'We push to new heights every year' – Tadej Pogačar ready for another battle royale with Jonas Vingegaard at the Tour de France
The race favourite dished out maximum Pogacar on the eve of the big race in Barcelona
Brimming with energy and sporting a blonde-dyed buzzcut that will put paid to any ideas of tufty hair protruding from helmet vents, Tadej Pogačar addressed a packed Tour de France press room in Barcelona for a look ahead to the race.
Last in a series of big GC players to subject themselves to media questioning in the sumptuous surrounds of the city's Recinto Modernista, with the Sagrada Familia looking on just a block away, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider had his 'Pogačar' dialled up to 11 as he began by offering his smiley thanks to the media for turning up, flanked by team-mate Isaac Del Toro.
The questions went this way and that, with those asking them perhaps aware that the usual 'what are your hopes for the race?' and 'how's your form?' were somewhat redundant ('winning' and 'pretty amazing, thanks', presumably being the answers).
Asked about his rivals and in particular Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), Pogačar took the first of more than one opportunity to big up the young team-mate sitting beside him.
"I don't think [Vingegaard] is the only one that can come close. I think there's quite a few guys here that could push for the victory – this guy next to me…" he said, nodding towards a slightly embarrassed looking Del Toro.
"But competition between me and Jonas the last four years was spectacular, I would say. I think we push further to new heights every year," he said.
A certain amount was also made of his scant 2026 racing calendar – he has only raced 16 days up to now, but he said he was feeling, "pretty good. Only 16 days of racing, but the training kilometres also count, and there's been a lot."
Was racing fewer days helping him to enjoy it more, he was asked.
"I've enjoyed racing all my lifetime," he responded, batting the question away, "but I must say that maybe I even enjoy it more every year because I've stayed in the same team with the same riders and people around me, so every race I feel like I look forward to coming back with the teammates and staff. The race is also there, but mainly I enjoy just seeing the team and being around the guys."
The 27-year-old, who is gunning for a landmark fifth Tour de France win this year, was asked, too, about his pro cyclist girlfriend Urška Žigart, who broke her jaw in a crash in the recent Tour de Suisse. "Thank you for the thought," he offered, before explaining that she was healing fast and already riding outside, even if the doctors had advised against it. And he addressed, too, the €100,000 he donated to his home village of Komenda, which was hit by a storm last month, with roofs ripped off houses. "I think it's quite important to have a roof over your head," he said. "While I was growing up in Komenda, for me everything was perfect, all the neighbours, all the people there… It's my time to give back."
The Tour de France begins on Saturday with a team time trial, around a city that is already thrumming to the beat of the race, dripping in Tour de France Yellow. Pogačar will hope to be sporting that yellow too come Saturday night, and he left no doubt as to how much he was looking forward to it, giving local journalists the top line they had perhaps turned up for.
"I really like Barcelona. It's one of the coolest cities ever," he gushed, before quipping, "It would be better to be here for vacation. But yeah, I'm really looking forward to the Grand Départ here, and really excited to race around here and similar roads as in [the Volta a] Catalunya. I think we are in the same hotel as we were on stage one in Catalunya, so it's quite familiar."
And Pogačar in the race lead on Saturday? That might be more familiar still.
