in the video of the sprintabstractengineer08-11-2026
- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- 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
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The moment of Pogacar's attack on Isola 2000. 🇸🇮🧨 Less violent this time, "only" 31 km/h according to Strava. From here to the top he rode the last 9,6 km@6,5% at an average speed of 27 km/h, gaining more than 3 minutes on Jorgenson! #TDF2024
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