Merckx left speechless by Pogačar: ‘One of his greatest performances’

"He left me speechless," he told Eurosport. “Did I expect him to win it like that? Honestly, no. I think this can be called one of his greatest performances. His reaction after that crash was the reaction of a true champion. That Van der Poel would be dropped on the Poggio surprised me. The fact Mathieu could not sustain his effort any longer is really to Pogačar’s credit.”

The win itself was already impressive enough. But the way he did it made it even more extraordinary. Pogačar’s crash before the Cipressa seemed to wipe out his final hopes of victory, yet he made it back on at the foot of the climb, returned to the front halfway up, and then launched the move himself. After dropping Mathieu van der Poel on the Poggio, he still had enough left to beat Tom Pidcock in the sprint on Via Roma. That is how legends are made.

Merckx was equally struck by the way Pogačar handled the sprint. “He started the sprint from the front, with the same power and conviction Van der Poel showed last year. If you sprint like that and nobody can come around you, then there can be no doubt about who was the strongest. Pogačar deserved a San Remo, and in truth it is strange that he had not won this race already.”

It was indeed the first time the Slovenian world champion has won La Primavera, after finishing on the podium in each of the previous two editions. Merckx won the race seven times, still the record, and whether Pogačar will ever get close to that remains an open question. But the bigger target is clear: he wants to win all five Monuments.

He now has four out of five. In 2021, he won his first Monument at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Later that same year, he added Il Lombardia, and in 2023 he became the best in the Tour of Flanders. With victory now secured in San Remo, only Paris-Roubaix remains. And the Belgian legend believes it is possible. “It is clear by now that he has no limits, so what still has to stop him?”

In 2025, Pogačar made his debut in the Hell of the North and came close to victory immediately with second place. “Last year he crashed on the cobbles, otherwise he would have gone to the velodrome with Van der Poel to fight for the win, and who knows how that would have ended,” Merckx said. “Of course, luck plays a bigger role on the cobbles than it normally does, so he will need luck on his side.”