He wins everything and crushes the competition … Why the popularity rating of Tadej Pogacar remains so high?

The Slovenian world champion won the 100th victory for his career, at 26, on the fourth stage of the Tour de France on Tuesday.

Tadej Poga-Star. The triple winner of the Tour de France has already marked the large 2025 loop of its imprint, Tuesday July 8, winning in Rouen in front of Mathieu Van der Poel and Jonas Vingegaard. A 18th stage victory on the Tour for Slovenian, but a 100th in career, at only 26 years old. But even if Slovenian tends to win everything, without always sparing the suspense, it remains extremely popular with the public.

“Good evening Lille? How are you?”. It didn't take more than these few words in French when presenting the teams in Lille so that Tadej Pogacar did not seduce the public a little more. The ovation received by the world champion was incommensurate with that, much less noisy, received by his rival from Visma-Lease in Bike. And every morning at the start, it is definitely the bus of his team, Uae Team Emirates Xrg, which attracts the most supporters.

“He has the plume, in his victories, on all terrains. Even the races that are not for his typical profile, he tries to win them”underlines Benjamin, a very big fan of the Slovenian, crossed on the Grand Place de Lille, with the jersey of his idol on the back, and the “TP” cap on the head. This French supporter is not tired of his multiple solo victories, sometimes without suspense. “He wants to win everything, it's a show too. When he leaves alone 80 kilometers from the finish, we don't know if it goes. There is alone, as a gladiator, alone against all, it's much more cool to see that 10 or 15 years ago, when the teams were rolling and the leaders finished”.

Guest of the show Velo Club on arrival in Rouen, Bernard Hinault, five -time winner of the Tour, seems to be in the same opinion. “Since he has arrived, at least, we have attacks. He doesn't ask himself the question, he does not hesitate to attack from far away, we haven't had that for a long time and it makes us dream, we have the old one. He has fun on a bike and it's great”rejoices the badger.

And beyond his record, which also has two rounds of Flanders, three Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and four towers of Lombardy, it is the personality of the Slovenian that pleases. A fan club was even created for him in Belgium in 2019, before he won his first Tour de France, while the country already has many stars. “But there are already too many fan clubs for Remco Evenepoel or Wout Van Aert, so we wanted to endure a runner who did not have a fan club in Belgium, the president chose Tadej Pogacarsays his vice-president Kris Mahieu, crossed on the road to the Tour de France. And finally, we see Tadej more easily with us than fans of Belgian clubs do not see their runners. It remained simple, accessible. Our president even slept with his parents, and they also came to us with their motorhome. We showed them around the region like them showed us around theirs “.

On social networks, Slovenian also likes to joke and is natural. It has 2.2 million followers on Instagram, a figure which increased by 400,000 followers in a year, and which doubled compared to two years ago. “He is fun, he is a beautiful winner and a beautiful loser. When he loses, he loses with a smile, he will always congratulate others. He has a side anyway more fun than what we have known in recent years”underlines Pierre Rolland, former runner and wearer of the white jersey in his youth, like Tadej Pogacar. At the front of the peloton in recent days, Kévin Vauquelin rubs shoulders with it more and more regularly and learns to appreciate it. “He is in the race as he shows himself, we never hear him rouspeter, he is very respectful. He is a beautiful runner, because he runs to instinct and that is what the public wants”said the Normand on the bicycle club set.

Even if he sometimes shows flaws, like during Paris-Roubaix where he fell by taking a turn on the cobblestones, or during the Amstel Gold Race where his lonely raid did not succeed, his many victories still raise suspicions of doping. His domination necessarily recalls that of Lance Armstrong at the beginning of the century. “”Like everyone, he has the right to the presumption of innocence. As long as it is not proven that it is doped, it is considered innocent, especially since it is the most controlled sport in the worldsays Benjamin. I hope not to be disappointed in five or ten years as we have been in the past “.

Within the peloton, Slovenian's performance is not always laughing. “Of the first ten stages, he can win four or five”says Arnaud Démare (Arkéa-B & B Hotels). “Having it in the peloton changes a lot of things. On the bus, now we are talking more often of second place than the first”even recognizes Bastien Tronchon (Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale).