Even the Best Classics Specialists Are Losing Hope as Pogačar Chases Records

Tadej Pogačar and his cannibalism of the spring is driving his rivals to despair.

After being made bystanders while Pogačar swept to three huge victories in three races, the air is going out of the tires of a peloton beat down by Pogačar’s voracious hunger to rewrite all the records.

“What Tadej is doing goes beyond demotivating,” classics stalwart Oliver Naesen told the Het Laatste NieuwsWieler Podcast.

As far as some are concerned, it’s only days before they have to witness another rout by the merciless GOAT at Paris-Roubaix.

“Demotivating is when someone is very good – you can’t drop him, and he beats you in the sprint. But this is something else. It takes away all hope,” Naesen said Tuesday after he suffered Pogačar’s wrath at the Tour of Flanders.

And Naesen is no noobie.

He’s bumped bars with Tom Boonen, Fabian Cancellara, and Peter Sagan. The burly Belgian raced and finished De Ronde 11 times and will line up for his 11th Roubaix this Sunday.

Even Mathieu van der Poel – a rider who refuses to bow to Pogačar until he blows up – is showing flickers of doubt.

Pogačar dropped him at Tour of Flanders for a third time last weekend because, as far as Van der Poel is concerned, his rival has become unstoppable.

“I was riding at 650 watts and couldn’t hold the wheel,” Van der Poel said Sunday. “Cycling is simple. I had to submit to the law of the strongest.

“I did everything I had to do, but there was someone stronger. There is nothing you can do about that,” he said. “I hung on for a bit, but he still had an acceleration left. Then I broke.”

Can only mud stop Pogačar?

The question now ahead of the Hell of the North – can anything stop Pogačar fulfilling what seems like his destiny?

Roubaix will be his someday, and it’s looking like it will be as soon as Sunday.

Devastating soloes at Strade Bianche and Tour of Flanders, and an against-all-odds victory at Milan-San Remo, have elevated him to top favorite above even MVDP, the greatest cobblestone rider of the generation.

Even Van der Poel’s father Adrie won’t go beyond giving his boy 50-50 odds of vanquishing Pog this weekend.

Forecasts of dry and still weather tilt the race even further in favor of the Tour de France climber.

Cobblestone sluggers like Van der Poel and Naesen will be praying for a mudbath.

Is Pogačar better than ever? ‘It’s like going against a motorbike’

Some believed Pogačar might be on the brink of burnout or nearing a peak after his huge year in 2025.

Far from it.

The power data matches the results-sheets – at 27, Pogačar is better than ever.

So good, in fact, he’s moved into his own orbit.

As Naesen told the HLN podcast, the sense inside the bunch – and from the TV – is that Pog is his own category.

The smiley Slovenian is a level above even cycling superheroes Van der Poel, Jonas Vingegaard, and Remco Evenepoel.

Riders in the “third tier” like Naesen and former San Remo winner Matej Mohorič can only hope for the best as they navigate the pavement and pavé that’s been burned up before them.

Mohorič said he could barely even suck the wheel when UAE Emirates-XRG lit up the whole of Flanders last weekend to set up Pogačar on the Molenberg.

“Everyone was taking turns, but when you go to the front, you do less power than on the wheel. They just keep everyone at the limit,” Mohorič told Wielerflits after he hit the top-10 in Oudenaarde.

“It’s like going against a motorbike,” Mohorič said. “You just try to survive.”

And now, after a landmark victory at Milan-San Remo, the race some thought he could never win, Paris-Roubaix will be the center of Pogi’s attention until the cobbles bend to his will.

The dice-roll of Roubaix

Roubaix race director Thierry Gouvenou this week described Pogačar’s quest for a cobblestone trophy as “almost an obsession.”

For Gouvenou, it’s a race that Pogačar will eventually find a way to win. Five failed attempts didn’t stop him from repeatedly showing up to Milan-San Remo, after all.

But of course, Paris-Roubaix is fickle. The “Queen of the Classics” is defined by good luck and favorable weather as much as physiology and strategy.

And if there’s any race that doesn’t suit Pogačar, it’s this pan flat test of muscling power and cobblestone experience.

But that’s not enough to bump this generational talent from the top of the bookies’ betting slips.

“He’s a 10-star rider,” Naesen admitted.

Pogačar chases (more) history at Paris-Roubaix

Pogačar won the Tour of Flanders a record-equalling third time last weekend – the eighth man to do it.

It was a victory that made him the second-winningest monument racer in history. With 12 victories across the 5 historical races, Pogačar still trails a certain Mr. Merckx by 7. The original GOAT set the all-time record at 19.

Pogačar could be making the historians busy Sunday. The Slovenian is closing down on multiple major landmarks.

And if it’s not Pogi who’s rewriting records, it might be Van der Poel. He will equal the all-time mark of Tom Boonen and Roger De Vlaeminck if he survives a Pog-cineration and claims a fourth consecutive win in the velodrome.

Here’s what’s at stake for Pogačar:

Pogačar could become the fourth rider to have won all 5 monuments if he wins Paris-Roubaix on Sunday. Merckx, De Vlaeminck, and Rik Van Looy already took the sweep.

It would make him the fourth reigning Tour de France champion to conquer Hell after Fausto Coppi in 1950, Louison Bobet in 1956, and Merckx, who had to go one better than everyone else by doing it twice – 1970 and 1973.

Victory in the velodrome would also mean Pog simultaneously owns all 5 monuments, the world title, and the Tour de France title in a near-insane cross-season sweep.

“Only” victory later this month in Liège – a race he’s already won three times – and the formality of a sixth win at Il Lombardia in October would stand in the way of King Pog winning all 5 monuments in one season.