I get it, the number of days in the leader’s jersey, the number of Grand Tour stage wins, all of the one-day classics wins, the Giro-Tour double and good chances at a historic triple if he does Vuelta. He is incredibly versatile and consistent when it comes to winning races. But for me, he doesn’t represent the pinnacle of cycling. And I would argue that currently, he is not on a trajectory to get there. Let me explain.
Let’s get one thing straight. Tadej is a generational talent. Only a handful can rival him in single race, and nobody comes close when it comes to results over the whole season. His versatility is not from this era. You have to go back to 1981 to see a Tour de France winner, Bernard Hinault, win one of the monuments, Paris–Roubaix, in the same year. Sure, Eddy Merckx did it four in his career, but both of these legends were competing half a century ago.
So, if you’re looking at it from the perspective of wins and stats, Tadej Pogačar is certainly on his way to being called the Goat if he keeps racing like this for years to come.
There’s nothing wrong with counting the number of wins. Personally, I look at the “greatest of all time” moniker differently. To me, it’s about mastering all aspects of road racing.
To be the Goat in my eyes, you have to be great at climbing, time-trialing, sprinting, descending, recovery, fueling, mental resiliency, racing tactics, executing team strategy, and all of the other aspects of road racing that make the sport so complex and fascinating.
Of course, the pure sprinters will always beat the GC guys. What I mean is that you have to be dominant in all of these aspects among your closest competitors, and arguably among the legends that came before you.
In my eyes, Tadej has mastered many of these, but still struggles with some.
These struggles were highlighted when Tadej Pogačar lost the Tour to Jonas Vingegaard in 2022 and 2023. In stage 11 of the 2022 Tour, Tadej was pulling on Col du Galibier with Jonas on his wheel and Wout van Aert ahead in a breakaway. Tadej spent a lot of energy pulling with minimal hope of gaining time because Wout could wait for Jonas and help him catch up if he got dropped. Plus, Marc Soler confirmed in an interview that Tadej didn’t eat well enough during the stage. As a result, Tadej bonked later on Col de Granon and lost 2:51 to Jonas.
On stage 17 in 2023, it was a similar scenario when Tadej got dropped on Col de la Loze and lost 5:45 to Jonas. The famous “I’m gone. I’m dead.” quote from the team radio illustrated how wrong it went.
Bad tactics even cost Tadej a stage 11 win in the 2024 Tour. He attacked too early and also possibly didn’t fuel properly, which allowed Jonas to catch back up to him and even outsprint him at the finish line.
Stage 9 with 13 gravel segments is another example. Tadej attacked with about 90 km to go and while Remco Evenepoel did him a favor by pulling the peloton to bring him back, it would have been smarter for Jonas and Remco to let Tadej go alone, tire his legs out, and then use the three highly motivated GC teams (Visma Lease-a-bike, Soudal Quick-Step, BORA – Hansgrohe) to chase him down later. Chris Horner, a former Grand Tour winner and cycling analyst, explains the stage tactics in more detail in this video.
