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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.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.
Depends on your age and hence breadth of experience. Most on this forum weren't around before Contador.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".
1+1=1.And do you have a quantitive formula we can apply to calculate this dominance?
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.
Been saying this for ages and its so easy to see that Pogacar is the Boat and he is it by a huge margin aswellEddy 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 rest there.
Exactly.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.
Thread be like:
Joined forum before 2020: Still a long way to go.
Joined forum after 2020: Pog is already the GOAT.
Mostly this, it's impossible for Pogacar to reach the same palmares as Merckx, but he also hasn't shown this amount of dominance for so long. This is the first year Pogacar is so dominant.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.
Nevermind it was just an idle joke about your lost avatar bet. Let's just drop lt.What's your point?
He is unassailable the way Babe Ruth, Wilt Chamberlain, Pele, Jim Thorpe, jack nichlaus. Mythological figures kids dream of becoming and occasionally surpassing on many levels but never every level. It’s not possible