Does Tadej Pogacar’s power get old? Thomas Voeckler believes that riders are competing “for second place.”

As a competitive cyclist, Thomas Voeckler won four stages of the Tour de France and the mountains classification in 2012. He is now the coach of the French national team. In an interview with Cyclism’Actu, Voeckler talked about the Paris Olympics, where two road cycling medals were won by French riders, and Tadej Pogacar’s great season.

When asked how he felt after the Olympics, Voeckler showed an incredibly lack of feeling. Even though the French team’s success went beyond what was expected—two riders joined Remco Evenepoel on the podium—Voeckler quickly turned his attention to the difficulties that were coming up.

But it’s clear that it went above and beyond what we expected; you have to be fair.” If we had been told that Remco Evenepoel would be followed by two French riders on the podium, he said, “I thought I could play for the title; I was even sure of it. But when I think of other riders at the start, you only have to look at the pedigree of the ranking.” When asked about Tadej Pogacar’s disappearance, he replied, “If you just remove Pogacar… well, ‘just’ might not be the right word.” Just one more thing about Pogacar: I’m sure that if he had been there, the situation and the race would have been very different. It wasn’t a problem for me that he wasn’t there, even though people who aren’t there are always wrong. Regardless, it was better for us.

Even though the success was historic, Voeckler said he wasn’t feeling nearly as emotional as he thought he would be. “The page turned for me during the Olympics. The Saturday after the race, I drove Paul Brousse’s car for the girls the next day.” That way of doing things doesn’t seem hard, but that’s how I do things. Despite the intense excitement and mood of the Olympics, Voeckler stayed focused. I didn’t do anything when Valentin Madouas crossed the line because I wanted to see how Christophe Laporte would handle it. What followed was yelling in the car.

The practical way Voeckler does things shows what kind of worker he is. “I’ve turned the page, but that doesn’t mean I’m not proud of what the guys did or don’t enjoy the adventure we had,” he said, emphasizing that as the team’s coach, he was always looking to the future.

When he talked about cycling now, Voeckler praised Tadej Pogacar’s unmatched success in 2024 and compared it to the great Eddy Merckx’s achievements. The year is a Merckx year, but the era is no longer a Merckx era. Where things have changed over time, competition is usually much more worldwide, and most people work in pretty much the same way.

Voeckler thinks that Pogacar’s success stands out even more now that racing is more competitive. He did something even better than what Merckx did, in my opinion. It wasn’t hard for Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault; they were just better at the start. Pogacar is the best right now, even though everything is at its best.

Using Romain Bardet’s words as an example, Voeckler talked about how the sport has changed over time. “Romain Bardet’s words came to mind.” In an interview at the start of the year, he said that about 40 riders can now do what only 10 could do seven or eight years ago. For your information, Romain doesn’t talk like that.

Voeckler said that Pogacar’s style and clever moves were great, but he also said that the Slovenian’s domination can make races less exciting at times. “When he starts so far behind, it’s exciting, but it’s only for second place,” Voeckler said. He also compared it to Mathieu van der Poel’s performance at Paris-Roubaix, calling it “magnificent” but missing in fun.