{"id":620797,"date":"2025-12-08T20:56:35","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T20:56:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/620797\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T20:56:35","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T20:56:35","slug":"im-not-bored-by-tadej-pogacar-there-were-always-new-things-to-say-about-him-how-one-writer-set-out-to-capture-the-uncatchable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/620797\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I\u2019m not bored by Tadej Poga\u010dar, there were always new things to say about him’ \u2013 how one writer set out to capture the uncatchable"},"content":{"rendered":"

Few riders in history have made dominance look as effortless as Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a>. The four-time Tour de France<\/a> winner, back-to-back world champion<\/a> and 10-time Monument victor is arguably the best rider in the history of the sport. The 27-year-old\u2019s record speaks for itself: 108 wins, 45 of them in the last two seasons.<\/p>\n

Despite all this success, there has not been a full-length biography of the Slovenian published in English \u2013 until now, with the launch of Tadej Poga\u010dar: Unstoppable by Andy McGrath<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Having already published books on late greats Frank Vandenbroucke and Tom Simpson, journalist and writer McGrath faced a new challenge with his latest project: the subject was still alive. \u201cMe and my friends joked after the Vandenbroucke book that my next subject had to be alive,\u201d says McGrath. \u201cBut this is quite different. I was writing about the sport\u2019s big superstar, a moving target.\u201d<\/p>\n

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There could be no benefit of hindsight with Poga\u010dar \u2013 his greatness still unfolding and hard to encapsulate. \u201cTadej needs to have a calmer, more conservative streak to be a Grand Tour racer,\u201d the biographer reflects, \u201cbut he is also a one-day dominator, which makes him really interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Adam<\/p>\n

Adam is no stranger, as CW news editor, to working fast to keep up with Poga\u010dar\u2019s winning<\/p>\n

Mindful that he was in pursuit of a \u201cmoving target\u201d, McGrath had to proceed with haste. \u201cIt was one calendar year, almost to the day, from first meeting with an editor at Bloomsbury to finishing the project,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was probably the ultimate challenge for me as a writer because I didn\u2019t want to just collage it. I wanted new insights, new stories, and to talk to people, to do it face-to-face.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over that year McGrath was writing, his subject won a fourth Il Lombardia<\/a>; a third Strade Bianche<\/a>; a second Tour of Flanders<\/a> and La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne<\/a>; a third Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge<\/a>; the Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9<\/a>; a fourth Tour de France<\/a>; a second World Championships;<\/a> and the European Championships<\/a>; and, after the book was published, a fifth Il Lombardia<\/a>. Enough to take up the whole book.<\/p>\n

Instead, McGrath dedicates 25 pages to 2025, and about the same to 2024, the year in which Poga\u010dar took the triple crown of Giro d\u2019Italia, Tour de France and Worlds<\/a>. The biography is no blow-by-blow account, nor can it be, with those blows still being struck.<\/p>\n

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

\u201cThe nice thing about this book is that you finally get a big-picture view,\u201d McGrath explains. \u201cFrom being nobody, this tiny kid in Slovenia riding a unicycle, to being the complete cyclist, the superstar.\u201d The 250-page book seeks to explain and show Poga\u010dar\u2019s rise, which was not as inevitable as it may seem now. As much space is devoted to his early years as to his recent glories.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Tadej\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Given the reams of material published about Poga\u010dar \u2013 more than 100 articles on Cycling Weekly\u2019s website this year alone \u2013 how did McGrath tackle the mammoth research challenge?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a huge element of sifting, like panning for gold,\u201d he says. \u201cI listened to all the press conferences he\u2019d done, from 2020 to the present day, but picked only a handful of the best quotes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cTHERE ARE THINGS PEOPLE WON\u2019T TELL YOU. THEY WON\u2019T BETRAY HIS TRUST\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

McGrath spoke to primary sources too, including team-mates and former team-mates including Mikkel Bjerg and Matteo Trentin, and mentor Andrej Hauptman. \u201cYou\u2019re looking for gold there too \u2013 nuggets that will add something different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Were his interviewees willing to spill the beans? \u201cThere\u2019s kind of an inscrutability. The fact he is Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a>, the biggest star in modern sport, means that there are things people won\u2019t tell you on the record. They don\u2019t want to betray his trust. They don\u2019t want to get into trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unauthorised biography<\/p>\n

The book is not an authorised biography and as such contains no new material from the subject himself. \u201cHe didn\u2019t give me any one-on-one time, but he doesn\u2019t do many of those [interviews],\u201d McGrath says. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t win all these races by being freely available to journalists. I don\u2019t think it affected Unstoppable. His voice runs through it. As for the broader access level, I think it was pretty good, and it speaks to the positive things people have to say about him.\u201d<\/p>\n

