Is Tadej Pogačar the greatest cyclist who’s ever lived? Plus we ask: What’s going on with cycling media in 2024?

Back in August 2003, a spotty-faced, greasy-haired teenager named Cristiano Ronaldo strode onto the Old Trafford turf for the first time, a 61st minute substitute for Nicky Butt, as Manchester United led Bolton Wanders by a solitary goal on the opening day of the Premier League season. Just over half an hour later, after a flurry of stepovers and silky skills that left poor Bolton debutant Nicky Hunt bamboozled, United ran out 4-0 winners and Ronaldo was already a star.

Shortly after, the most illustrious former holder of Ronaldo’s No. 7 shirt at United, George Best – by then occasionally turning up for his weekly punditry role at Sky Sports – said of the Portuguese upstart: “There have been a few players described as ‘the new George Best’ over the years, but this is the first time it’s been a compliment to me.”

The likelihood of Eddy Merckx, cycling’s own rather grumpier version of Best, offering a similarly flattering appraisal of a possible new contender to his status as the greatest male cyclist of all time is slim, as followers of the cantankerous Cannibal’s public utterances will know all too well.

But while the Belgian struggles to admit it himself, it’s pretty clear – after one of the finest individual seasons the sport has ever seen – that Tadej Pogačar’s early-career status as the latest ‘Next Merckx’ is looking more and more like a compliment to Eddy by the day.

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Tadej Pogačar has been unbeatable in 2024.

A stunning, almost flawless spring that saw him win Strade Bianche, the Volta a Catalunya, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège formed the perfect launchpad for the the first Giro-Tour double for 26 years, complete with a staggeringly dominant 12 stage wins across both grand tours.

The Slovenian then underlined his physical superiority with one of the most audacious world championships-winning attacks ever (it certainly gave Annemiek van Vleuten’s epic solo in Harrogate a run for its money), following that up with another long-range move to win his first race in the rainbow jersey at the Giro dell’Emilia.

(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

In fact, it was only northern Italy’s torrential rain that stopped Pogačar winning again at a sodden Tre Valli Varesine, ahead of potentially his fourth consecutive triumph at Il Lombardia this weekend.

Over the past five decades, countless promising young riders have been bestowed and burdened with the tag of being the ‘Next Eddy Merckx’. Most either crumbled under the weight of expectations or simply ignored the murmurings from the roadside, putting together solid careers, albeit ones a long way away from that initial spark.

Pogačar is the first to look even remotely close to matching, or even surpassing, Merckx’s until-now untouchable legacy.

(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

Which is why, since that 100km attack in Zurich, the question has raged on in social media debates, live blogs, and on weekend club rides: Is Pogačar the greatest male cyclist we’ve ever seen?

On episode 88 of the road.cc Podcast, Dan and Ryan dissect the GOAT debate, the folly of comparing different eras, and Merckx’s own flip-flopping position on Pogačar’s place in cycling history.

We also break out the stats to assess how Eddy and Tadej stack up against each other at the same age (spoiler – it’s closer than you think), what the current world champion has to do before he retires to compete for GOAT status, and to what extent Pogačar’s swashbuckling, devil-may-care style, and the brutally dominant manner of his victories, compares against other attacking greats such as Fausto Coppi.

And in part two, in a change of pace so sudden you’d think Pogačar has just attacked off the front, we peel back the curtain and go behind the scenes to discuss the ever-changing nature of the specialist cycling media landscape.

Joining Ryan and road.cc founder Tony to explore the increasing uncertainty surrounding the UK’s cycling media, a decade or so on from the post-2012 boom, is Cillian Kelly, GCN’s former stats enthusiast, who helped launch and develop the late, lamented GCN+ app, while also appearing on its Stat Attack and World of Cycling shows, and documentaries.

> The rise & fall of GCN+ – is the livestream party over for cycling fans?

After departing GCN following the company’s reshuffle earlier this year, which saw its new website and very popular app shut down in the wake of Warner Bros Discovery selling the brand back to founder and CEO Simon Wear, Cillian penned an article on his new website, ‘The Cycling Website’, asking the question: “What’s going on with cycling media? Is it OK? Is it ‘broken’? Is it, like a lot of other things, just shite now? Or is it all actually fine and I should just calm down and try and enjoy myself?”

Those questions got us thinking over in the road.cc offices (being cycling media ourselves), so we decided to invite Cillian on to the podcast for a chat about the current cycling media landscape, why it’s changed (and changing), and whether we should be worried about the future.

Prior warning – there was quite a bit of chat about Google and programmatic revenue (that survived the edit that is), and a bit of nostalgia for the glory days of cycling magazine after cycling magazine filling up our local newsagents… I suppose podcasts will have to do for now.

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