'The Messi or Ronaldo of cycling' – Tadej Pogačar remains a cut above at Tour of Flanders despite superstars aligning to challenge him

Before the 2026 Tour of Flanders, Tadej Pogačar, Mathieu van der Poel, Remco Evenepoel and Wout van Aert had only met on the start line of two one-day races together. Both times were at the World Championships, in 2022 and 2023. But on Sunday, they faced off for an epic, rare battle on the road from Antwerp to Oudenaarde and, in a memorable edition, the phenomenal Slovenian emerged victorious for his 12th Monument success.

This moves Pogačar to second place on the all-time leaderboard for victories at cycling's five most prestigious one-day races, ahead of Roger De Vlaeminck and with only Eddy Merckx's, in theory, untouchable total of 19 left to chase.

The stats are endless and the superlatives are all exhausted – so much so that Evenepoel's DS Klaas Lodewyck turned to another sport to muster up a comparison: "He's brilliant. He's the Messi or Ronaldo of cycling," he told Cyclingnews – and his rivals simply have no answers in 2026.

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From just his three race days of racing in Strade Bianche, Milan-San Remo and now De Ronde, he has a 100% win record. While it was anything but, by his own admission, he made his latest success look easy.

"When you go to the biggest races of the year, you never can expect it to be easy, and today was really hard," said Pogačar as he sat down for his winner's press conference, some time after he crossed the line alone with his fist in the air.

"All of the competitors were super strong, and everybody raced really aggressively. Everybody left everything out on the road today, and it was a beautiful race in the end. Obviously, in Flanders, you need to have exceptional legs, and you need to be in the shape of the day, and I was lucky to have it today."

Pogačar repeated what he did in 2023 and 2025, attacking away finally on the final of three reps up the Oude Kwaremont climb, but this came after his team blew the race to pieces at 102km to go on the Molenberg.

Florian Vermeersch did the damage with the rainbow jersey in his wheel, drawing 16 of the top riders out of the peloton to form a group of favourites, and then Pogačar put everyone to the sword on the second time up the Kwaremont, where only Van der Poel and debutant Evenepoel could follow.

He dispatched with Evenepoel on the next ascent, the Paterberg, before working to ensure he never caught back on to the leading duo – despite his best efforts – and that it would be man-against-man with Van der Poel heading into the final loop of the key climbs. This is where he calmly dealt with him, too, and rode 18km solo to the finish in Oudenaarde, making history as the eighth man to win a record third Tour of Flanders.

"No, for sure you [have doubts] when you don't know what he's feeling; maybe he's bluffing, maybe not," said Pogačar of how he played things with the Dutchman. "You always need to think twice, but I think Mathieu rode really well and honest, like he always does."

After Van der Poel had referred to his stunning power numbers and how he himself had to concede in the face of someone who is just better as he thinks he's at career-best shape, Pogačar was asked directly if he felt the same was true of his current form, which seems to only be increasing.

"I'm quite lucky to still be able to improve, or still see some room for improvement in certain ways," he said, before actually crediting the likes of the Dutchman and Evenepoel for it.

"I think the biggest help is the other competitors. We are pushing each other to another level, I think, but for sure, at some point we'll go down."

With pushback following the Slovenian wherever he races in 2026, for both his total domination of the biggest races, and often the method he uses to do so – long solo moves – Pogačar was questioned on the potential effect his presence has on the rest of the WorldTour field.

Asked if he thinks his rivals enjoy riding against him anymore, Pogačar half shrugged, before saying, "Maybe some people not, and some people yes, I don't know," but he was more serious when the journalist asking the question said if he were them, he would be turning desperate at this point.

"Yeah, but I don't… I have three race days. You know how many races there have been this year already?" said Pogačar, with his next race set to be another thrilling appointment at Paris-Roubaix, continuing his calendar of only the grandest appointments.

He was second there on debut in 2025 after a late mistake saw Van der Poel get ahead and complete his hat-trick, but he will be back and hungry for more in a week's time, with now having the experience and his current form making for an ominous prospect that Van der Poel and co. will all have to contend with.

If Pogačar does succeed, he will look likely to become the first rider ever to win all five Monuments in the same season and will become the fourth rider, and first non-Belgian, to win all of Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia in their career.

"It's two out of five, now, let's not get ahead of ourselves," he said. "Let's enjoy the moment, enjoy this victory today, go with motivation to Roubaix, and we'll see what happens."

He may be tempering expectations, but after this, the latest display of his all-conquering power, victory in the Roubaix Velodrome is looking more possible by the minute. Van der Poel will be on favoured, flatter terrain once again, and the main challenger, but even he was some distance from the World Champion's level today. It's Pogačar's sport, and everyone else just has to live in it.

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