Is Pogacar the real deal or is it all sus?

[gravelreformist]

No idea and no opinion on whether he and the sport as a whole is clean at the moment.

IMO the racing has been very exciting this year, even with Pogacar's dominance. In all forms of sport it is common to have one person who is dominant for some period of time. One year is impressive, but try watching Formula1 where it tends to run in 3-7 year cycles.

So for me the question is whether he can continue into the future, or if 2025 is more like previous years where he is great, but not overwhelmingly better.

We also tend to forget that at this level, the differences in ability are extremely small - O'Connor was 34 seconds down after nearly 6 1/2 hours of racing. Or 0.1% slower.