April 1/26 8:58 am - WorldTour Teams Working on Plan to Manage Pogacar Domination

Posted by Editoress on 04/1/26
 

The domination of Tadej Pogacar has reached such a level, that there are now discussions to make a certain number of races 'Pogacar-free' during the season. The Slovenian rider races for UAE Team Emirates XRG and dominates almost every race he has entered in the past few years, including the Grand Tours, single day Monuments and world championships. He often launches devastating attacks as much as 80 kilometres from the finish of a race, leaving all the other top contenders to fight for second.

He is currently the number one ranked rider in the world by a staggering margin, with 11,635 points to the next placed riders, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma Lease-a-Bike) at 6,885.14 points and Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates XRG) at 6,789 points. He accounts for almost 80% of all the points in the Nations ranking for Slovenia, propelling his nation to fourth in the overall rankings.

Concerns that his dominance is making racing less interesting to fans, has led to the argument that there needs to be certain number of major races that he will 'sit out' to level the playing field and make for more exciting and closer racing. Both broadcasters and teams are said to have held preliminary discussions on the concept, with ideas ranging from limiting Pogacar to a maximum number of Classics per year, to allowing him to enter either the Giro or the Tour each year, but not both.

Another suggestion has been to 'handicap' him - like in horse racing - with either a weight penalty, or forcing him to  start behind the peloton by a set time penalty.

So far, there has been no response from Pogacar, other than to smile and say, "I'll just have to train harder".