All the apologists for Pogacar can give us any amount of excuses and explanations for Pogacar’s performance levels. Superior genetics. Superior training. Superior feeding strategies (lol). Zone 2. Seated attack yoga techniques. Yada yada yada. It can all be used to justify, in some people’s eyes, the most ridiculous, credulity busting performances. However, nothing he does will ever remove the stain represented by his affiliation with Mauro Gianetti. No amount of brilliant white sports washing (copyright UAE) will ever take it away. Every win, every performance will have to be accompanied with that huge asterisk. And with it the eternal doubt that any of it was real.