De Vlaeminck attributes Pogacar's dominance to lack of competition and criticizes Evenepoel and Van der Poel

The latter category includes Roger De Vlaeminck. The 77-year-old former Belgian rider does not enjoy watching a race with Pogacar. "He is certainly the best rider in the world at the moment, but I find it hard to enjoy it because he is so much better than the rest," he told Het Nieuwsblad. "In Strade Bianche, a 215-kilometer race, Pogacar was riding alone in front for almost 90 kilometers. Who is chasing him then? I think Merckx or Maertens would never have allowed Pogacar to take the lead for 90 kilometers there."

"I wonder: who is the competition? Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard, but he only rides the Tour. Come on, guys..." The thirteen-time Monument winner likes to see the big stars ride outside the Tour de France because if things continue like this, the Slovenian world champion will win all the Monuments. "He only has Milan-Sanremo and Paris-Roubaix to go. But then you have to look at who the contenders were. Where are the Italians? Like Moser, Gimondi and Bitossi? Can you name one good Italian rider right now?"

Remco Evenepoel can also count on remarks from the talkative Belgian. "I'm still not the biggest fan of his style. I don't like that someone is holding their bike up in the air at the finish. But, of course, he is an excellent rider. I think he has the right character to be a rider. When he is performing well, you can see from his face that he is enjoying what he is doing."

De Vlaeminck was also an enthusiastic cyclo-crosser: in total, he achieved seventy victories in the field. He enjoys Mathieu van der Poel as a cyclo-cross rider, but he doesn't like that the Dutch rider has difficulty with the media attention. "You shouldn't find that inconvenient. That's part of being a good rider. Now they can change there in their own RV, right? Albert Van Damme was my major opponent, but he sometimes stood beside me in his underpants in the same building before the start. Your best years as a racer are the most beautiful time of your life. When Van der Poel is as old as I am, he will realize that too."