You have to go back decades to find the trace of such a profusion of talent that feasts from February to October, leaving only crumbs for the rest of the pack.

Since the Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault, we have known riders with exceptional palmares. But never so much at the same time, neither over the duration of the whole season, nor with the same enthusiasm.

And then there were the years of lead, undermined by doping, which we must hope will not resurface, which there is no evidence to prove today.

"No, Mathieu is not an alien. He is human. He's just a super strong rider," insisted Jasper Philipsen, second Sunday of the Hell of the North behind his leader Van der Poel and ahead of Wout Van Aert, another member of the brotherhood of gluttons. "These guys have something extra," added the Belgian sprinter.

The day before, the competition had made the same observation on the Tour of the Basque Country, flown over by the Dane Jonas Vingegaard who won the general classification and half of the six stages to bring his record to eight victories since the beginning of the season.

The leader of the Jumbo-Visma, the Dane Jonas Vingegaard, at the start of the 6th stage of Paris-Nice, finally canceled, on March 10, 2023 in Tourves (Var) © Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP

"We are at perpetrate"

A week earlier, it was Tadej Pogacar, the greediest of all, who shriveled the pack on the Tour of Flanders, after having already triumphed in the Tour of Andalusia and Paris-Nice.

The Slovenian, double winner of the Tour de France 2020 and 2021, is already ten wins in 2023.

Slovenian Tadej Pogacar celebrates his victory in the Tour of Flanders 2023 on April 2, 2023 in Oudenaarde © ERIC LALMAND / BELGA / AFP / Archives

His compatriot Primoz Roglic boxed in the same category with seven victories, including two general classifications, on Tirreno-Adriatico and the Tour of Catalonia.

We would almost forget the sixth element, the Belgian prodigy Remco Evenepoel, reigning world champion, who currently has "only" three successes, including the Tour UAE, on his chase board in 2023.

Between them, they have won all the most important races of the year so far and it is no longer to be excluded that one of them will one day manage to imitate Merckx, the only one in history to have won all three Grand Tours and the five Monuments.

"There are a few riders who are really above the rest, who do a little bit of what they want. As soon as they start, behind we are at perpete, it clears everywhere, "says the rider of AG2R-Citroën, Franck Bonnamour.

And there is no indication that this will change at the next major events, even if Van der Poel and Van Aert, also involved in cyclo-cross this winter, will take a break for a few weeks.

"Full throttle"

While the races of the elders sometimes yawned, the domination of the six, who, apart from Roglic, are all still young (between 23 and 28 years old), is done with panache, attacks galore, senseless solitary raids, twists and shoulder-to-shoulder duels, in sound and fury.

Belgium's Jasper Philipsen, his Dutch teammate Mathieu Van der Poel and Belgium's Wout Van Aert shoulder to shoulder as Germany's John Degenkolb crashed during Paris-Roubaix on April 9, 2023 © Bernard PAPON / POOL / AFP

The races are unbridled - "it was crazy, we raced like juniors", reported Van der Poel in Roubaix - and swallowed with any armor. Never before have the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix (46.841 km/h) been run so fast.

"From 100 km from the finish, it was full throttle," reported the Swiss Stefan Küng, fifth after having "given everything" but "complete emptied at the end" while the ogres "still had a cartridge".

To explain these frenzied averages, the actors refer to increasingly efficient bikes, progress in nutrition, altitude courses and optimized training...

"Cycling has become a lot more professional. All cursors are pushed to the maximum. Before, it was simpler: we cycled during the day and we ate pasta in the evening," says German veteran Simon Geschke, who has "trouble imagining that the level can rise further".

Primoz Roglic (right), winner of the Tour of Catalonia ahead of Belgium's Remco Evenepoel (left), Sunday in Barcelona on March 26, 2023 © Josep LAGO / AFP

In the meantime, the show continues. In Liège-Bastogne-Liège at the end of April, where a Pogacar-Evenepoel duel is expected. At the Giro in May, where Evenepoel and Roglic will cross swords. And, of course, on the Tour de France (1-23 July), the highlight of this enticing season.

© 2023 AFP