Eddy Merckx now believes that Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates XRG) is a better cyclist than he was at his peak as he says in Anatomy of a G.O.A.T., a new documentary from Eurosport and TNT Sports that premieres on Saturday, November 7.
"He is now above me," Merckx said in the film. "He's bringing back a kind of cycling we had forgotten."
Pogačar has dominated almost every race he has ridden in recent years with only a couple of occasions where he was beaten by the likes of Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek). But he now only has a handful of races on his to-win list as he continues to dominate the sport.
Photo: Thomas MaheuxAlberto Contador, the retired Grand Tour winner who now works as a pundit for Eurosport and TNT Sports, takes Merckx’s words further, saying he is beyond anything seen in cycling.
"I believe Tadej Pogačar is the best cyclist of all time. Tadej wants to win everything," Contador said. "If you think about it, it's very hard to find an athlete in any other discipline across history who is so much better than their rivals. Tadej Pogačar is like that in every race he competes in from February to October."
In the documentary, Contador compares the Slovenian star’s dominance to that of Usain Bolt in track sprinting with his form lasting an entire season.
This is not the first time that Merckx has hyped up Pogačar and his amazing ability. The 11-time Grand Tour winner told L'Équipe: "It is obvious that Tadej Pogacar is above me," after Pogačar completed the Giro-Tour-world championship treble in Zürich in 2024, matching Merckx's 1974 season.
Days later he told Relevo he had meant only that race. "He has won only three Tours. He is not yet superior to me. He has a long way to go before being better than Eddy Merckx," he said.
Pogačar has now won five Tours, putting him level with Merckx. He took the race after adding Monument wins in Milan-Sanremo, Tour of Flanders and a fourth Liège-Bastogne-Liège in the spring. He is just 28 years old and has 130 victories to his name with two world titles, 13 Monuments and six Grand Tours. Merckx does still lead in that regard thanks to his 11 Grand Tours, three world titles and 19 Monuments, but Pogačar has much of his career left and has a contract up until he is 34 years old.
Photo: Zac Williams/SWpix.comPogačar's attempt to add a first Vuelta a España ended in a stage eight crash that broke his collarbone and fractured a vertebra. He had led the race by 3:50.
Speaking in the documentary, Pogačar said: “As long as you enjoy doing this sport, the results will come. Once you stop having fun, you need to find something else that will make you happy,” he said. “In very hard moments, you need to realise: ‘I’m here because I did all the preparation before, I sacrificed everything to be here.’
“You cannot give up. You need to push through, because after a bad moment, there are always better moments.”
The 45-minute documentary is split up into five ‘chapters’ covering Pogačar’s physiology, performances and mental strength and includes previously unpublished WHOOP data as well as an exclusive interview with Pogačar and his parents, Mirko and Marjeta. Others involved include former coach Iñigo San Millán, TNT Sports commentator Matt Stephens, Matteo Trentin (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) and Netcompany Ineos director of racing Geraint Thomas as well as sports scientist Jean-Benoît Morin and WHOOP VP of Performance Science Kirsten Holmes.
In the show, Thomas recalls a moment where he knew Pogačar was on another level: “There was one time I was racing with Pog in Liege doing like over 400 watts easily.
“He came up to me and just started having a chat. And I was just a bit like, ‘mate, I can't really talk right now – I need to focus on just getting up this climb as best as possible.’ But he has another gear or two than me, that's for sure.”
The documentary premieres on HBO Max and Eurosport 2, and airs in the UK and Ireland at 15:15 GMT on TNT Sports 1. It is the first in a Eurosport and TNT Sports series about leading athletes across sport.
