CyclistGOAT Bingo: What does Tadej Pogaar still have left to win?For Tadej Pogaar, it feels as though he is collecting race wins like Pokmon cards. Hes now won (take a deep breath) Strade Bianche, Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico, Volta a Catalunya, the Tour of Flanders, Amstel Gold, Flche Wallonne, Lige-Bastogne-Lige, Il Lombardia, the Slovenian national title, a rainbow jersey, the Giro dItalia and three Tours de France. That doesnt even mention his other victories in races like the GP Montral, the UAE Tour, Tour of California and Tour of Slovenia. As of the time of writing, he has a whopping 86 race wins to his name.If he wasnt already considered the GOAT the greatest of all time then hes certainly on track to get there. Eddy Merckx has already admitted that Pogaar is above him, although he clarified his comment to say he was referring to the World Championships, and that Pogaar needs to win a lot more to be remembered as better than him overall. Still, Pogaar is currently 26, and has achieved more than Merckx had at the same age, even if the Belgian ended his career with eleven Grand Tour wins and three rainbow jerseys, as well as wins at all Monuments.With the Triple Crown now done and dusted, there are no debates surrounding the Slovenians stratospheric status as the best rider of the 21st century. However, his place as the greatest cyclist of all time is still up for discussion. There are always more races to win, and more records to break. Here are just a few of the goals he can set if he truly wants to be hailed as cyclings all-time greatest.Milan-San RemoTim de Waele/Getty ImagesTo open proceedings, lets remind ourselves that Merckx won 19 Monuments throughout his career. In fact he won all five Monuments more than once. With this in mind, its clear that Pogaar needs to win a good few more Monuments to become the greatest of all time and build on his current tally of six.Milan-San Remo has been a key target in Pogaars season for some years now. Often touted as the hardest Classic to win, more in terms of tactics than strength, the Slovenian has struggled to impose himself on the rolling Ligurian profile. He has tried attacking on the final climb of the Poggio in the past three editions but has seen little daylight between himself and other favourites.Attacking on the penultimate climb of the Cipressa has been debated for a couple of seasons. UAE Team Emirates have tried to tee this up, but the likelihood of this working on this parcours is slim. It hasnt been pulled off for a long time.For Pogaar to win, he needs to catch his rivals sleeping, particularly if Mathieu van der Poel is in attendance. Pogaars shown that he can win from a reduced group or an attritional situation, so perhaps he needs to try and bring forward a group of talented puncheurs with weaker sprints in order to take the Classicissima title. He might have to wait until Wout van Aert and Van der Poel have lost some of their top-end acceleration in their early 30s, however. Related Posts Pro bike: Tadej Pogaars World Championships-winning Colnago V4Rs The best photos from the UCI World Championships mens road race 2024 Cyclist Magazine Podcast episode 114: Tadej Pogaar interview How he won the Tour, Vingegaard, losing, winning again, and his work with PlumeStrong Every Tadej Pogaar Monument performance ranked Paris-Roubaix Bernard Papon - Pool/Getty ImagesThis one might be a little tricky. Paris-Roubaix is a specialists race, and one that Pogaar has so far avoided during his career. Rarely has someone debuted at the race and won immediately, but it is possible. In fact, it happened relatively recently in the rainy autumn edition in 2021 when not just the winner but the entire podium consisted of debutants: Sonny Colbrelli, Florian Vermeersch and Mathieu van der Poel.Paris-Roubaix is also a risky race, hence why Grand Tour contenders dodge the cobbled Classic like the plague. The danger of crashes and injury is ever-present, and avoiding incident as as much a question of luck than anything else. That said, Pogaar is no ordinary Grand Tour contender. He has won the Tour of Flanders and showed immense strength on the cobbles of northern France during Stage 5 of the 2022 Tour de France, which took on many of the cobbled sectors included in the Hell of the North. His savvy bike handling and race positioning are also suited to Paris-Roubaix and should keep him out of danger. Regardless, the threat is still there that a crash or cobble-induced injury would jeopardise the Slovenians later Grand Tour ambitions. Realistically, Pogaar would need to target the cobbled race over multiple seasons. My best guess is to say that Pogaar will start riding Paris-Roubaix in 2026, and should win it before 2030. His chances may rely on the likes of Van der Poel, a two-time winner of the race, and Van Aert dodging the race at some point soon, opening the door for a long-range move or a reduced bunch sprint win.Vuelta a EspaaJustin Setterfield/Getty ImagesThe Vuelta holds a special place in Pogaars story. It was there, after all, where he burst onto the Grand Tour stage in 2019 with three stage wins and a podium finish in Madrid at the age of just 19.Having now won the Giro and Tour, the Vuelta title seems like its there for the taking for the Slovenian phenomenon. The UAE Team Emirates leader had his chance to win all three Grand Tours in 2024, but opted not to race the Vuelta. He has hinted that he might set his eyes on the Spanish race in 2025, though a lot could depend on how the Tour will pan out and the nature of the route for the 2025 Vuelta.The race for the red jersey in Spain is also considered to be the least targeted of the three Grand Tours. Few riders go into the new year with the Vuelta as their number one goal. For Pogaar, this should mean that there should be