Talk about a one-man army. Europost posted an interesting graphic that shows if Tadej Pogačar alone was a team, he’d be 9th overall with the recent UCI team rankings. Of course, he’s not the only rider on his squad that’s had a great year. His own team, UAE Emirates, is leading the standings, ahead of Jumbo-Visma and Soudal-Quick-Step. And without a strong team, Pogi wouldn’t have been able to do much of what he did. In fact, Tadej Pogačar’s squad achieved a remarkable milestone in the 2024 season, taking 76 wins by 20 different riders. As Cyclingnews pointed out, that’s a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since 2000, when Mapei-Quickstep took 72 races between 23 different riders.
The greatest season in history?
After his win at Il Lombardia, Tadej Pogačar’s total UCI points totaled a whopping 11,740, by far cementing his number one ranking in the world. And perhaps one of the greatest seasons by a cyclist in history.
Tadej Pogačar took an astonishing 25 wins in 2024, including victories in the Strade Bianche, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the General Classification at the Giro d’Italia, and the General Classification at the Tour de France. He also won stages two, three, six, and seven of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, stages eight, seven (ITT), fifteen, sixteen, and twenty of the Giro d’Italia, and stages four, fourteen, fifteen, nineteen, twenty, and twenty-one (ITT) of the Tour de France. Additionally, he claimed victories at the world championships in Zurich, the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, Giro dell’Emilia, and Il Lombardia.
Utter dominance by Pogačar
The way in which Tadej Pogačar won some of those races was purely spectacular as well. He soloed 80 km at Strade Bianche. He won the Giro by 10 minutes. At the world championships in Zurich, he broke clear from the main bunch with 100 km to go, caught the break, then took off again solo with 50 remaining. At Il Lombardia, Pogačar was simply transcendent. He attacked with 48 km to go. He made rivals like Remco Evenepoel look like juniors, unable to even stay on his wheel.
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