The risks that Tadej Pogacar has taken could cost him the Tour

That Pogacar win Flanders opting for the Tour draws a vintage cyclist

It may sound arrogant, even grandiose to say it, but that’s how I think about it: Tadej Pogacar does not run for the present, he runs for history, to transcend and be remembered as one of the best in this.

I have also thought about it this way for a long time, since that famous stage of the 2021 Tour, when he jumped almost 40 kilometers from the finish line and destroyed Carapaz and Vingegaard in a chained ride in the Alps, I think at the Col de la Romme.

That day Pogacar sentenced the Tour, his second Tour, two weeks from the end and he did it just after an anthological time trial in which he had already made a difference.

Those days we had a good friend on the podcast, Chema Rodríguez, whose memory goes back to Eddy Merckx and Luis Ocaña.

When asked if Pogacar was pointing to a vintage cyclist, he did not hesitate to say yes.

The victory of the Slovenian in the Tour of Flanders is a notch, another step towards what I am telling you about.

Being a cyclist who with this capacity can amass more than two Tours de France, plus some added great lap, he does not stick to his comfort zone, he leaves it and wants to measure himself with the best in everything in his field.

Seeing him beating himself up at the Poggio and the Oude Kwaremont is unheard of for a cyclist who happens to be the heavy favorite in Julyat least in the cycling that I have experienced, which has been a bit.

Since Perico’s time, which is when I more or less got on this boat, I have not seen anything like it, a 110% competitor, who does not want to win, wants to crush, who seeks excellence and the brand in each event, without belittling Nothing, however small it may seem.

I admit this, I did not see it coming, a cyclist from before in the XXI century, time of specialization and constant monitoring.

Winning in Flanders, Pogacar has broken the question that many of us have been asking since Gilbert’s withdrawal who will win the 5 monuments again?

I see him on the path of trying and even achieving it.

When Matxin says that he always exceeds expectations, let him say it, I think he makes it clear who we are talking about.

I don’t know if he will make it, but the last taboo has fallen, Seeing Tadej Pogacar in Paris-Roubaix is ​​possible and they do not rule it out.

His thing is to beat rivals of the present to conquer milestones of greats in history, and the best thing is that we are seeing it live and direct.

Being part of this story, when we have been cycling for more than a hundred years, when everything seemed invented, is brutal, there is no other way than to thank you, for opening the focus, the mentality and demonstrating to us by chapters that in this sport excellence rests on the legs of a slovenian.

Imagen: UAE Team Emirates- Sprint Cycling Agency