Much as we might try to deny it, cycling is a sport that tends towards monopoly. More often than not there is a rider who dominates - a Beryl Burton, an Eddy Merckx or a Marianne Vos. If we're lucky there is a plucky underdog or two. The 1970s was full of people who truly if wrongly believed that Raymond Poulidor would win the Tour de France. And if we're luckier, the dominating star will have a chink in their armour - they suck at cobbles, say, or they can't time a sprint. But in truth the golden eras of unpredictable racing are usually just little interregnums while we wait for the next behemoth rider or team to arrive.
I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be a behemoth. At this year's men's World Championship road race, or at the European Champs race that was only a week later, it wasn't hard to imagine the feelings of second-placed Remco Evenepoel - the "not again" and the "what do I have to do?" feelings that we all have sometimes watching Tadej Pogačar. But what goes through Pogačar's head? Is he like me, I wonder? Because I'd love to be that talented, but I don't think it would be good for me. If I was the world's best rider, I'm confident my main concern would be that the only direction for my career to go in next would be downwards. It would produce a very defensive attitude to life. I'd be paranoid that I'd pick up an injury or an illness, or that I'd burn out and stop being the sort of person who can just get on with the training and the travel and the work. Or that whatever ephemeral thing it is that made me that good would simply vanish as it had arrived, and one day I'd be normal. There is no way I'd really enjoy being a phenomenon. In my state of paranoia I'd want to rack up the wins as fast as I could, and with as little gambling as possible. I'd work out my best strategy, and stick with it. In my case I'd attack early, drive home an advantage, get a minute's gap and then just sit on it till the finish. I appreciate that that's exactly what Pogačar does, but he's maybe a bit less Gollum-esque about it than I would be. ("My precious minute...") And I would not care that I was maybe sucking the interest out of the races.
