KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
IN 2012 Matej Mohoric?, then barely 18, cleaned house. In the latter half of his last season as a junior, he won nearly everything he touched, including the Junior World Championships, plus a second place in the corresponding time trial. The following year, no longer a junior, he won the under-23 Worlds, vanquishing Louis Meintjes in a merciless finale that confirmed the Slovenian as one of the best descenders in the professional peloton all while introducing the supertuck position to the world. Long before the days of his contemporaries and compatriots Tadej Pogacar and Primo Roglic, the sport belonged to him. In 2014, he joined the WorldTour with Cannondale at a preternaturally young age, having only spent one year in Conti-level purgatory. In that time, Mohoric? was touted as the next everything, his inevitable dominance awaited with bated breath.
And then, he simply disappeared. It’s not uncommon for riders to flounder in the transition from the kiddie leagues to the big time – in fact, it’s more common than not. Sometimes it’s just a matter of finding one’s people. When Mohoric? transferred to teams that were more proactive about developing Slovenian riders, he started to improve, snagging a stage at the Vuelta in 2017 when he was with UAE Emirates. However, it was only when he came to what was then Bahrain-Merida that he re-emerged, suddenly and all at once, and went on what could only be described as a rampage.
It was a blistering comeback. In 2018, he was Slovenian national champion, won a stage in the Giro, plus the Benelux Tour, and the Deutschland Tour. That’s not including all the times where he almost won, too, of which there were many. Finally, the papers said, Mohorič had come of age, into his own. It was a nice narrative, except it came prematurely. The Slovenian, in his comet-like fashion,
