ALCUDIA, Spain, (Reuters) – Tadej Pogacar looks unstoppable for this year’s Giro d’Italia and could even do something never seen before in cycling history and win all three Grand Tours in the same season, according to Spanish great Alberto Contador.
Slovenian Pogacar has started the season in sensational fashion and blew away a high quality field to win Liege-Bastogne-Liege last weekend having also been victorious at Strade Bianche and the Tour of Catalunya.
The 25-year-old UAE Team Emirates rider is the favourite to win the maglia rosa on his Giro debut and Contador believes he is on course to take men’s cycling to a new level.
“I think if he doesn’t have any sickness, a crash or mechanical problem it’s very hard to beat him,” two-times Giro winner Contador told Reuters in Mallorca where he is joining 8,000 amateur riders in the 312 Gran Fondo on Saturday.
“He goes well in the long climbs, the short climbs, in the time trials he flies, in the descents he goes well even in bad weather, he has everything.”
Pogacar won the Tour de France in 2020 and 2021 but was usurped by Jonas Vingegaard in the last two years and Contador says the Dane will again be the main obstacle for Pogacar winning for a third time in France this year.
But he says Pogacar can break new ground and write himself in the annals of cycling alongside the likes of Eddy Merckx as can Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel.
“I think we are in a golden moment for men’s cycling,” the 41-year-old Contador, who retired in 2017, said.
“Maybe in France, Italy, Spain they don’t have a big star but we need to enjoy whether they are from Slovenia, Netherlands or Belgium. It’s so incredible, riders like Pogacar, Vingegaard, Van de Poel. Pogacar is doing something that never in the history and also what Mathieu (Van de Poel) did in Paris-Roubaix and Tour of Flanders we need to enjoy this time.
“Pogacar for me, he can win every race and when I say every race, if he trained 100% for Paris-Roubaix he can win that too.”
No rider has ever won all three Grand Tours in the same season but Contador believes Pogacar could do the treble.
“I think that if Pogacar wins the Giro and wins the Tour de France this year he will try for the Vuelta a Espana to make history.”
Contador’s optimism is not shared, however, by his old adversary Vincenzo Nibali, who will also be stretching his retired legs in the round-the-island Mallorca event.
“In the same year, it’s out of the question,” Nibali, who like Contador won all three Grand Tours but not in the same year, told Reuters.
“Maybe the Giro and Tour this year for Pogacar is a good option because I don’t know the speed of the recovery for Vingegaard after his crash at the Tour of the Basque Country.”
The Giro begins on May 4.
