Tadej Pogačar is World Champion 🤩🌈 Attacking with 100km to go, the Slovenian completes the triple crown of the Giro, Tour de France and Worlds in one season 👏 #Zurich2024
"You have to be crazy to do that" - Eddy Merckx impressed by Tadej Pogacar's World Champion ride
CyclingTuesday, 01 October 2024 at 11:05
In 1974, Eddy Merckx took the 'triple crown', which is the victory at the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and World Championships in the same season. Over the past few years he's been seeing Tadej Pogacar being compared to the Belgian quite a lot and perhaps more than ever now that the Slovenian has done the same achievement after an unbelievable season.
“What he did is truly incredible. I have no words for it. You have to be crazy to do that," Merckx said in words to Le Parisien following the triumph of Pogacar in Zurich. It was an attack further away then what most expected, certainly that included Remco Evenepoel and Mathieu van der Poel who thought it was a suicidal attacked. Merckx also believed that:
"When he attacked, I started to fear for him. I assured him that Tadej had left far too early. Normally it is impossible to win after such a long attack, but Tadej did it.” It was with a strong tactical move that included Jan Tratnik from an attacking group and then a whole lot of power that Pogacar was able to hold off the strong classics riders and climbers from the peloton.
After winning almost everything he's raced over this season, his winning streak has no end and for the first time in his career he has conquered the rainbow jersey. A feat that adds to the illustrious palmarès that he has been building since turning pro in 2019.
For Merckx, there is no doubt: “He is the strongest rider of his generation. There is no doubt about that anymore. You know, at my age it takes a lot to blow me away. Well, Tadej did it. I suspected he could become world champion, but never like this. He really is the best – congratulations," he concluded.
Read also
Just in
Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter today!
Nov 05, 13:04
0
Popular news
Latest comments
- Bernal, Remco - how do these teams not have support to keep their multi million dollar investments safe in training rides? Be it scooters ahead of them or finding safer routes, this is insane.mij03-12-2024
- ahahahahahha
maria2024202403-12-2024 - what??? Jonas has a climber perfect physique. He is very light, enormous quadriceps and if you see him from the side, you'll see a huge thorax (big lugs). Better than that impossibile, he was born to climb, a specialist. Tadej is versatile as his physique shows. He's not a specialist.maria2024202403-12-2024
- Heal up Remco!awp03-12-2024
- I never considered him arrogant. He was outspoken at times and angry at other times. He's a professional athlete, sometimes they are emotional.awp03-12-2024
- Embarrassing, lol
ScottG03-12-2024 - Hope he recovers quickly!ScottG03-12-2024
- It's a figure of speech, life is not always literal and cynicism is mostly held onto by lazy people.awp03-12-2024
- Didn't those ex sponsors cheat through Armstrong? Do you think that most of them didn't know that it's impossible to make 500 watts up a mountain for an hour? Armstrong was a cyclist, I agree he did a lot of bad things but everyone should have a chance at redemption.awp03-12-2024
- And suspicion isn’t proof, not that you need proof to ban anyone from sport. Most ordinary* people have no idea what it’s like having to defend yourself to prove your innocence which is the threshold in doping. They live their comfortable little lives with its little immoral sideshows in a bubble of « bliss « never attracting scrutiny as the presumption of innocence makes them unworthy of investigation. Imagine you would get accused of theft or fraud or violence or tax evasion or you name it but the onus was on you to PROVE it wasn’t you, AND you had to pay for it all out of your own pocket (which incidentally means if the accuser is the state/country there is a conflict of interest as they gather taxes on your costs) knowing that even if you manage to prove your innocence you will likely get nothing or only a portion (of the costd, never mind repairs to other damage such as reputation, career, family & connections ) back, Whatever happened to civilizing society? I reckon it’s like fossil fuels (you get to a peak and it’s only downhill from then on) only 10-20 years in advance.Mistermaumau03-12-2024