Losing to someone who always loses, with a gold subscription to second place, could prove very frustrating. And even more so if it happens to the invincible and infallible phenomenon. Yet I'm here to say that a Pogacar like this can even be likeable, because for some time now, after the monstrous one hundred percent streak in recent periods (six races, six victories, if I counted correctly), he hasn't appeared so human and so fragile.

Apart from the sprint, still tackled from the front as always, admittedly a tactical error, without saying that from behind he would have beaten a clearly superior Van Aert, apart from the velodrome lap, the entire Teddy of the Roubaix seemed strange, atypical, anomalous. But certainly he went very, very strong, as befits that excellent Rotary of contemporary cycling: yet something was missing. There were the accelerations on the pavé sections, sure. The comeback after the puncture, sure. The hard final work to keep Van Der Poel behind, sure. But all this remains within the exceptional normality of his standard. What was missing this time was the last hundredth, the decisive one, the one of dominance that allows for a solo breakaway. In my humble opinion, the Roubaix is the meanest race for Teddy, because it also lacks even a decent springboard for his takeoffs, a ramp, a climb, a steep section—that is, the ring where the knockout blow usually arrives, see the Poggio, see the Kwaremont, see the Redoute. Here there's the pavé, but the pavé is still flat, manageable and indeed very friendly to the oversized chassis of the two Vans who beat him in both attempts.

So, there he is floating at the highest levels, but without ever unleashing the usual chaos. It's an unprecedented sight for us watching: Teddy struggling, Teddy uncertain, Teddy even somewhat hesitant. Not overflowing, not stratospheric, not extraordinary. Not extra. For losing, he's already lost, and that's only natural, but at the Roubaix he loses decisively and badly. In the end, stoned by the famous cobbles, he returns to a human dimension that we had forgotten, seduced by the myth of absolute superiority and total invincibility.

It can be pleasing this way too. Certainly, if it's true that we learn more from defeats than from victories, Teddy has found along his glorious path a stretch of very rough road: this Roubaix that challenges him without giving him the right cards for his climber-sprinter nature. There's plenty of time to try again, but there already remains a different sensation, uncertainty. He won't get bored with the inevitable temptation to feel like an all-powerful demigod, nor will the connoisseurs who despise the monotonous tyranny of the phenomenon get bored. At the Roubaix, the merit of reshuffling the cards. Of the monument races, it remains the monument to the most complete balance. But let's stop here with the stoning of Teddy: we're always talking about a Someone who when lying defeated is still nonetheless second.