Is Tadej Pogačar the greatest? Even he has to answer uncomfortable questions (2024)

If there was ever any doubt as to just how good Tadej Pogačar is, there can now be no question after he completed a famous Tour de France victory in Nice.

Of course, other kinds of doubts are a spectre that any grand tour winner has to accept as part and parcel of being the most visible champion of a sport with such a chequered past.

But we'll get to that.

For the time being, it's worth underlining just what an astonishing feat the affable, 25-year-old Slovenian has just accomplished.

He won six stages in as dominant a Giro d'Italia victory as there has been in almost 60 years.

And now, after taking out the final-stage time trial for another half-dozen stage wins to complete his third Tour de France crown against three of the best grand tour riders of this generation, he is the first rider to complete the Giro-Tour double since Marco Pantani did so in 1998.

Of course, Jonas Vingegaard, champion of the two previous Tours de France, cannot have been at his best despite his statements to the contrary after the shocking crash that could have cost him his career, or worse, at the Tour of the Basque Country in April.

Third-place finisher Remco Evenepoel may have already won a rainbow jersey and a Vuelta a España, but the reigning world time trial champion is still relatively unproven in major stage races and was in his debut Tour.

And then there's Pogačar's countryman, Primož Roglič, whose luck at the world's most prestigious stage race could not be worse than if he encountered a clowder of black cats on a training ride that caused him to detour under a ladder, sending him careering into a shop specialising only in antique mirrors.

Nevertheless, Pogačar stands above them all.

Show-stopping performances

Pogačar has repeatedly underlined his staggering ability this season.

Whether it was his pre-ordained 34km solo breakaway victory at this year's Liège-Bastogne-Liège, or his 81km solo attack at Strade Bianche, or even his Pantani-like recovery from a puncture and minor fall at the base of the Santuario di Oropa to win at the Giro, Pogačar has proven himself to be on a different level.

His stage victories at the Tour de France, on stages four, 14, 15, 19, 20 and 21 have all illustrated that power and willingness to drive daggers into his opponents at every opportunity that marks him out as the best.

Not only has he now won two grand tours in a year, the first man since Chris Froome in 2017 to do so, but has done so with a daring and panache that belongs to the era before riders were managed and their efforts controlled by scientists staring at power meters.

Pogačar has ridden 52 race days this season and has 17 race victories, in as varied events as grand tour stage wins in the French Pyrenees and Alps, the white gravel roads of Tuscany and the short-sharp one-day climbs of the Ardennes classics.

It's a dominance that has not been seen since Eddie Merckx.

It's the sort of dominance, however, that leads to questions.

His victory on stage 15, Bastille Day in France, to the top of Plateau de Beille, was one of irresistible power, a solo break that broke his rivals hopes to pieces.

His power output over such a sustained break raised eyebrows, despite him being one of the most comprehensively tested athletes in history.

It did not draw headlines in L'Equipe like those when Vingegaard destroyed Pogačar in the 2023 race.

Vingegaard put five-and-a-half minutes into Pogačar on Stage 16 last year, just after an incredible time trial performance that led the French sport daily to resurrect a headline not used since Lance Armstrong dominated the Tour in 1999: "D'une autre planete" or "From another planet".

The connotations were obvious.

Pogačar himself has been described as being from another planet regularly by his rivals, but one senses that is a phrase being uttered more in awe than suspicion.

There was a minor scandal though, relating to the use of carbon monoxide re-breathing to enhance the effects of altitude training, with allegations revealed by the Escape Collective website.

Pogačar's response to being questioned about the practice was opaque, forcing him to clarify that the team used carbon monoxide as a measuring technique.

The practice is not banned by anti-doping authorities, and three teams — Vingegaard's Visma lease-a-bike, Pogačar's UAE Emirates and Israel Premier Tech — all confirmed they use carbon monoxide for testing purposes.

But there has been suspicion of Pogačar on social media, although former champion Bernard Hinault suggested there was a hint of xenophobia in those suggestions from his fellow Frenchmen.

"I am disgusted … Why do we always express doubts?" Hinault wrote in his column for the Ouest France newspaper.

"Let's stop asking these questions all the time! It's ridiculous. Is there any proof?

"If I were in his place and I had these performances, would there be suspicion? No. As soon as it's a foreigner, we always raise doubts.

"You have to use everything you have to win, and Pogačar is doing what it takes to win."

Pogačar eyeing off even more history

Terrifyingly for his rivals, Pogačar doesn't seem like he's finished yet.

Pogačar should be among the favourites for the road race at the Paris Olympic Games, which would earn him a unique treble.

He also appears a threat in the World Championships.

Should he win that, it would make him just the third man ever to win two grand tours and the World Champions rainbow jersey in a single season after Merckx and Stephen Roche — the only two men to win cycling's Triple Crown.

And you wouldn't put it past him.

Pogačar has been unmatched on the major climbs at this year's Tour, toying with his rivals and hoovering up stage wins at a rate that earned him Merckx's "Cannibal" nickname.

However, the Gazzetta dello Sport's softened "Cannibale Gentile" seems more appropriate for a rider most seem as enchanted by as the majority of the public are.

But the more Pogačar wins, the more he will have to bat off questions about how he is achieving those results.

The Tour has a doping history over a century old and the simple truth of the legacy of cycling is that his performances will be questioned forever.

But in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, it's worth enjoying the show.