“What I was doing for 10 minutes, Tadej is doing for more than 40 now” – Chris Froome says Pogacar has moved the goalposts in Grand Tour cycling
CyclingWednesday, 29 July 2026 at 19:00
Chris Froome believes the power that carried him to four Tour de France victories would no longer be enough to put him among the leading contenders against Tadej Pogacar.
The seven-time Grand Tour winner was asked by Adam Blythe how his best numbers compared with those now being produced at the top of the sport. Froome did not offer an exact watts-per-kilo figure, but his answer made the scale of the difference clear. “What I was doing for roughly 10 minutes, Tadej is probably doing for more than 40 minutes now,” Froome said on Blythe’s Instagram channel. “That is just nuts when you put it into perspective.”
Pogacar’s Alpe d’Huez exhibition offered the clearest example during the 2026 Tour. The Slovenian began the final climb more than three minutes behind the leading riders, attacked almost immediately and caught Lenny Martinez and Richard Carapaz inside the final two kilometres.
His recorded climbing time of 35:27 was more than a minute quicker than Marco Pantani’s previous benchmark. Remco Evenepoel, who finished second overall in Paris, crossed the line 2:29 behind him.
Froome’s peak numbers now only “good for a top 20”
Froome won the Tour in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017, before adding the Giro d’Italia in 2018 to the two Vuelta a Espana titles already on his record.
Asked how he might have performed with the equipment, training and preparation available to today’s peloton, Froome found the comparison increasingly difficult to make. “It has all changed so much,” he said. “It is so hard to say because the goalposts have moved so much.”
Froome then went beyond his 10-minute comparison with Pogacar and suggested that the numbers from his own Tour-winning years would no longer place him anywhere near the yellow jersey battle.
“The power numbers I was putting out probably seven or eight years ago, those numbers would probably only be good enough for a top-20 finish now,” he said. “That is just from watching and looking at the times.”
Pogacar had already taken control of the Tour long before Alpe d’Huez. He won five stages across the three weeks, including major mountain victories after attacks on the Col du Tourmalet and at Le Lioran, before finishing 6:26 ahead of Evenepoel in Paris.
His Alpe d’Huez ride came with the yellow jersey already secure barring disaster. Rather than defend his advantage, Pogacar attacked from the opening slopes, passed the remnants of the breakaway and delivered the fastest recorded ascent of the climb.
Froome had already described that performance as “nothing short of remarkable”, adding that Pogacar had “destroyed everyone”.
Chris Froome at stage 4 of the 2026 Tour de France
“Thank God I’m not there”
The transformation in Grand Tour racing has not left Froome wishing he could return to his peak years.
Asked by Blythe whether it felt better to be watching from outside the race, the Briton replied: “It feels amazing. I don’t miss it for a second. I’m so grateful for my career, but at the same time, looking at it, I’m just like: thank God I’m not there.”
Pogacar ended the 2026 Tour with five stage victories and joined Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain as a five-time winner. Froome believes the numbers that delivered four yellow jerseys during his own career would now leave him fighting merely to enter the top 20.
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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