Abel Tadej Pogacar had “the best season in the history of cycling,” according to Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel.

There’s no question that Tadej Pogacar is the rider of the year in 2024. Remco Evenepoel and Mathieu van der Poel won a lot and had very good years, but the Slovenian was truly unmatched, and Lance Armstrong thinks that no one has ever had as much success in a year as he did.

Armstrong makes it clear in “The Move” podcast that the Slovenian rider for UAE Team Emirates has done something that no one else has ever done before this season. He also says that fighting with his teammates about who was the best didn’t make much sense when there was a rider so much better: “He signed up for the best cycling season ever.” When it comes to other seasons, we start to argue about which was the best, but Pogacar’s has been so unique that there is no doubt.

The podcast’s regular guest, Johan Bruyneel, who used to be Lance’s sports director at US Postal and pushed the idea that Pogi was better since the start of his campaign in March in the dusty land of Tuscany: “He started his show at Strade Bianche, with an attack with 80 kilometres to go.” That was something we had never seen before. There may have been only a few races where he really wanted to win but didn’t. It’s been all about Pogacar; it’s been hard to find other strong points.

Bruyneel doesn’t say he is the greatest cyclist ever, but he does compare him to Eddy Merckx for what he is doing and how he makes his great foes, like Jonas Vingegaard, respect him:

Yes, the Giro, the Tour, and the World Championships, which made it a “Triple Crown.” We heard Vingegaard’s coach say that we needed to get closer to Pogacar because they might be up against an impossible rider. It seems like he eats other cyclists these days.