GCN Racing News Show: Can Tadej Pogačar complete cycling's treble?

This week all attention turned to Tadej Pogačar as the do-it-all cyclist decided where he would race in 2024.

After much speculation, Pogačar announced that he will ride the Giro d’Italia for the first time, the Tour de France, the Olympic Games and the World Championships. Additionally, he has confirmed his Spring schedule will include an Italian swing at Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo, but he will not be racing the Tour of Flanders.

In this week's Racing News Show, Dan Lloyd takes a closer look at Pogačar’s racing programme, and considers the ramifications of the schedule tweak and what it means for the prospects of the Tour de France battles. More specifically he looks at who the winners and the losers could be following Pogačar's decision to race the Giro.

Read more: Tadej Pogačar to race Tour de France, Olympics, and Worlds after Giro debut

The Giro d’Italia is the most obvious big winner, with the race boasting arguably the biggest name in global cycling on the start list. Another potential winner could be the other Tour de France favourites. Conventional wisdom suggests that Pogačar could be a diminished force following the Giro, although Jonas Vingegaard and his lieutenant Sepp Kuss both know how well one can bounce back after a Grand Tour and compete at the next.

The big loser is Flanders Classics, who will not have the Slovenian at their races in Belgium this spring. Additionally, Pogačar’s teammates might be the other losers as the opportunities for Grand Tour leadership are shrinking with Pogačar, the big leader of the team, hoovering up top billing at two of the three, three-week races.

With that in mind, the eyes of the likes of Adam Yates, Juan Ayuso, Pavel Sivakov, João Almeida and Jay Vine will be on the route make-up of the Vuelta a España which will be unveiled 19 December.

All things considered, the biggest winners overall should be the cycling fans. Everyone wins when the big riders do more of the big races, especially in the fights for the Grand Tour titles. What’s more, Pogačar has a chance to do what has not been done since the 1980s. If the Slovenian were to win the Giro, Tour and World Championship in one year, he would claim a 'treble' last accomplished by Stephen Roche in 1987 and was only preceded by Eddy Merckx in 1974.

Cyclo-cross from the weekend

The latest race action saw cyclo-cross rumble on, buoyed by the addition of Mathieu van der Poel on the start line for the first time this season. Sure enough, the Dutch superstar delivered a commanding win on Saturday at the X2O stop in Herentals ahead of Tom Pidcock and Lars van der Haar. It was a good day for Dutch cyclo-cross world champions in general, as Fem van Empel extended her winning streak to ten in a close-fought battle with Lucinda Brand in Herentals as well.

The World Cup on Sunday was over the legendary Namur circuit, where Tom Pidcock took advantage of Van der Poel’s absence to win, despite a mechanical. Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, meanwhile, took charge of the women’s race and won convincingly, extending her lead in the overall competition. Interestingly, neither of the two Saturday winners lined up for the UCI World Cup on Sunday. Nobody tell David Lappartient.

Read more: UCI threaten cyclo-cross riders with Worlds exclusion for missing World Cups

Additionally, there were a couple of new route announcements, with Paris-Nice and the Giro d’Italia Women revealing details for 2024, a UCI ban on tilted in brake levers coming down the line and some new developments in the Cian Uijtdebroeks situation.

Lastly, as GCN+ closes its doors this week, we are sad to report there will be no live racing coming up. We would like to take a moment, however, to thank our viewers for supporting our endeavour to present the best live race action and documentaries. It has been a wild ride and we are so grateful that you joined us.

Nevertheless, the GCN Racing News Show rolls on and we hope you will continue to tune in every week as we delve into the biggest stories in professional cycling.

Visit the 'Racing' section of the GCN website to keep up with all the news, results and stories from the professional peloton.