For years cycling fans have sought to compare the rider of the moment to the great Eddy Merckx – the 500-victory ‘Cannibal’ who ruled the sport in the early 1970s.
Despite the comparisons, very few riders have filled more than a small part of the massive impression Merckx made on the sport – until Tadej Pogačar.
There is no doubt in his mind that Pogačar is the best rider who ever lived, Michael Woods told Cycling Weekly last week.
“Merckx was competing when there were only four billion people on the planet,” he said. “And only four countries were good at it… and there were guys he was racing against who were still working.
These days, that figure of four billion has grown – slightly alarmingly in such as short period of time – to a shade over eight billion.
“The fact that Pogačar’s as good as he is with this level of depth, with this pool of talent that’s being drawn from, it’s vastly superior, vastly superior,” the Canadian surmised.
Unlike Woods himself, who only made the step up from Continental ranks to the WorldTour when he was 29, Pogačar began winning big early, with a Tour de France victory aged just 21.
“It becomes not as fun when you have less of an opposition, so I certainly believe. So I don’t foresee Pogačar racing into his late-30s. But, you never know. Like, he doesn’t need to. He can stop tomorrow. And in my mind, he’s the greatest cyclist that’s ever lived.”
“You even saw it with [Peter] Sagan,” Woods added. “Sagan just got bored. You could tell he was just doing it as a job. And when you’re an athlete like Pogačar and Sagan… these guys want to be pushing the limits and testing themselves.”
“I’ve got some big plans… I want to do some alternative events – bucket list items… I just love exercising and love training, love racing.”
Explore More
