Tadej Poga\u010dar and his cannibalism of the spring is driving his rivals to despair.<\/p>\n
After being made bystanders while Poga\u010dar swept to three huge victories in three races, the air is going out of the tires of a peloton beat down by Poga\u010dar\u2019s voracious hunger to rewrite all the records<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat Tadej is doing goes beyond demotivating,\u201d classics stalwart Oliver Naesen told the Het Laatste Nieuws<\/em>Wieler Podcast<\/em>.<\/p>\n As far as some are concerned, it\u2019s only days before they have to witness another rout by the merciless GOAT at Paris-Roubaix.<\/p>\n \u201cDemotivating is when someone is very good \u2013 you can\u2019t drop him, and he beats you in the sprint. But this is something else. It takes away all hope,\u201d Naesen said Tuesday after he suffered Poga\u010dar\u2019s wrath at the Tour of Flanders.<\/p>\n And Naesen is no noobie.<\/p>\n He\u2019s bumped bars with Tom Boonen, Fabian Cancellara, and Peter Sagan. The burly Belgian raced and finished De Ronde<\/em> 11 times and will line up for his 11th Roubaix this Sunday.<\/p>\n Even Mathieu van der Poel \u2013 a rider who refuses to bow to Poga\u010dar until he blows up \u2013 is showing flickers of doubt.<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI was riding at 650 watts and couldn\u2019t hold the wheel,\u201d Van der Poel said Sunday. \u201cCycling is simple. I had to submit to the law of the strongest.<\/p>\n \u201cI did everything I had to do, but there was someone stronger. There is nothing you can do about that,\u201d he said. \u201cI hung on for a bit, but he still had an acceleration left. Then I broke.\u201d<\/p>\n The question now ahead of the Hell of the North \u2013 can anything stop Poga\u010dar fulfilling what seems like his destiny?<\/p>\n Roubaix will be his someday, and it\u2019s looking like it will be as soon as Sunday.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Even Van der Poel\u2019s father Adrie won\u2019t go beyond giving his boy 50-50 odds of vanquishing Pog this weekend.<\/p>\n Forecasts of dry and still weather tilt the race even further in favor of the Tour de France climber.<\/p>\n Cobblestone sluggers like Van der Poel and Naesen will be praying for a mudbath.<\/p>\n Some believed Poga\u010dar might be on the brink of burnout or nearing a peak after his huge year in 2025.<\/p>\n Far from it.<\/p>\n The power data matches the results-sheets \u2013 at 27, Poga\u010dar is better than ever.<\/p>\n So good, in fact, he\u2019s moved into his own orbit.<\/p>\n As Naesen told the HLN<\/em> podcast, the sense inside the bunch \u2013 and from the TV \u2013 is that Pog is his own category.<\/p>\n The smiley Slovenian is a level above even cycling superheroes Van der Poel, Jonas Vingegaard, and Remco Evenepoel.<\/p>\n Riders in the \u201cthird tier\u201d like Naesen and former San Remo winner Matej Mohori\u010d can only hope for the best as they navigate the pavement and pav\u00e9<\/em> that\u2019s been burned up before them.<\/p>\n Mohori\u010d said he could barely even suck the wheel when UAE Emirates-XRG lit up the whole of Flanders last weekend to set up Poga\u010dar on the Molenberg.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone 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,\u201d Mohori\u010d told Wielerflits<\/em> after he hit the top-10 in Oudenaarde.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like going against a motorbike,\u201d Mohori\u010d said. \u201cYou just try to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n 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\u2019s attention until the cobbles bend to his will.<\/p>\n Roubaix race director Thierry Gouvenou this week described Poga\u010dar\u2019s quest for a cobblestone trophy as \u201calmost an obsession.\u201d<\/p>\n For Gouvenou, it\u2019s a race that Poga\u010dar will eventually find a way to win. Five failed attempts didn\u2019t stop him from repeatedly showing up to Milan-San Remo, after all.<\/p>\n But of course, Paris-Roubaix is fickle. The \u201cQueen of the Classics\u201d is defined by good luck and favorable weather as much as physiology and strategy.<\/p>\n And if there\u2019s any race that doesn\u2019t\u00a0<\/em>suit Poga\u010dar, it\u2019s this pan flat test of muscling power and cobblestone experience.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s not enough to bump this generational talent from the top of the bookies\u2019 betting slips.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a 10-star rider,\u201d Naesen admitted.<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar won the Tour of Flanders a record-equalling third time last weekend \u2013 the eighth man to do it.<\/p>\n It was a victory that made him the second-winningest monument racer in history. With 12 victories across the 5 historical races, Poga\u010dar still trails a certain Mr. Merckx by 7. The original GOAT set the all-time record at 19.<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar could be making the historians busy Sunday. The Slovenian is closing down on multiple major landmarks.<\/p>\n And if it\u2019s not Pogi who\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what\u2019s at stake for Poga\u010dar:<\/strong><\/p>\n Poga\u010dar 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.<\/p>\n 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 \u2013 1970 and 1973.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cOnly\u201d victory later this month in Li\u00e8ge \u2013 a race he\u2019s already won three times \u2013 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/paris-roubaix-pogacar-chases-records-rivals-lose-hope\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/resignation-vs-records-2.jpg”] Jim Cotton Updated April 9, 2026 08:53AM Tadej Poga\u010dar and his cannibalism of the spring is driving his rivals to despair. After being made bystanders while Poga\u010dar swept to three huge victories in three races, the air is going out of the tires of a peloton beat down by Poga\u010dar\u2019s voracious hunger […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1875203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1875203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1875203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1875203\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1875203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1875203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1875203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Can only mud stop Poga\u010dar?<\/h2>\n
![\"Paris-Roubaix\"](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Z8A_3559-2.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Is Poga\u010dar better than ever? \u2018It\u2019s like going against a motorbike\u2019<\/h2>\n
![\"Riders](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Z8D_2042-2-e1775715386159-1200x902.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
The dice-roll of Roubaix<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Z8D_7792-1-1200x885.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Poga\u010dar chases (more) history at Paris-Roubaix<\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Z8A_8729-2-1200x800.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")