After all but securing a second-placed finish behind Tadej Pogacar at the Tour de France, Remco Evenepoel was asked what it would take to win the Grande Boucle one day.
Event Context
And on Saturday, he chose to ride for his team-mate rather than the other way around, when another stage win was clearly within his grasp.
But they did that in an era before acute specialisation.
Pogacar, who has twice finished second in Roubaix, is a pure climber fighting for victory against cobbled classics specialists like Mathieu van der Poel or Wout van Aert the two men to have denied him in the famous Roubaix velodrome.
Team Analysis
Evenepoel had just clawed back around 40 seconds to the world champion, but only because Pogacar had decided to ride to the finish line alongside his young team-mate Isaac Del Toro rather than fight for the stage win.
Despite shipping that time, Pogacar is still set to finish with his widest winning margin yet at a Tour, beating his 2024 advantage over Jonas Vingegaard by nine seconds.
He gifted the second stage to his 22-year-old team-mate Del Toro instead of winning it himself.
“What Tadej did was simply immense,” said UAE team principal Mauro Gianetti.
What Pogacar has been doing all season has been immense in fact that has been the case since he began his professional career.
Not since the eras of riders like Eddy Merckx or Bernard Hinault has there been someone who can win on all terrains like Pogacar.
His victory in Milan-San Remo in March meant he has now won four of the five Monument one-day classics.
The only one missing from his collection is Paris-Roubaix.
Both Merckx and Hinault won that, as well as five Tours, so to do so would not be unprecedented.
Match Outlook
“Pogi not starting,” he quipped “At least for the next few years, it’s that simple.”
Pogacar had just all but wrapped up his record-equalling fifth Tour crown at the end of the brutal Queen stage on the penultimate day of the 113th edition of the world’s toughest cycle race.
Aged just 27, Pogacar will become the youngest person to win five Tour titles, having also been the youngest to win his first.
But under normal circumstances, Pogacar should just be arriving at his cycling peak, rather than making history.
He says that he has not seen any improvement in his watts or power output in the last two years, but that it is the little details that have made the difference.
“This year I felt that not getting much stronger,” he said.
“Since 2024 I would say the numbers are there but you know you get more experience, you deal with things differently, you have just small things that are improving.
“Maybe the numbers are the same in the last two years but it’s the details that sometimes count and the mood and emotions and all.
“I think this is where I’m improving a lot and taking experiences.
“I think that’s why also I ride super good this Tour.”
– ‘Immense’ Pogacar –
He may have secured his largest winning margin but it has not necessarily been Pogacar’s best Tour.
He has won five stages, but he won six in 2024.
In other editions he won the mountain and young rider jerseys as well as the yellow jersey.
But he could easily have won more stages and the mountain classification this year had he wanted to.
It is inconceivable that either could compete with him on his preferred terrain such as Grand Tours.
Later this year, he will also try to match Peter Sagan’s record of three successive world titles.
It may be small details, but Pogacar still seems to be improving, and achieving ever more.
Only tie will tell how much better he can get, and how much more he can win.
bc/dmc
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