> In a typically fiery interview with Het Laatste Nieuws, the 78-year-old icon dismissed comparisons between Pogacar and Merckx — and did so with the kind of bluntness only De Vlaeminck can deliver. “Nonsense! Pogacar isn’t even fit to lace Merckx’s shoes,” he exclaimed. “If I were 22 today and riding in the peloton with him, he wouldn’t be dropping me.” The four-time Paris–Roubaix winner remains adamant that Merckx is the ultimate benchmark in cycling, declaring that anyone who questions that “doesn’t know what they’re talking about.”
> De Vlaeminck didn’t stop at Pogacar. He also turned his attention to other modern champions, handing out stinging criticism to Mathieu van der Poel and Remco Evenepoel.
> Van der Poel, despite being labelled “a great rider,” was picked apart in classic De Vlaeminck style: “He can’t time trial, he can’t climb, he can’t sprint — there’s not much left after that.”
> Evenepoel, too, came in for a sharp rebuke. “He’s not my type,” De Vlaeminck said dryly. “He’s a very good rider, a superb time triallist. But I find him a bit arrogant sometimes. Lifting your bike in the air after the finish — is that really necessary? Just cross the line and win.”

Yearly boomer interview just dropped. He seemed a bit low on argument for pogi though