Can Pogacar replace Merckx as the GOAT?

By now, everyone knows Tadej Pogacar.

He’s a 3-time Tour de France winner, won the Giro d’Italia once and will take the Vuelta a Espana later this year. He also is the current World Champion, won the Tour of Flanders and will most likely take on Paris Roubaix next month.

This 26yo Slovenian is not only letting cycling fans take notice of his work, but also take notice that at the rate he is winning, he could supplant Eddy Merckx as cycling G.O.A.T. Two years ago, it was hard to believe that but since last year, he has applied for the GOAT status.

I have never seen Eddy raced, but I have already seen some of his black and white videos, but the videos back then don’t evoke the same feelings that fans are feeling today that we are on the verge of seeing a transcendental talent.

A lot of young folks have been touted as the best.. but they turned to crash down and fizzle out. Jan Ulliruch was called a “wunderkind” but he only ended up winning one Tour de France and retiring with a dry habit (they say he is ok now). Lance Armstrong was also another rider considered getting the GOAT but was just too focused on the Tour de France (he won 7 consecutive Tours).

But Pogacar is different from the recent champions. The champions of the Tour from 1986 (Greg Lemond) onwards started to concentrate on the Tour simply because it was the most popular bike race in the world. Armstrong was the posterboy for racing hard for three weeks in July and then basically hitting the pause button the rest of the year.

But Pogacar is different. This year, he has won four races. What is mind-boggling about the races he won was the way he dominated it. He would attack from a long way and win it. For example, he won the Worlds last year by attacking with 40km to go, so unheard of in modern cycling. Last Saturday, he won Strade Bianchi for the third consecutive year by attacking 50km from the finish. Despite a heavy crash, he got up and dropped his breakaway companion Tom Pidcock. In last year’s race, he told everyone where he would attack, which he did and no one could do anything about it.

Pogacar is so dominant that his appearance alone in the start line can appear to touch the nerves of his opponents thinking that they’d be racing for 2nd place. In fact, his compatriot and rival, Primos Roglic, seems to avoid racing with Pogacar this season.

But what about his GOAT status, is there really a chance that he could replace Eddy Merckx as the GOAT? If Pogacar can finish his career unscathed by injuries and bad luck, I think he can.

Eddy Merckx has won a total of 525 professional victories from 1965 to 1977. He has a winning percentage of 25% and retired at a relatively young age of 32. Pogacar is now 26 years old, has been racing for seven years and has 98 wins to his name. He has a winning percentage of 20%.

It would be difficult to beat Eddy’s GOAT status but Pogacar has a good chance of getting close.