Tadej Pogacar: “Our Tour team scares me too!”

The Slovenian began training at altitude for the Tour de France. The Giro winner describes the formation he will support in the Grand Boucle. And its main competitors

Tadej Pogacar is already in training camp for the tour. Just over a week after winning the Tour of Italy and having a few days of rest, the Slovenian headed yesterday to the ski resort of Isola 2000, in the French Alps, for an altitude training session that is supposed to last until the middle of the first half of June. The goal, in the case of the UAE Team Emirates captain, is also to improve his fitness, which was already at a high level in the Giro, which the 25-year-old won by an overwhelming margin of nearly ten by two minutes over second-placed Colombian da Bora Hansgrohe Daniel Martinez.

On the eve of his departure for the mountains, Pogacar was a guest on the podcast Geraint Thomas, the British Ineos Grenadier runner, third overall in the last Giro, and his teammate Luke Rowe, and made interesting revelations about the Tour, which he intends to regain after victories in 2020 and 2021. The Slovenian champion, who was defeated in the next two years in the Grand Bocle by Jonas Vinjegaard, spoke about his main opponents in the French race this year and the constitution of his Emirati team.

Tadej Pogacar had already expected Vingegaard to participate in the Tour, considering that the Dane from Visma-Lease a Bike will leave Florence on the 29th, fully recovered from the injuries sustained in the serious fall he suffered during the Tour of the Basque Country, April 4 And he is physically fit to allow him to defend the titles he won in 2022 and 23. The Slovenian, who finished second in these editions, confirmed this via the microphone of the Geraint Thomas Cycling Club (GTCC).

“I think Jonas Vingegaard will do the Tour. He was able to return to cycling training quickly after leaving the hospital. If you feel comfortable on the bike, I think you can get back into shape in time. He was able to get back into shape,” said Pogacar, who also pointed to other riders as his main rivals. At the 2024 Tour de France, Primoz Roglic: “He’ll just need to get back to his normal weight, but I don’t think that will be a problem” (Bora-hansgrohe) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), both competing in the Dauphiné criterium, in final form. For the tour.

“Evenepoel will fly!” Especially in the early stages where they will try to obtain a distinguished position. As for Roglic, he will first wait and see, then attack in the past few days. Good to finally see Remco on tour. When he became world champion [2022]“You should take the tour,” I told him. “But only this year he decided to manage it,” Pogacar said.

The UAE team participating in the Tour de France has been known for some time and has been impressive with the big names it assembles, including Joao Almeida. Its undisputed leader also confirms this. “Adam Yates will be my right-hand man, while Juan Ayuso and Joao Almeida will be the two luxury meets on the mountain stages,” Pogacar began by describing. “Marc Soler and Pavel Sivakov are also great climbers, but they can also do very well on flat or undulating terrain. And then there would be Tim Wellens and Nils Pollitt, the tough guys on the plains. Actually, the strength of this team scares me a little!” he said half-jokingly.

With an exceptional squad and no concrete signs about the level of their opponents – with the exception of Primoz Roglic, the only one who has not suffered serious injuries recently – what strategy will Pogacar adopt in the Tour. Will it be offensive from Grand Départ in the first mountainous and then selective stages? The Slovenian does not hide his game. “It’s a difficult start, but I haven’t thought about it yet. We were very aggressive in the Basque Country last year and we probably had a bit of a rebound effect last week. My form was not good either. We have to think about what we are going to do.” “On the first day it will be 210 long.” kilometers with four consecutive climbs, and on the second day we will have the San Luca climb, from the Giro del Emilia, then Galibier in the fourth stage and the last three stages will also be very difficult.”