less pressure on him going into the Vuelta, which could be handy on the back of what will be a tough Tour de France.Out of all of the races hes still to tack off on this bingo sheet, the Vuelta is the most achievable. Perhaps this will come next year during the Slovenians rainbow year as World Champion.More Tours de FranceA.S.O./Billy CeustersLets bring Merckx back into the picture. He won five Tours de France during his career, a record he shares with Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurin. Surpassing this record sounds like a challenge well within Pogaars reach. He could even complete the feat before his 30th birthday, which is in 2028 by the way. At this years Tour de France, Pogaar seemed to be on a completely different level from his rivals. Yes, Jonas Vingegaard came into the race after recovering from a serious injury suffered in the spring, but Pogaar was pushing numbers he had never done before. UAE Team Emirates rose to the challenge with an armoured roster packed with Grand Tour contenders in their own right. Adam Yates, JooAlmeida and Juan Ayuso are all tied down by contracts for the foreseeable future, plus Visma-Lease a Bikes grip on Tour supremacy seems to be slipping.Pogaar went through both the Giro dItalia and the Tour de France with no hiccups, unlike the Grand Tours hed raced before. Maybe this was a lucky streak, but he seems to have learned from the mistakes of the 2022 and 2023 Tours. Time is on Pogaars side, and he seems to have the measure of his younger rivals such as Remco Evenepoel, who is probably in the Tour fight for the long haul. On current form it seems unlikely that any rider will be able to unseat him in the next three years at least, which means the three-time Tour winner has every chance to set a new record for Tour wins sooner rather than later. Even if Vingegaard ruffles him once more, its far from ludicrous to suggest that Pogaar could claim his fifth Tour title by the end of the decade.Olympic goldGreg Baker/AFP via Getty ImagesThe opportunity to take Olympic gold might have been the one that got away. The Paris 2024 Olympics route looked perfectly suited for Pogaar, although Evenepoel played a tactical blinder on the day and fully deserved his win. It leaves us wondering what could have been, but there are still another two good chances for Pogaar to win an Olympic gold during his career.In 2028, the Olympics will be held in Los Angeles. Pogaar claimed his first UCI WorldTour win at the now-disbanded Tour of California back in 2019, so he knows how to win on American roads, which is important because American racing can differ quite drastically from the European circuit. Of course, at this point we have no idea what the route will look like for either the road race or time-trial, but judging by the terrain around Los Angeles, the road race course is likely to feature some punchy hills ideal for Pogaar.Four years later, the Games will head to Brisbane, Australia. Pogaar will be 33 when these Olympics come around. If he hasnt already won gold by then, the hilly Queensland terrain might support another Slovenian bid for the Olympic title.Perhaps the IOC should add a stage race to the programme to secure Pogaar the gold.The Tour de France stage win record A.S.O./Charly LopezSorry, Mark Cavendish. I know he spent years hunting this record down, even extending his career just to achieve it, but Pogaar is on track to obliterate the Manx Missiles record of 35 Tour de France stage wins by the time he calls time on his career. Cavendish is well aware of this threat, and joking told Pogaar, Dont break it after claiming the record in Saint Vulbas earlier this year.As Cyclist told Pogaar in our podcast interview, he has averaged 3.7 stage wins per Grand Tour so far in his career. If he carries on at this pace, Pogaar could break Cavendishs record by 2030. For context, Pogaar will only be 31 years old at this point.Even if Pogaar stops being a GC rider, he could easily hunt breakaway wins if he wants to specifically target the record. Any other businessA.S.O./Gatan FlammeNow for the minor races, by which I mean achievements that would be the cherry on top of the cake rather than the cake itself.The Critrium du Dauphin stage race has thus far alluded the Slovenian. This pre-Tour race may have been pegged as a kiss of death for Tour contenders in the past, but recent champions like Chris Froome and Vingegaard have won the Dauphin before claiming Tour titles the month after. Targeting the race would mean a change to his pre-Tour schedule, however, with altitude camps seen as the optimal preparation for the Tour nowadays. Still, bagging this one-week stage race would undoubtedly add a little more razzmatazz to Pogaars CV.Apart from the Dauphin, and perhaps some more cobbled wins at the likes of E3 or Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, theres not much left to target outside of the Grand Tours and Monuments.Outside of pure race results, Pogaar has already birthed a youth team, the inventively named Pogi Team, and he supports a number of charitable causes. In other words, hes already a long way down the road in terms of legacy building. Maybe like Merckx, Pogaar will release a brand of bikes soon. Maybe hell release a selection of food products to go alongside his range of supermarket sandwiches. When its Tadej Pogaar were talking about, anything seems possible. Related Posts Pro bike: Tadej Pogaars World Championships-winning Colnago V4Rs The best photos from the UCI World Championships mens road race 2024 Cyclist Magazine Podcast episode 114: Tadej Pogaar interview How he won the Tour, Vingegaard, losing, winning again, and his work with PlumeStrong Every Tadej Pogaar Monument performance ranked The post GOAT Bingo: What does Tadej Pogaar still have left to win? appeared first on Cyclist.

