> Mathieu van der Poel the best cyclocross rider ever? 'Not by a long shot,' according to Roger De Vlaeminck.
> "Damn, no. Not by a long shot," De Vlaeminck replies to Het Nieuwsblad when asked if Van der Poel is definitively the best cyclocross rider ever after his eighth world title. "For Eric, it was over at twenty-eight. Worn out by his foolishness. How many more titles could he have won? And let me list them: Renato Longo, Rolf Wolfshohl, Albert Van Damme, Peter Frischknecht, Eric, me. They're different men than we are now."
> "Tell me honestly what you think of today's professional cyclists," he says to the journalist. "But honestly, okay? Who's going to beat Mathieu van der Poel? (...) Of course he's good, one of the best. I'm really rooting for him. But can he time trial? Can he win a Grand Tour? I haven't done that either, okay, but I did win Tirreno-Adriatico."
> Peggy Breunig, Roger's girlfriend, emphasizes that her partner does indeed have a great deal of respect for Van der Poel. "Of course, Van der Poel, Evenepoel, and Pogacar are good riders, but when I watch them perform, I can't enjoy it," says the 78-year-old former professional, who has won Tirreno-Adriatico six times, 22 stages of the Giro d'Italia, and all the Monuments: Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Tour of Flanders, two Giro di Lombardias, three Milan-San Remo races, and four Paris-Roubaix races.
> "I want to ride with them, race against those guys. Beat them like I could sometimes beat Merckx. Merckx, man, he was such a strong man. You know, that scared me sometimes? It hurt, just being on his wheel. And yet I've won 512 races. 512, you know. Should I list them all?"
Another absolute banger for the king of the deluded