The cycling world is growing tired of dominant Pogacar: "He never got tired, but I did. Of him."

The road cycling season is nearly over. With the Tour of Lombardy marking the year's final major event, who else but Tadej Pogacar could be the one to triumph in Como? Everyone knew what the Slovenian would do, yet nothing and no one could stop him. It was a masterful victory, but now, quite a few fans feel like it's enough — they want to see more suspense.

Thijs Zonneveld feels the same. In his column for AD, he writes that he's a bit fed up with the dominant world champion. "As beautiful as his solos are, and as remarkable as his season was, the dominance was simply too much," he notes. "Maybe, just maybe, he waits until the last climb. Or for a final sprint with a handful of others, making it a little suspenseful. But let's be honest: the chance of that is about as likely as it raining chocolate sprinkles on Saturday. It's likely that Tadej Pogacar will go for it 50 kilometers from the finish. Or even 80. And if he feels like it, he’ll already be gone before the broadcast starts."

Just like in Liège, the Giro d'Italia, the Tour de France and the World Championships, Lombardy was a one-man show. "Again. He’s done it so often this year that it sometimes feels like you're watching a rerun from last week or the week before. No matter how incredibly strong Mathieu van der Poel and Remco Evenepoel were at times, there's no doubt about who the best cyclist in the galaxy is."

"From a historical and athletic perspective, Pogacar's 2024 season is one for the history books," Zonneveld briefly acknowledges. But his praise quickly shifts to irritation. "Almost everything worked out for him. He didn’t get sick, didn’t crash, never had bad luck at crucial moments, and never missed a move. His baseline performance was so absurdly high that we couldn’t even tell if he was just in good form or top form. He never got tired. I did. Of him. And I think I'm not alone."

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Dominant team crucial to Pogacar's success: "Then the rest are already powerless"

While Zonneveld especially wants to see excitement in racing again, others emphasize the impotence of the other teams. Michael Rasmussen, the Danish former Rabobank rider, also knew what was going to happen a long time before it did. "It was a bit like watching a penalty kick without a goalkeeper, where you just waited to see which corner Messi would kick it in," he told Ekstra Bladet. "There was no one trying to drive away. They were already fighting, with Pavel Sivakov leading the group." The Frenchman himself finished sixth in the Race of the Falling Leaves.

UAE Team Emirates' dominance is as important to Pogacar's success as the Slovenian himself, says the 2005 and 2006 Tour de France mountain jersey winner. "After all, they are completely opposite the superpower. If Pogacar is at the start with a team consisting of Majka, Sivakov and Hirschi, the rest are already powerless."

The same goes for Jonas Vingegaard, Rasmussen contends. The Danish two-time Tour winner of Visma | Lease a Bike will have to make the kind of progress that is unheard of next year if he wants to compete for prizes. Because right now, Pogacar stands head and shoulders above him, too. "With the step forward he has taken now, in a sport where otherwise only marginal improvements can be seen, he has pushed his lead so far that he is almost untouchable. At least this season."

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L'Équipe: "If Pogacar is there, Evenepoel's place is in second"

L'Équipe was as unsurprised by Pogi's dominance as the rest of the world. "The only surprise was that Tadej Pogacar, as he stepped off his team bus on Saturday morning, chose white race shorts to match his rainbow jersey." The French newspaper observed a large group going on the attack, but the biggest challengers didn’t follow. "Remco Evenepoel stayed put. When Pogacar attacked, the Belgian didn’t even try to hold his wheel. He knew there was no point, that there was nothing else to gain but getting burned out."

Of course, Pogacar's number of wins was highlighted: 25 in one year, with the quality of those wins being even more impressive than the number. "Then there’s the huge gap between him and the rest of the world. From Strade Bianche at the beginning of March, his first race day and first success, to Lombardy on Saturday, he crushed his opponents at every turn. He started by demonstrating his superiority, the difference between him and the rest, and the world that separates them from him."

"Now, there's a desert around him. We once had two real opponents for him: Mathieu van der Poel in the classics and Jonas Vingegaard in the Tour de France, the only ones who could break him. But we’re no longer certain that this is still the case, even as we eagerly await to see how the Dane will prepare for July."

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Where does Pogi rank on the list of all-time best? "I'd put him second"

The Belgians were also captivated by Il Lombardia, but especially by Pogacar’s entire season. "Historically, you could place Pogacar's year among the greats," said José De Cauwer in a conversation with Renaat Schotte on Sporza. The term "Merckxian" was even used, though Pogacar himself dismissed such comparisons. "I thought it was great that in his interview, he didn’t want to answer that. 'Let's wait until my career is over for that.' I thought that was very mature. He says we need to wait until his career is finished because he's still young."

Only 26 years old, yet he already has such an impressive record. Where would you rank Tadej Pogacar on the all-time list? "I’d put him second, right after Eddy Merckx. Five Tours, five Giros, the Vuelta, three World Championships and then some other achievements on top. We’ll have to wait a bit longer for those. Right now, he’s the best rider in the world," De Cauwer concludes firmly.

Of course, the big number two of this season, Remco Evenepoel, also came up. He couldn't match the Slovenian's dominance, but the Belgians made sure to highlight his outstanding season. "World time trial champion, double Olympic champion. No one’s ever done that because it was almost impossible, of course. But there he is, proudly up there. And when people search for the second-best rider, they all end up with Evenepoel."