One notably absent voice is that of Mauro Gianetti, the boss of UAE Team Emirates. \u201cThere\u2019s so much riding on Poga\u010dar, financially, competitively, that there\u2019s no point [from the team\u2019s perspective] in him being super open with the media,\u201d adds McGrath.<\/p>\n

The author did travel to Slovenia to meet with many figures from Poga\u010dar\u2019s past and present, a trip which gave him more than just quotes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t have an interpreter, so God bless Slovenians for being so good at English,\u201d McGrath says. \u201cIt was January, and Hauptman, the UAE DS, was still there, so it turned out to be a really good time to go and talk to people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Tadej\n<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar\u2019s stellar palmar\u00e8s spans Grand Tours and cobbled Classics<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

McGrath was also able to get a sense of the landscape and community that made Poga\u010dar. \u201cGoing to his hometown gives you a very grounding sense of who he is, the core of him growing up. There\u2019s nothing there to suggest that he would be an outstanding cyclist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar\u2019s winning has come to feel predictable, but the book reminds us of the shock in 2020 when the then 21-year-old stormed to victory at the Tour de France. Just two years earlier, he was on a Slovenian Continental team. \u201cThe lack of hype and his nationality worked for him in the long run,\u201d McGrath says. \u201cIf Poga\u010dar had been Belgian, there would have been a lot more pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

He recounts the story of a WorldTour team who, initially interested in signing the young rider, changed their mind upon discovering he was Slovenian. \u201cThere was definitely snobbery from the heartland nations of Europe,\u201d adds McGrath.<\/p>\n

Highs and lows<\/p>\n

What gives the book its compelling story isn\u2019t that Poga\u010dar is a serial winner, the unstoppable great of its title, but that he has had to overcome adversity. \u201cWith the Tour defeats to [Jonas] Vingegaard<\/a> in 2022<\/a> and 2023, there\u2019s a little bit of revisionism in the book,\u201d McGrath argues.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou realise just how impressive Visma\u2019s plan and execution was. I think it was probably one of the best days of bike racing since I started watching 22 years ago. We thought Poga\u010dar was invincible, and 2022 showed he wasn\u2019t, and after the 2023 defeat, there was a sense he might not come back from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In light of the past two years, though, the book\u2019s title can only be taken literally. \u201cUnstoppable was decided very early on,\u201d says McGrath, \u201cbefore the 2025 season. In the back of my mind was, what if he has a terrible year? Would we have a big black mark through the title?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Tadej\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Thankfully for McGrath, Poga\u010dar\u2019s unstoppability has become undeniable. It has left some arguing that his dominance has become boring \u2013 a charge his biographer rejects. \u201cWhy is excellence boring? After Poga\u010dar retires, probably in five years\u2019 time, we won\u2019t see someone like that for decades, probably ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

The book may soon need an update, given the rate at which the Slovenian wins \u2013 a prospect McGrath isn\u2019t ruling out. \u201cI\u2019m not bored by Poga\u010dar. There were always new things to say about him.\u201d<\/p>\n

That, ultimately, is the point of Unstoppable: a portrait of an athlete whose story keeps outrunning those who try to capture it. McGrath\u2019s challenge was to fix on the page something still in motion \u2013 and in doing so, he\u2019s shown why Poga\u010dar remains the sport\u2019s most compelling moving target.<\/p>\n

WHAT\u2019S NEXT FOR POGA\u010cAR?<\/p>\n

Having spent more time thinking about Poga\u010dar than most, McGrath is well placed to play Nostradamus with the Slovenian.<\/p>\n

\u201cLogically, he\u2019s going to face the biggest hurdle he\u2019s ever faced in the next two years. So far, he has avoided serious crashes. He pushes the limits so much, and that\u2019s another reason why he\u2019s so exciting.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said a few times this year that he\u2019s at his peak. How long could he stay there? My hunch is two more years, which would be phenomenal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rider McGrath identifies as Poga\u010dar\u2019s biggest foe might come as a surprise: \u201cI think [Remco] Evenepoel<\/a>, not Vingegaard, will be the one who could challenge him more in the future, because Red Bull are not in cycling just to finish third in the Tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

This feature originally appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 27 November 2025. <\/strong>Subscribe now<\/strong><\/a> and never miss an issue.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\nTadej Poga\u010dar
\n<\/a>
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\nUAE Team Emirates
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