Is Van der Poel joining the rest of us as extras in Pogačar’s story?

Kristof Ramon

“D'you ever think your entire life is a play? And that, you know, 99% of the people in it, they got no lines, you know? Just, like, extras. And you? You're just an extra in their play.”

This line, delivered brilliantly by Bobby Cannavale’s bartender Eddie in 2025 movie ‘Blue Moon’, has been rolling around my head since I devoured the latest Ethan Hawke-Richard Linklater collaboration. All the more since watching Tadej Pogačar’s latest display of perfection over the Flanders hellingen last weekend.

I have to imagine this is precisely how the peloton feels about starting a Classic behind the wily Slovenian – save only for Mathieu van der Poel, and perhaps Remco Evenepoel on some terrain – even the seasoned Belgian specialists who cut their teeth on the cobbles early in their careers with no expectation of supremacy until they had multiple editions under their wheels. But then Pogačar came along, following close behind multi-terrain superstar Van der Poel, both of them only ever starting a race when they believe they can bloody well win it.

You’re in the middle of the game as a spectator.”

– Julius van den Berg said after the Tour of Flanders

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“What Tadej is doing actually goes a step further than just being demotivating,” Oliver Naesen told the Het Laatste Nieuws cycling podcast after the Tour of Flanders. “Demotivating would be a rider who is very good – you can’t drop him and he beats you in the sprint.

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