Why does Pogacar stand so far above the rest? Sports coach explains: "You don’t see that with any other rider"

Van den Bosch was a renowned sports coach for many years, with numerous world-class athletes under his wing in cycling. He was an important figure in the success of Sven Nys, Tim Wellens, Thomas De Gendt, and André Greipel, among others. So the 68-year-old Belgian knows what he's talking about when he explains why Pogacar is who he is.

“He has no signs of decline,” he begins in an interview with Sporza. “You don’t see that in any other rider. Van der Poel, for example, has periods where he shines, but then you don’t see him for a while. The same goes for Wout van Aert. And Vingegaard deliberately chooses stage races and the Tour, but is not at that level elsewhere. Pogacar is there every time.”

This is not least due to his enormous drive to train. “I've been in this business for years and have seen the evolution of much more training than in the past. Every rider spends a lot of time on the bike these days, but who can also go the fastest? That's the question. And I've heard that Pogacar is an exception in that regard.”

Earlier this year, Pogacar himself announced his training values. In the second heart rate zone 2—which, for the Slovenian, means a heart rate of between 140 and 150—he pedals at around 320 to 340 watts. “That's about five watts per kilo for him,” Van den Bosch calculates. "For most riders, that’s already a grueling training session. He can keep that up for six hours straight...”

The world champion can push himself further than other riders. “Pogacar can complete almost every training session at a high intensity. Other riders do this in blocks, taking it easy on certain days. When he does a relatively quiet endurance training session, it is at a much higher power than the rest. Many riders, therefore, only train with him once.”

This means that Pogacar's body is simply built differently from other people: he is a true freak of nature. "When he is still riding in zone 2 during a race, he is mainly burning fat. His body is used to this, which means that, unlike many others, he can better conserve his sugars for the final. And that enables him to ride at full throttle for another two hours at the end.“

”That makes him a phenomenon: the combination of hardly ever getting tired, recovering very quickly after races and training sessions, and still being able to train very hard. He can start training more intensively again more quickly after a demanding effort and thus responds better to training stimuli. That is the key to performing at such a consistently high level,” concludes Van den Bosch.