"You can sense a resignation creeping into the peloton” – Analysts claim Tadej Pogacar’s dominance has crushed morale in the WorldTour

Tadej Pogacar’s historic 2025 season has left much of the peloton in a state of collective despair — at least that’s the view of Het Nieuwsblad analysts Guy Van den Langenbergh and Jan-Pieter De Vlieger, who believe the Slovenian’s relentless dominance is starting to suffocate competition at the very top of men’s professional cycling.

Speaking on the Café Koers podcast, Van den Langenbergh described a sense of hopelessness spreading through the bunch, suggesting that even before the final Monument of the year, Il Lombardia, Pogacar’s rivals had all but conceded defeat.

“You can sense a kind of resignation creeping into the peloton,” he said. “You ask riders beforehand how they’re going to approach the race — in other words, what their plan is to beat Pogacar — and they just laugh or shrug their shoulders. Everyone seems to have accepted his dominance.”

Few could argue that Pogacar has operated on a different level throughout 2025. The UAE Team Emirates – XRG leader not only added three Monuments — Flanders, Liege–Bastogne–Liege, and Il Lombardia — to his glittering palmarès, but also claimed his fourth Tour de France title, further cementing his status as the defining rider of his generation.

The Slovenian’s combination of consistency, tactical intelligence and sheer explosiveness has rendered even the sport’s biggest teams powerless. Where once his attacks were seen as bold or unpredictable, now they carry an air of inevitability.

Van den Langenbergh noted that this sense of inevitability extends far beyond smaller outfits. Even Team Visma | Lease a Bike — the squad that entered 2025 vowing to become the best team in the world — have been unable to find an answer.

“It’s not just the smaller teams,” he explained. “Even at Team Visma | Lease a Bike, you can see it. It’s not as if they have a plan to anticipate anything. Saying they’re being led to the slaughter might be a bit extreme, but you do get the feeling that everyone knows it’s impossible to beat Pogacar.”

For the Dutch team, whose dominance once mirrored that of Pogacar’s UAE juggernaut, 2025 has been a humbling campaign. Despite Jonas Vingegaard’s overall victory at the Vuelta a Espana, Visma have found themselves adrift in the world rankings — well behind Pogacar’s imperious UAE Team Emirates - XRG, who have set new standards for collective control and strategic execution.

The remarks from Van den Langenbergh and De Vlieger echo a growing unease among riders and observers alike: that Pogacar’s reign, while dazzling in its brilliance, may be eroding the competitive tension that defines elite racing.

What was once a question of how Pogacar would win has increasingly become one of when. Rival teams have struggled to find meaningful counter-strategies, while the Slovenian continues to expand his dominance across every terrain and every format — from spring classics to grand tours, from one-day monuments to week-long stage races.

For much of the peloton, it seems Pogacar’s supremacy is not just a problem to solve — it’s a reality to endure.