17 out of 19 - The incredible dominance of Pogacar and Van der Poel in the major one-day races

The numbers are clear. Seventeen of the last nineteen Monuments and World Championships have gone to one of them. 

The two exceptions only highlight their rule. Remco Evenepoel won Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2023, but only after Pogačar crashed out. Jasper Philipsen took Milan-San Remo in 2024 with Van der Poel working for him in the finale. Beyond that, there has been no room for chance.

Pogačar’s list of victories in this period from 2023 reads like a checklist of cycling’s monuments. Milan-Sanremo in 2026, the Tour of Flanders in 2023 and 2025, Liège in 2024 and 2025, the Tour of Lombardy in both 2023, 2024 and 2025, and back-to-back world titles in 2024 and 2025. He does it all, over cobbles, climbs and everything in between.

And the big question after his recent extraordinary victory at Milan–San Remo is obvious: will Tadej Pogacar go on to complete his set of Monument victories?

Despite an off day at La Primavera, Mathieu van der Poel has been just as relentless in recent years. He added a Tour of Flanders in 2024, won Milan-San Remo in 2023 and 2025, conquered Paris-Roubaix three years running, and took the rainbow jersey in 2023.

Their dominance is not only evident today, but also reflected in the history books. With eleven Monument victories, Pogačar already sits second on the all time list, alongside Roger De Vlaeminck, with only the incomparable Eddy Merckx, on nineteen, ahead of them. Van der Poel is not far behind with eight, level with Rik Van Looy and chasing Fausto Coppi, Costante Girardengo and Sean Kelly, who each have nine victories.

The way they win only deepens their aura. Pogačar attacked alone on the Oude Kwaremont in the 2023 Tour of Flanders and never looked back. He dismantled Liège in 2024 with a long-range move, then stormed clear in Lombardy that same year with nearly fifty kilometres still to ride. 

In Zurich, he claimed the 2024 World Championship with another solo of more than fifty kilometres. In Kigali in 2025, he went even earlier, attacking from nearly seventy kilometres out and holding off the entire field on his own. And in Sanremo a few weeks ago, he amazed everyone with the way he fought back after his crash.

Van der Poel has matched him with his own feats: in the 2024 Tour of Flanders he attacked with forty-five kilometres remaining and turned the race into a solo procession, and in Paris-Roubaix that same year he went sixty kilometres from the finish and reached the Velodrome alone.

These victories are written not just in results but in the way the races themselves unfold. Their teams, UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Alpecin–Deceuninck, ride with suffocating control, closing down every move until their leaders are ready to strike. For rivals, the space to improvise has all but vanished. Early attacks are neutralised, alliances crumble, and by the finale the script narrows to the same two names.

For cycling it is both a spectacle and a dilemma. Rarely have the Monuments been shaped so decisively by just two riders. Their victories reveal the sport at its most dramatic and unforgettable, yet the unpredictability that once defined these races seems to have slipped away. 

Until rivals discover new tactics or stronger teams emerge, the era of Pogačar and Van der Poel appears destined to endure.