Cycling great and 2011 Tour de France winner Cadel Evans has paid tribute to Tadej Pogačar, saying that he believes that if the Slovenian remains motivated he could well end up targeting seven Tour wins.
Evans added that the gap between Pogačar and his rivals is extending, with his main challenger, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) – who was not present in the final week of the Tour after crashing out – an increasingly distant figure.
Rather, Evans believes Pogačar essentially only has history to beat now. Given the scale of the Slovenian's ambition, it looks increasingly like he can achieve multiple targets, not just the all-time Tour title, where with five he has now joined Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Miguel Indurain as the most successful riders in the history of the Grande Boucle.
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The key to it all, Evans told Cyclingnews, remains Pogačar's own ambition, in the face of which his rivals remain powerless. As the Australian asked rhetorically, "for as long as Pog's motivated, what's the rest of the cycling world going to do?"
Regarding his most persistent rival, Vingegaard, Evans pointed to the way the margins were pushing out before the forced departure.
"The gap between him and Jonas is widening, even if Jonas hadn't crashed out, it's still widening. Ok Jonas did the Giro" – before coming to the Tour – "but he chose to do that, I don't think anyone forced him, he chose it for a reason. The gap seems to be widening," Evans said.
In terms of where this leaves the limit to Pogačar's ambition, and if he could now look at six Tours, Evans argued: "If he's motivated, I'd say he'd stop at seven.
"He seems pretty insatiable for victories, and records and he's got the Cav record" – the 35 stage wins from Mark Cavendish, with Pogačar currently on 26 – "and the Merckx record to look at. I'd give him seven [Tour wins]."
Back on the Tour as a host with the Mummu Cycling travel group after he retired from cycling in early 2015, Evans talked to Cyclingnews just a few metres away from the finish line at Alpe d'Huez on stage 19.
"It's nice to be back and watch from the roadside, watch the finish, it's a great way to see the Tour from a different perspective," he pointed out, "We're in the era of the Pog', and he showed what he's all about today."
The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider attacked at the foot of the Alpe d'Huez and managed to reel in a breakaway with an advantage of over three minutes before going on to win on cycling's best-known ascent.
"I'm sitting here as a spectator, and Stuart O'Grady, my co-host here [and former Tour stage winner, race leader and points victor] said, 'there's no way he can pull back three minutes'."
"But this is the Pog and he's decided he's going to win, and in fact he caught them, and it looked like about two kilometres to go he'd do that."
In terms of Pogačar's domination and how impressive that is, Evans said that there was no doubt in his mind that the rider was well en route to becoming cycling's best-ever racer.
"I used to do commentary on ITV and I said back then, two years ago, that I think he's going to surpass Merckx and I don't think I'm too far off," Evans said.
"This is the greatest of all time. We're seeing unfolding history in front of us, let's enjoy it and appreciate it."
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