Can Tadej Pogačar win all five Monuments and so even Paris-Roubaix? That was the question on everyone’s lips after his incredible victory at the Tour of Flanders.
The very fact that we are having this discussion says a lot about how the game is changing in professional cycling, and about how Tadej is changing that game.
What’s becoming clearer and clearer is that this is a full new era of cycling. Maybe in another decade we will have another era, because cycling is changing so much, who knows in which direction it will go next.
When you think about the Classics, you think about riders like Museeuw, Tafi, Ballerini, Van Petegem. These are pure Classics riders. Later on it was the same with Tom Boonen and myself. Now, we have a different generation where they are doing every kind of race.
Strade Bianche used to be more of a race for traditional Classics specialists. Now it has become more of a climber’s race, or an all-rounder’s race, with Julian Alaphilippe winning a couple of years ago, and Egan Bernal on the podium. Amstel Gold Race is another one that has opened itself out to a broader range of contenders.
Tadej’s victory on Sunday made it the same story for the Tour of Flanders.
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No one thought that these guys would come to the Classics – or that they would come and stand a chance. I remember when Nibali or Valverde used to drop into these races because there were cobbles coming at the Tour de France. The Classics riders looked them up and down and said ‘hey, good luck boys’.
But the new generation seems to be undoing all of the specialisations that came into cycling in the previous decade. I would say the modern era started with Peter Sagan, and the riders generally have become more versatile ever since.
Looking back on my career, I made a choice to be a rider for the Classics and the time trials. If I wanted to win more sprints I would have had to become a sprinter. If I wanted to do Liège and Lombardia I would have do have lost a lot of weight. But I kept going in the direction I was good at.
Now, Tadej can win the Tour de France and Tour of Flanders. He, Wout, and Mathieu are very different riders who somehow add up to match up against one another. And it’s not just them, you have Pidcock, Alaphilippe… I think Remco Evenepoel could do well at Flanders, even Primož Roglič.
This is definitely a trend, an era. The question is, why? Has the Tour of Flanders changed? Is it a physical change in the riders?…
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