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Are we psychologically ready for Merckx to ever not be the greatest?

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Greatest or not is a definition. Ask yourself this would Merckx beat the times and power Pogacar has ridden up mountains? Well this we know he has not and its not even close.

Would he beat the likes og specialist historic beast like Mvdp in Flandern he would not

Everyone knows the answer if you leave nostalgia and feelings out of this. This has actually become very very easy. He is the best by a huge margin in terms of greatness people will always have different criterias and its subjective.

But in terms of who is the best thats not even a question or close if you dont like that the numbers dont lie. Enjoy people.
Nonsense. Put Pogacar in Merckx's era and he would not reach such numbers. Put Merckx in today's cycling and it's open for debate. This is why you can't compare eras.
 
I'm unconvinced that people are that attached to the 'Merckx is the GOAT' argument. Recency bias tends to dominate in GOAT discussions across any/many sports. Most people watching Pogi will have never seen more than the 10s black-and-white clips of Merckx racing, and a list of results from 50-60 years ago are easily dismissed as "well the sport was different then".
Depends on your age and hence breadth of experience. Most on this forum weren't around before Contador.
 
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If Pogacar wants to equal Merckx he'll have to continue his current dominance for at least another five years. Merckx completely dominated the years 1969-1974.

It need not be a complete replica in my opinion. He's doing things unheard of for decades, believed to be dead and burried in modern cycling. But I agree that he needs a longer spell of utter dominance, just because Merckx was so far above everybody it's quite absurd. But if Pogacar goes on like this untill he's 30 I think he will have an excellent claim.

He might end up with 12 individual stage wins in 2 GTs, I think that has not been done by a none sprinter since Merckx himself. He's also already won sooo many mountain stages it's really absurd honestly. You are not supposed to win like 20 of them, let alone when you are only 25.
 
Eddy is the GOAT, his achievements speak for themselves.

However, Teddy is the BOAT (best of all time). His Giro-Tour double was the biggest demonstration of power ever seen in stage racing. Add to it his one-day races masterclass and you get the ultimate cyclist, level-wise.
Been saying this for ages and its so easy to see that Pogacar is the Boat and he is it by a huge margin aswell

Goat is subjective and give him 5 years he can be the goat too for most its just matter how you look on that the competition is not comparable when Eddy did it vs Pogacar. But as I said Goat is a subjective term and everyone can choose what they value most there's no right or wrong answers really as there cant be in different era when judging solely on results alone..

Boat however is beyond based on facts and Pogacar is head and shoulders above the rest there.
 
Been saying this for ages and its so easy to see that Pogacar is the Boat and he is it by a huge margin aswell

Goat is subjective and give him 5 years he can be the goat too for most its just matter how you look on that the competition is not comparable when Eddy did it vs Pogacar. But as I said Goat is a subjective term and everyone can choose what they value most there's no right or wrong answers really as there cant be in different era when judging solely on results alone..

Boat however is beyond based on facts and Pogacar is head and shoulders above rest there.

It's also about evolution of cycling, training methods, stronger competition etc. In a lot of sports recent champions present higher level than ancient champions. If we don't take into account this inflation then GOAT is about achievements (obviously it's not Merckx's or Coppi's fault that they lived in less advanced times). Looking only at level is another way of analysing things, not saying that better but different.
 
It's also about evolution of cycling, training methods, stronger competition etc. In a lot of sports recent champions present higher level than ancient champions. If we don't take into account this inflation then GOAT is about achievements (obviously it's not Merckx's or Coppi's fault that they lived in less advanced times). Looking only at level is another way of analysing things.
Exactly.
 
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The danger for Pogačar is that if and when he catches and passes Merckx, some won’t be ready for him to be called the GOAT. When Federer passed Sampras for career slams in 2009 (15 vs 14), he was immediately anointed the greatest. Even before they people were calling him the greatest. When Djokovic caught and passed Federer and Nadal, people weren’t and some still haven’t accepted him as the greatest.

My thinking is that the same will happen with Tadej.