Tadej Pogačar: 'With his power Mathieu van der Poel can do well overall in Tirreno-Adriatico'
Slovenian Pogačar is using seven-day race in Italy as a build up to his defence of his Tour de France title


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Tadej Pogačar said he could see Mathieu van der Poel compete for the overall classification at Tirreno-Adriatico, after the Dutch champion's incredible riding at Strade Bianche.
Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) managed seventh place in Siena after he was unable to follow Van der Poel's (Alpecin-Fenix) amazing attacks.
When asked about Strade Bianche and Van der Poel in a press conference, the 2020 Tour de France champion said: "I was quite satisfied with my performance at Strade Bianche in a super hard race, full gas all day.
"It was even more impressive to see Mathieu going on attacks like this when we were almost finished. So, for sure, with his power he can do well overall in Tirreno-Adriatico, but we will see."
Pogačar is using Tirreno-Adriatico as a key build up race for his main goal of a title defence at the Tour de France after he stole the race away from fellow Slovenian, Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), on stage 20 last year.
"This year I’ll do the Tour de France, Olympics and probably the Vuelta, so maybe next year it’ll be finally time for the Giro," Pogačar said.
Pogačar started his season at his team's home race of the UAE Tour where he took the overall by 35 seconds ahead of defending champion, Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers).
He comes to Tirreno-Adriatico facing Yates' twin brother Simon (BikeExchange) who is the defending champion of the race.
Pogačar added: "I’ve only ever done stage races at U23 and Juniors previously here [in Italy], I love racing here though, the food is super-good, and the fans are also fantastic."
"I’m coming here in good shape, I just hope for some solid results and will try for the win. We’ve got a great quality team here too."
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Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!
I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.
It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.
After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.
When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.
My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.
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