Roger de Vlaeminck is one of cycling’s greatest legends, having won many monuments, Grand Tour stages and much more throughout his extensive career that spanned throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s. Hence, it came as a surprise to see the Belgian 78-year old criticize the comparisons of Eddy Merckx with Tadej Pogacar, wording it quite aggressively regarding something that is rather logical. However there is not only negative feedback regarding the Belgian veteran.”Make me 22 today and put me in the bunch with Pogacar, and he wouldn’t drop me. Where was it recently — when he rode away from Evenepoel? At Lombardia. On not even a difficult climb. As good as Merckx… come on,” was one of the statements of De Vlaeminck in an interview with Het Laatste Nieuws.
More was said, where he made it clear that in his opinion, the current World Champion is nowhere near the level of Merckx in his prime. De Vlaeminck, a compatriot and also former rival of Merckx, has basis to claim this perhaps better than anyone else, however over social media and other pundits there were clear signs of confusion regarding the statements.
These were taken with a big grain of salt by the cycling community, who didn’t understand the reason for such harsh words. De Vlaeminck himself was criticized over them, as the World Champion’s immense success draws very reasonable comparisons with the man who is termed as ‘cycling’s best ever’.
Terrible nonsense, but refreshing “I don’t think those comments really suit him. If he compares the 70s with now, it’s terrible nonsense,” Brian Holm said in an interview with Ekstra Bladet. The Danish figure however doesn’t take issue to it. “It is also very refreshing that there is someone who does it. Someone who just goes off and takes all of Belgium in hand”.
Whether it is correct or not is up for debate, but the debate is many times the most interesting aspect of the sport when discussing historical figures. And in Holm’s view, De Vlaeminck’s inflammatory words help keep the spark and the interest in the cycling bubble. “He shows up a few times a year,” however as he points out, it is quite clear that “he is not popular with the young riders,”