The True G.O.A.T
Well, it's been a long time since my last 'view' back in August 2020. That's almost back to the days when Team Sky/Ineos governed the grand tours, when Quick-Step still ruled the Classics and when women's racing had yet to make its quantum leap to the equality it now shares with the men. The last time I wrote a blog, Philippe Gilbert was still the reigning 'champion' of the Tour of Flanders because the 2020 edition took place in October due to the Covid-19 pandemic. That same pandemic saw a whole raft of events delayed and re-scheduled, with Paris-Roubaix actually cancelled - an almost forgotten item four years on. Primoz Roglic looked to have won a delayed Tour de France in September, only to be shocked on the penultimate stage by a young pup called Tadej Pogacar. The Tour's importance had pushed the Giro and Vuelta into autumn with Tao Geoghegan Hart winning a Giro that overlapped the start of a Vuelta won by Roglic. Both Flanders, won by Mathieu van der Poel, and Liege-Bastogne-LIege - won by Roglic - had taken place during the Giro. But it was Pogacar's ambush on Roglic in the Tour that became the talking point of the 2020 season, which is what leads me into this revived 'Graham's View' at the end of the 2024 season. Yes, it's been a long time between drinks.
I have watched, read, listened, and therefore dwelt so much on Pogacar this past nine months, he really has impressed and entertained us so much. But with such prowess came the over-use of the cringe-worthy acronym of G.O.A.T to dilute my appreciation of the Slovenian superstar. Pogacar is brilliant, he is incredible, he is exciting, he is spectacular, and - in 2024 at least - he was clearly un-beatable in almost ever race he started. But, excuse me, he is not the greatest cyclist of all time. He may never be. The original and present-day G.O.A.T is of course, Eddy Merckx, against whom all comparisons should be considered before bestowing the title to a relative newcomer. The facts are very clear: Merckx won five Tours de France, five Giri d'Italia, one Vuelta a España, x 7 Milan-Sanremo, x5 Liege-Bastogne-Liege, x3 World Championships, x3 Paris-Roubaix, x3 Fleche Wallonne, x 3 Ghent-Wevelgem, x2 Tour of Flanders, x2 Il Lombardia, x4 Paris-Nice. And, for seven consecutive years between 1969 and 1975, Merckx won a highly-respected Super Prestige Pernod competition that used to decide the best cyclist each season.
Thankfully, Pogacar himself, in a re-assuring sign that his feet are still firmly on the ground, refuses to be drawn into any claim of equality with Merckx, save to accept that he is most definitely 'the new Eddy Merckx'. Despite the decades between their respective careers, and the multiple evolutions in the process of becoming champions, there are some wonderful similarities to enjoy between Merckx and Pogacar, and which enable us to better understand why today's new-generation bloggers and journalists suggest Pogacar is the greatest. Merckx used to attack long, long before the finish, in fact the further out he attacked the more damaging was the psychological blow - just as Pogacar is doing today and will surely try do next year. Merckx's famous nickname was 'The Cannibal' because he never let anyone else win, no matter how big or small the race. Ditto Pogacar, even though he does occasionally let a team-mate win, as Merckx sometimes did himself on a few occasions. So if ever I questioned the way Pogacar denied any gifts to Dani Martinez in the Giro and both Vingegaard and Evenepoel in the Tour this summer, I just told myself that's what Merckx probably did as well. Basically, we have just spent most of the 2024 season watching Eddy Merckx win again!
For the record, I also currently rate Bernard Hinault ahead of Pogacar in the G.O.A.T stakes. His statistics are closer to Merckx's than Pogacar's, and almost as impressive: x5 Tours de France, x 3 Giro d'Italia, x2 Vuelta a España, x3 Dauphiné-Libere, x2 Liege-Bastogne-Liege, x2 Il Lombardia, x2 Fleche Wallonne, x1 World Championship, x1 Paris-Roubaix, x1 Ghent-Wevelgem, x2 Super Prestige Pernod competition. Now, of course, Pogacar has many years left in him to move above Hinault and get closer to Merckx. But will he ever catch Merckx? The Cannibal achieved his great victories in an 18-year-long period - he actually won a total of 525 races. Hinault raced for twelve years to achieve his total before retiring in 1986. 26 year-old Pogacar may already have won a lot in his five-year career, to date, but as great as he is now, can he maintain that greatness when his youth starts to ebb away and rivals close in on him? Can he continue to produce the same intensity of these past five years for the next five years or more? He'll need to if he is to move above Hinault, let alone catch Merckx.
The Slovenian utterly destroyed the morale of Evenepoel in the Tour, Worlds and Il Lombardia, having already scared Vingegaard into closing off his season right after the Tour. He even made Van der Poel look ordinary at the Worlds - no-one has managed that in recent years. But rest assured, the attention of his rivals' trainers, advisors, psychologists and managers will have been on Pogacar who has clearly trained and raced with renewed vigour since losing the 2023 Tour to Vingegaard. The elite sport of cycling is just that - it is very elite - meaning it's a very small world where few secrets stay secret for long. Whether it is Pogacar's training, or a change in his nutrition, or a fresh mind-set instilled in him by a mental guru, or all those things combined, Pogacar will at some stage find a rival who can stay with him and threaten his dominance. It might still be Vingegaard, who could have challenged Pogacar in the Tour had he not crashed so badly in April. Or it might be Evenepoel, who will go away this winter and analyse what more he has to do to close the gap.
Amongst all the praise and celebration of Pogacar's amazing season, I have teased myself by speculating on how it might have looked had things not all gone Pogacar's way. What if Vingegaard (and to a lesser extent Evenepoel) had not crashed so badly in the Itzulia Basque tour in April and ruined their preparation for the Tour? What if Pogacar had not won the Tour as well as the Giro, because a fully-fit Vingegaard had got the better of him once again? The Dane won in both 2022 and 2023. And what if the Worlds course had not been so weighted in Pogacar's favour, with a Van der Poel or Mads Pedersen more likely to win? Then there'd be no talk, no planning, of a triple-crown of Giro,Tour & Worlds. Conversely, Pogacar could have therefore gone for an un-heralded triple crown of Giro-Tour-Vuelta. I still think this unique target was up for grabs because of how relatively fresh Pogacar was after the Giro and again after the Tour. By then, he and his advisors would have seen how weak the Vuelta opposition was going to be on a course so favouring Pogacar. Conjecture, this might well be, but such optimal circumstances might never appear again, not even for someone so capable as Pogacar. Let's see what 2025 brings, shall we?