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Tadej Pogačar is closing in on a fifth Tour de France title, and nobody appears capable of stopping him.
At 27, the Slovenian is at the peak of his powers. Rivals have thrown everything at him over the past few seasons, and nothing has worked.
This is not a complaint. Pogačar remains the most exciting rider in the sport, even when everyone knows the attack is coming.
Today’s only workable tactic seems to be waiting for Pogačar to have a bad day.
But just for argument’s sake, what else could cycling do to try to crack the Pogačar Code?
If the Slovenian cannot be beaten by traditional tactics, perhaps it’s time for some more radical thinking.
Here are five ideas, from the plausible to the preposterous, to give the rest of the peloton a fighting chance next July.
1. Design the ultimate anti-Pogačar Tour
Evenepoel consistently wins Tour time trials, why not give him more? (Photo: Gruber Images)
If you can’t beat the rider, maybe you can design a course that can.
Tour de France officials insist they never build routes to favor one type of rider, but they do it anyway. Whenever one rider wins too much, organizers will often target their perceived weaknesses to spice things up.
The problem is that Pogačar doesn’t really have any.
This year’s Tour was built around the notion that Pogačar might weaken late, so Tour route boss Thierry Gouvenou loaded the final week with Vingegaard-friendly mega-climbs.
So what happened? Pogačar crushed everyone in the Pyrénées, and this Tour hyped up to be the closest in years was effectively over in six days.
So what route might actually hurt him? The kind that delivered Bradley Wiggins victory in 2012.
Instead of the token 20km or 30km against the clock, load up the route with 100km of individual time trials.
Remco Evenepoel is the one rider who consistently holds an edge over Pogačar against the clock. He took 28 seconds from him over just 26km this week.
Pile on three long time trials and the Belgian might hit the mountains with a several-minute head start.
Then make the rest of the race as un-Pogačar as possible. Add long, flat stages, crosswinds, endless sprint days, and perhaps toss in some cobbles. Cut the summit finishes down to two or three.
Yes, it might produce the dullest Tour in years.
But it might be the only route that King Pog couldn’t turn into an endless highlights reel.
2. Build the Tour ‘Dream Team’
Load up on speed and pure muscle to create a Tour ‘Dream Team.’ (Photo: Gruber Images)
Imagine you’re a tech bro or gal with billions to burn and an obsession with bike racing. Instead of another mega-yacht, you buy a cycling team.
You want to win the Tour in your first season, and money is no object.
What eight-man roster would you buy to give Pogačar the most trouble?
Sign Jonas Vingegaard because he’s the only rider who’s beaten Pog at his prime. Then add Paul Seixas because he’s one of the few young guns willing to race him head-on.
Next come the wrecking crew: Mathieu van der Poel, Mads Pedersen, and Filippo Ganna. These brutes will get their chances in the spring and have a shot at a Tour stage each. The rest of July would be about racing every day like it’s Paris-Roubaix.
Then add Wout van Aert as road captain because, well, he’s Wout. The final two spots go to pure climbers who don’t care about leadership. They just love to suffer and make everyone else suffer even more.
That’s the Dream Team.
To keep everyone’s egos in check and to sweeten the pot, win yellow and everyone pockets a $10 million bonus. Remember, we’re spending SpaceX Elon Bucks here.
Could that lineup isolate Pogi and finally beat UAE at its own game? Just maybe.
3. Bring back national teams
Some thing racing with national teams would be a good idea for the Tour de France. (Photo: Gruber Images)
This idea never really dies.
Every time one rider dominates the Tour, someone in France inevitably floats the idea of bringing back national teams.
Instead of UAE Emirates-XRG vs Visma-Lease a Bike, it’s Slovenia vs. Denmark vs. Belgium.
For one Tour it might even be a blast, but pro teams hate this idea.
Trade teams argue the Tour is a professional event, so riders should represent the teams that pay their salaries year-round, not their countries in a one-off World Cup-inspired folly.
It’s not as radical as it sounds. From the 1930s into the 1960s, Tour riders competed on national or regional teams.
Imagine Paul Seixas carrying French hopes into Paris. The crowds would lose their minds.
But would national teams strip Pogačar of his strongest advantage at superteam UAE?
Slovenia could still field a strong squad with Primož Roglič, Matej Mohorič, Matevž Govekar, and Domen Novak, but it certainly wouldn’t be UAE’s collection of international galácticos.
Could he be out-flanked? Maybe, but everyone else would still have to follow Pogačar uphill no matter the kit.
4. Introduce a salary cap
Would a salary cap be practical for modern pro cycling? (Photo: Gruber Images)
Then there’s the nuclear option: salary caps.
Or, even more draconian, cap everything.
North American leagues have used salary caps for decades to create some measure of competitive parity, but pro cycling has resisted the idea. In fact, the pro teams vetoed a proposal from the UCI this spring.
Would financial parity finally weaken UAE?
Imagine every WorldTour team operating under the same hard annual budget, say $40 million. Toss in a bit of TV rights revenue sharing for good measure, and rich teams get clipped and poor teams get a boost.
Cap everything: salaries, coaches, nutritionists, altitude camps, aerodynamics, and sports science.
You could still spend half your budget on King Pog, but the same hard limit would apply to everything around him.
It would be the ultimate fantasy league challenge.
Many believe this is the only way to create a level playing field in pro cycling’s Wild West, anything-goes financial model.
Detractors counter that cycling needs more money, not less.
In reality, cycling’s loose international structure would make it almost impossible to enforce.
You could cap the budget, but you can’t cap greatness.
5. Give everyone else a head start
No one’s figured out how to beat Pogačar lately at the Tour. (Photo: Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / POOL / AFP)
OK, Pogačar is so good it’s time to abandon reality altogether.
If golf has handicaps, why not the Tour de France?
Every morning, Pogačar gets a 30-second penalty before the stage even starts.
If he wins, no bonus. But if someone beats him, they get a one-minute bonus.
And to make things really fun, on summit finales, Pogačar has to soft-pedal for two minutes at the foot of the final climb while everyone else attacks.
He’d probably erase the deficit before the summit anyway, but for a few glorious minutes, we’d all have hope.
Of course, it’s hardly his fault he’s GOAT good.
The joy of watching Pogačar is that even when everyone knows what’s coming, he still finds new ways to surprise us.
Maybe cycling doesn’t need spending caps, tech bros, or national teams. It just needs someone who can ride as fast as Tadej Pogačar.