On Saturday, October 5th, the women's elite race at the 2024 Gravel World Championships takes place in Leuven, Belgium. Among others, the current road race champion Lotte Kopecky and cyclocross world champion Fem van Empel will battle it out.The startlist for the race includes: Lotte Kopecky, Lorena...

Last fall BMC launched a new, more aero Teammachine R, and now they are back with its own Mpc, a no-expense-spared Masterpiece version of that same aero road bike. Made by hand one-at-a-time to an exacting level of attention to detail in Europe, these limited edition Masterpiece carbon frames truly are a work of art for bike nerds like us. But shockingly enough, this Teammachine R Mpc frameset is actually more affordable than when BMC introduced us to their masterpiece collection a couple of years agoBMC Teammachine R Mpc ltd. edition carbon aero road bike(Photos/BMC)Masterpiece is BMCs vision of the perfect carbon bike. This is the result of their Swiss engineers geeking out on the highest-performance carbon material, the most precise layup, and the most advanced molds. However, it is not an efficient process suitable for production bikes. So instead, they build one frame at a time, sparing no expense. BMC create what they describe as a work of art in carbon, without paint or filler to hide the beautiful raw carbon fiber work.It takes too long to make each one. We cant make very many. They will be too expensive. Its unnecessary. But we can.Now, with a new Teammachine R to work from, BMC recreate a more premium Teammachine R Mpc. It has all the aerodynamic gains innovations, and tech features of the F1-inspired bike that BMC called the perfect road racing bike last fall. Just now it is lighter, and a bit fancier. Read our first impressions review of that new Teammachine R to get the full story on how its aerodynamics developed, and how the bike rides.Shedding over 10% of the weight from an already ultralight frame is nothing short of remarkable. Maintaining all those other critical factors for maximum speed at the same elite level? Thats nearly miraculous. Without doubt, Teammachine R Mpc. is the ultimate race bike. Stefan Christ, BMC Switzerland, Head of R&D Tech detailslighter, more precise Mpc carbon layup with the same stiffness as the 01 level frameflawless untreated raw carbon surface with low-key metallic graphics810g frame, saves 100g vs. the Teammachine R 011350g framekit, saves 110g vs. the Teammachine R 01 (with 390g fork & 150g seatpost, each saving 5g)slim integrated headtube and reduced frontal profileextremely wide spacing between the Halo fork leg and spinning spokesdeep aero downtube transitioning into a long extended bottom bracket clusterintegrated Aerocore bottle cages that shape airflow over your water bottlesa deep aero seattube with close rear wheel cutout and tapered wedge dropper seatstay junctionsleek, enclosed stealth dropouts30mm max tire clearancePF86 bottom bracket, flat mount disc brakes,12mm thru-axle & a proprietary aero seatpost6 stock sizes (47-61cm)BMC Teammachine R Mpc Masterpiece pricing, options & availabilityBMC is selling the new Teammachine R Mpc as a limited edition frame kit, with just 200 individually numbered frames available. And the even lighter all-rounder Teammachine SLR Mpc frame at 731g (plus 308g fork & 140g seatpost) also carries over, in the same limited quantities. The price now for either model is $9000 / 9000, including the premium Masterpiece road bike frame, fork, seatpost, headset, spacers, Aerocore bottle cages, a Scicon gear bag, a bike sock cover, and a certificate of authenticity.Interestingly, thats 25% cheaper than when BMC introduced us to their Masterpieces two summers ago, although now it does not include a handlebar. BMC does suggest 3 of their compatible 1-piece ICS cockpits so you pick the bar position perfect for you, with full cable integration for an extra $700Additionally, for another $1600 buyers can add on the UK-made BMC Travel Case Pro, a rigid protective aluminum bike box on wheels to be sure their Masterpiece is fully protected whenever they travel to ride their new custom bike.Whatever masterpiece you pick, its up to you how you build it up.The Masterpiece program is now available through all BMC dealer shops, and direct from the BMC website. BMC-Switzerland.comThe post BMCs Latest Premium Teammachine R Mpc Road Bike is a More Affordable Masterpiece appeared first on Bikerumor.

