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tadej pogacar: unstoppable. a biography of the modern era's greatest cyclist. andy mcgrath. bloomsbury sport hardback. 264pp illus. £20

perhaps one of the most devious, yet possibly fun thing to do, would surely be to take to the stage at the uk drum show and ask the assembled multitudes who is the best drummer in the world? though he died in 1987, i'm willing to bet there would be many of my own age, who claim the crown belongs to buddy rich, with a studied minority rooting for gene krupa. in more recent terms there would be a sizeable number who cannot see past neil peart, the deceased percussionist for canadian rock trio, rush. geddy lee and alex lifeson, the two remaining members of rush have elected to reform, making the surprising choice of german, anika nilles as peart's replacement. that single act has set tongues wagging as to the logic of that particular choice. but amongst contemporary drummers, opinion will likely vary between dennis chambers, thomas lang, virgil donati and a string of others; the list goes on.

the problem, however, is not with the drummers themselves, but the rationale behind the question, one which is entirely subjective. personally, i'm completely behind voting for jay bellerose, or perhaps bill bruford, or maybe joe farnsworth. you can see the potential (or actual) dilemma. depending on what style of music happens to be the force majeur du jour, will greatly influence who i think is the best on any given day. and i am no different to every other drumming fan (apart from those obsessed with neil peart). the more astute amongst you will already be raising your hands, eager for me to have you point out that my original question is completely subjective.

looked at objectively, we're all correct while being simultaneously wrong. as with many who practise the various arts, there is no agreed set of parameters by which we might gauge the best drummer, guitarist, visual artist, film maker, website designer; i could go on. however, when we turn our gaze to sports, there is an almost foolproof means of deciding on who is the best. it's a method used to figure out which team is heading any particular league, who wins gold, silver or bronze, and which team or country has garnered more medals than their competitors. it's precisely why i fail to comprehend how skateboarding and ice-dancing are incorporated into the olympics.

so while 'who is the best? is a permanently flawed question, who won last year's tour de france has only one right answer. therefore, when author andy mcgrath alludes to tadej pogacar as 'the era's greatest cyclist', there really is no counter argument worth breeching.

declaring potential misgivings right from the start could be seen as hedging his bets, but mcgrath makes it clear in the introduction, "pogacar and his inner circle declined to be interviewed for this book." something that must surely have harshed the author's buzz. granted, there are many details that can (and are) gleaned from a wide variety of sources, but throughout the book, we never really learn of tadej's own reactions to his apparently stellar career. yes, there are training camp and post stage interviews, but many of these, as we are well aware, are stage managed by the uae team emirates media team. a cycle team representing not only one of the world's major airlines, but a middle-east country over which many have expressed doubts about its human rights record.

for those of us harbouring an unhealthy obsession with the bicycles involved in the world tour, there's precious little in the book's 260 plus pages about his bicycle sponsor, colnago (this is not a criticism; simply an observation). and then there's the ever present shadow of the world's previous greatest cyclist, eddy merckx. and that's where the objectivity might appear to fall apart. pogacar's palmares of professional victories, at the end of 2025,(according to the back of this book) stood at 50, whereas eddy merckx retired having stood atop the victor's podium 525 times. the slovenian is 27 years old, six years younger than eddy was when he retired. pogacar's average number of wins per year is seven, so if he maintains that statistic and retires at the same age (currently looking quite likely, according to the latter chapters of the book), he will leave the peloton with fewer than 100 victories.

however, the author has had the good sense to categorise pogacar as the best of his generation. "it's obvious that he is now above me" merckx told l'equipe after the 2024 world championships. [...] curiously, the next day, merckx recanted that opinion, "suggesting pogacar still had some way to go." it's a discussion that will probably continue for decades to come, but as andy mcgrath points out, comparing the cannibal and his modern successor is a fun and frivolous exercise."

and then then there's the spectre that will not go away. the last time one rider demonstrated a similar level of untouchability, his seven tour de france victories were declared null and void, for reasons of which we are all well aware. but, as a quote from one of tadej's peers demonstrates, "i don't know if i believe it or not. i think its too difficult to do any kind of serious doping or anything like that [...] let's face it, if he was doing something, there'd be other guys that would be as good. [...] but actually, nobody (else) is that good."

it is odd that pogacar declined to collaborate on the book, given that he is portrayed throughout as a happy go lucky chap, whose not so secret weapon is his ability to enjoy his cycling. however, a lack of co-operation need not be seen as an insurmountable obstacle to the completion of a successful biography. after all, andy mcgrath's previous outing was his superb biography of tommy simpson, a rider who was long gone before fingers reached a keyboard. however, it may have given the book a tad more substance, given that there's not too much more than an accurate and frequently insightful recount of his racing career to date.

personally, i find its publication to err on the side of too soon, though i can understand why the author and publisher have chosen to do so. "pogacar expressed a couple of times during the 2025 season that he is at his peak. [...] if i burn out, i can finish and be happy with what i achieved." his agent has apparently made it clear tha pogacar "intends to honour his contract [...] which runs until the end of 2030." no doubt there will be a second book at the start of next decade.

meantime, this is a worthwhile publication; well researched, notwithstanding pogacar's non-compliance, and written in a style that makes for an easy read. it would have been made even better had the illustrations not been confined to mono images on the opening page of each chapter. i'd have expected, at the very least, a centre section of colour images from tadej's career to date, but instead there is a selection of unattributed and uncaptioned colour images repeated across front and rear endpapers. the bibliography and references are, however, more than comprehensive (though you might need a magnifying glass to read some of them).

perhaps jonas would be a worthy and willing collaborator for mcgrath's insightful word processor?

wednesday 26 november 2025