Tadej Pogačar knows that his season has been, by his own admission, “perfect.” Since things kicked off in the UAE Tour back in February, the world champion has rarely stepped away from the podium, destroying his competition on every type of terrain he turns his attention to. The white roads of Strade Bianche? Completed it. The cobbles of Flanders? Tick. The punchy climbs of Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège? Yep. Key Tour de France warm-up race, the Critérium du Dauphiné? Won by over a minute. Life is pretty good if you’re Tadej Pogačar on a bike right now.
“Coming here to the Tour de France as one of the favourites is an honour and I am pleased,” the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider stated just two days before this year’s Grand Départ in Lille. “I hope I can live up to expectations.”
The reality is, no one expects anything less than victory from Pogačar at this year’s Tour. With a star-studded support team around him and the type of form he has exhibited so far this season, there is no reason not to. He may have showed a slight chink in the armour with an imperfect time trial at the Dauphiné by his standards, finishing in fourth place on the stage, but the Slovenian rider immediately corrected himself by winning on sixth and seventh days of the race, dropping Jonas Vingegaard, his long-time rival, convincingly when the road kicked up. Is this what we have to expect from the next three weeks? An unflappable, dominant Pogačar with very few people to challenge him? Or is there scope for Visma-Lease a Bike to throw a spanner in the cleanly-oiled UAE machine?
“On long climbs Jonas is the best climber in the world at the moment and has been for the last few years,” Pogačar stated. “He can also do great time trials, sometimes better than me. We are both there and we will have to see during this Tour who is better in which places.”
The scores so far are three to two when it comes to Pogačar and Vingegaard’s yellow jersey triumphs. The latter has a maillot jaune from 2022 and 2023 in his wardrobe, with the former taking Tour victories in 2020, 2021 and 2024. It has been a rivalry that will go down to the ages between two riders who are, paradoxically, so closely matched and starkly different at the same time. One attacks on instinct and with panache, the other favours a methodic, planned assassination of a long mountain – this is what makes the pair so intriguing to watch during three-week stage races.
“I think the last five years were quite intense between me and Jonas and the others. We had a great competition and rivalry and this year it is more or less the same,” Pogačar added. “You never know with new guys coming too, someone can surprise and a lot can happen in such a long race. But I’m looking forward to racing Jonas again – he's in great shape. It is gonna be a great month for people in front of the TV and beside the road as well.”
Pogačar’s answers regarding his battle with Vingegaard are measured and pragmatic, but viewers of the most recent Tour de France: Unchained Netflix series will be aware that the UAE rider isn’t always able to remain so cool headed. Scenes from the most recently aired series showed Pogačar swearing at Vingegaard during last year’s Tour – proof that the relations between the pair can reach boiling point.
“It's not nice to flip out on someone, but in the heat of the moment you sometimes say something that you regret,” Pogačar said of the incident. “I didn't mean it that way. In the peloton, a lot of shouting happens when everyone is stressed or frustrated. That's what happens at those moments and I think it's also healthy from a sporting point of view. We have fought a lot with each other as Visma and UAE and sometimes things happen, but at the end of the day we have a lot of respect for each other and that will continue to be the case.”
Respect there may be, but there is no doubt that both riders have a biting hunger to come out on top in La Grande Boucle and they will not get there by making friends with one another. There is no doubt that, based on his performances so far this year, Pogačar is the stand-out favourite to win, but we’ve seen enough editions of the Tour to know that nothing is certain until the line is crossed in Paris. The 26-year-old may still be in the prime of his career, but he has the experience to know that the upcoming first week of the Tour is a risky game. For now, that is what Tadej Pogačar is focusing on. The GC battles can only commence if he reaches the mountains in one piece.
“As always the first week of the Tour is one of the most intense and nervous weeks, you can quite easily lose the Tour in the first 10 days,” he commented. “You need to take care not to screw up the whole Tour here so you stay focused, save the legs and see how it goes, hoping for no bad luck.”