We preview the Sparkassen Mnsterland Giro; a race in Germany that will suit the sprinters and classics riders looking to take a strong win to finish off their season.The route will be 203 kilometers long and feature a few short and explosive climbs throughout the middle section of the German one-d...

You wouldn't find a better winner for the FrieslandElfstedenrace. There's not a cycling fan that wouldn't smile seeing Taco van der Hoorn take his first victory in well over two years, coming back from a long injury. In the final he was able to ride away from a small group that included Visma | Lea...

Irish riders Rory Townsend (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) and Dillon Corkery (St Michel-Mavic-Auber93) have put in some very strong performances in Belgium and the Netherlands riding against World Tour opposition. Former Irish road race champion, Townsend, was in very good company on Wednesday when he spent most of the 200km Betcity Elfstedenrace (1.1) in the []The post Irelands Corkery and Townsend shine against World Tour rivals | Video appeared first on Sticky Bottle.

Nathan Van Hooydonck was forced to stop racing last year, but by no means has the Belgian rider abandoned the world of cycling. Besides becoming a regular guest as expert during TV broadcasts, he also slowly learnt the ins and outs of the work of commercial team at Visma | Lease a Bike.Van Hooydonc...

Cork City Council has started using the new two-stage turns layout from the National Cycle Design Manual older versions of the design can be found in limited locations across Ireland, mostly in suburban areas of Dublin and Cork.The design is intentionally called a hook turn or box turn because it usually involves a box layout. The design is a formalisation of a stay left to turn right turning movement.The new layout is triangle-shaped and attached to cycle lanes as they go straight across junctions. Both the cycle lane and the triangle waiting area also use Dutch-style elephant feet markings for cycle lanes at junctions.Kevin Long, a member of the Cork Cycling Campaign, tweeted a video of one of the new turns in Cork.Long said: New two-stage turn to get across to CUH. Theres a lot of new box turns like these across the city, but not many people know how to use them. Could be a useful project to do a promotion/ how-to video .The approach is in contrast to the recently finished layout in Dublin City, which makes the corners of footpaths shared paths to allow people cycling to turn using shared crossings. New two stage turn to get across to CUH. Theres a lot of new box turns like these across the city but not many people know how to use them .Could be a useful project to do a promotion/ how-to video @corkcitycouncil @CorkCyclingCrew pic.twitter.com/5Dn4Ca6ZwN kevin long (@jklong14) October 2, 2024Using the design includes:(1) Cycling towards the junction as usual.(2) Starting to turn left.(3a) Stoping on the cycle right turn arrow marking and facing towards the side street on the other side of the street or road.(3b) Waiting until the traffic lights change to show green in the direction youre travelling in.(4) Proceeding ahead of other traffic across the junction.The Cycle Design Manual outlines: A two-stage right turn layout, see Figure 4.94, can be used to facilitate right-turning cyclists at signalised junctions where a protected layout is not being implemented. The layout incorporates a marked waiting area for right-turning cyclists on the side road which is located between the pedestrian crossing and the main road alignment. The pedestrian crossing may need to be set back slightly to accommodate the waiting area. The vehicular stop line is also set back to improve visibility of waiting cyclists and to allow cyclists to advance ahead of motorists.In this arrangement, cyclists share the road with motorists and move in the same signal stage, preferably with an early start for cyclists. The waiting areas provide an alternative facility for cyclists to turn right without having to wait in the centre of the carriageway for a gap in the traffic, the manual outlines.It continues: Cyclists wishing to turn right can do so in a two-stage manoeuvre. They first enter the junction when their approach arm is given the green signal and proceed to pull into the waiting area in the mouth of the side road. When the side road receives a green signal, cyclists can proceed to cross to the opposite side to complete their right turn manoeuvre.The manual suggests that a traffic light loop detector should be installed in the bicycle waiting area to ensure that bicycles are decided, especially on quieter side roads where there might not be frequent traffic to trigger the traffic light change.It adds: Where an early start is being provided for cyclists, a secondary cycle signal may be useful, depending on the geometry and signal head placements at the junction.Here is the example of the layout pictured in the Cycle Design Manual: A number of cities have produced videos explaining the turn obviously, there are some differences between these designs and the Irish ones:The opposite of the stay left to turn right design, stay right to turn left, is sometimes used in the Netherlands at side streets to allow people to turn left from cycle paths where there is no space for protected junction turning spaces:

The hustle after rather controversial Zurich World Championships is yet to calm down, but many already look forward to what will be the first African road cycling World Championships ever. And the organizers from Rwanda prepared a brutal course that promises to tear up the peloton to pieces with win...

SvenVanthourenhout will move on from his role of a coach at the Belgian National Team next year and likely take up a new challenge as sports director either at Soudal - Quick-Step or UAE Team Emirates. His replacement won't have it easy to take over after a period with Olympic and World titles ever...