Tadej Pogačar is basically playing a different sport right now. If you watched him roll into Paris in July 2025 to collect his fourth yellow jersey, you saw a guy who looked like he’d just finished a weekend club ride, not a three-week sufferfest through the Alps. He didn't just win. He dismantled the competition.
Honestly, the 2024 and 2025 seasons have turned the "greatest of all time" conversation from a fun debate into a statistical inevitability. We aren't just looking at a fast climber anymore. We're looking at a guy who redefined what a human being can do on two wheels.
The 2025 Domination: What Actually Happened
Most people thought 2024 was the ceiling. That year, he pulled off the first Giro-Tour double since Marco Pantani in 1998, winning 12 stages across both races. It was absurd. But 2025? It was arguably more clinical.
Pogačar took the yellow jersey early, lost it briefly to Ben Healy after a breakaway went rogue in the middle of the race, and then just... took it back. No panic. No "emergency meetings" in the UAE Team Emirates-XRG bus. Just a relentless, 7-watts-per-kilo grind that eventually broke everyone.
By the time the race hit the Pyrenees, the gap to Jonas Vingegaard was already widening. Stage 12 on Hautacam was the nail in the coffin. Pogačar didn't just win the stage; he set the fastest ascent of that mountain since the mid-90s. We’re talking a time of 33:53. For context, that’s over two minutes faster than Vingegaard on the same day.
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Vingegaard is no slouch. He’s a two-time winner. But even he looked human compared to the "Pogi-star" version of 2025.
Why the Gaps Are Getting Bigger
It isn't just about "talent." That’s a lazy explanation. The real reason Pogačar is distancing the peloton comes down to some pretty nerdy physiological shifts.
- VO2 Max Levels: Recent data suggests Pogačar’s VO2 max is sitting somewhere in the high 90s. Some analysts, like Professor Ole Kristian Berg, have modeled it as high as 96 mL/kg/min. That’s essentially the physiological limit for a human being.
- Fuelling Revolutions: His team, UAE Team Emirates-XRG, has perfected "carbohydrate saturation." They aren't just eating pasta; they are hitting precise glucose-to-fructose ratios that allow him to burn 100-120g of carbs per hour without his stomach revolting.
- The Lead-out Strategy: This is the part that kills the rivals' morale. UAE often hits the bottom of a 20-minute climb at 50 kph. His teammates, guys like Tim Wellens or Jhonatan Narváez, do "sprint" pulls at 600-700 watts. By the time Pogačar actually "attacks," everyone else is already in the red. He doesn't even have to stand up out of the saddle half the time.
The "Boring" Argument
Is he too good? Some fans on Reddit and Twitter started complaining during the 2025 Tour that the race was "boring" because the result felt settled by Stage 13.
It’s a fair point if you like drama, but it ignores the historical context. We are watching the peak of a "Triple Crown" winner—Giro, Tour, and Worlds in the same year (2024). In 2025, he defended the yellow jersey and the Rainbow Stripes. That hasn't happened in the modern era. Ever.
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If you find it boring, you're missing the point. You're watching a guy rewrite the physics of cycling.
That Stage 11 Crash
Even the best have bad days. In 2025, during Stage 11 around Toulouse, Pogačar actually hit the deck. He clipped the wheel of Tobias Johannessen with about 4km to go.
The peloton showed some old-school class there. Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel slowed down to let him catch back up. It was a "gentleman’s agreement" moment that kept the GC battle fair. Pogačar walked away with some road rash and a few lost seconds, but it reminded everyone that he is actually mortal. One patch of oil or a nervous rookie can end a Tour in a heartbeat.
How Do You Actually Beat Him?
If you're Visma-Lease a Bike or Ineos, how do you fix this?
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Current strategies seem to be "make the race as hard as possible and hope he explodes in the third week." But Pogačar fixed his third-week fading issue. His training overhaul under Javier Sola focused on durability and heat management. He doesn't "bonk" like he did on the Col de la Loze in 2023 anymore.
Vingegaard is heading to the Giro in 2026 to try and find his own "double" momentum. Maybe the strategy is to stop following Pogačar's wheel and start forcing him into tactical errors earlier in the season. But honestly? Good luck with that.
Actionable Takeaways for Fans and Cyclists
If you want to follow the Tour de France like an expert, or if you're a rider trying to shave time off your local hill climb, here is what we’ve learned from the Pogačar era:
- Fuelling is the New Aero: Don't wait until you're hungry to eat. Professional cycling has moved toward massive carb intake (90g+ per hour). If you're doing long rides, start practicing your gut's ability to handle more fuel.
- Zone 2 Matters: Pogačar spends the vast majority of his training hours in "Zone 2" (aerobic endurance). You can't hit 450 watts on a climb if you haven't built the massive aerobic base to support it.
- Watch the Lead-outs: Next time you watch the Tour, don't just wait for the attack. Watch the 5km before the attack. That’s where UAE wins the race by burning everyone else's matches.
- Mental Freshness: Pogačar frequently talks about "having fun." He races classics like Strade Bianche and Flanders because he likes them. For us mortals, it’s a reminder that if you aren't enjoying the bike, you won't sustain the training.
Tadej Pogačar has won four Tours de France now. He’s 27 years old. The record for most wins is five, shared by legends like Merckx and Hinault. Looking at the way he rode in 2025, that record doesn't just look reachable—it looks like a formality.