When Tadej Pogačar pulled ahead of his fierce rival Jonas Vingegaard at the summit of the Col de la Couillole, pounding his chest and spreading his arms as he crossed the finish line, it all but confirmed his thrilling return to the top of the cycling world.
Although Pogačar didn’t need to win the penultimate stage of this year’s Tour de France to claim his third yellow jersey, the manner in which he did so emphasized his complete dominance over the past three weeks.
But it wasn’t just this year’s Tour where Pogačar showcased his strength. Just weeks earlier, he secured his first victory at the Giro d’Italia, becoming the first cyclist to win both the Tour and the Giro in the same year since Marco Pantani in 1998.
This rare double has only been achieved by eight riders in history, and Pogačar, a youthful 25-year-old from a small Slovenian town, is now part of this elite group—a success he hadn’t anticipated.
“When I was younger, I never thought I could win a Tour de France stage,” Pogačar told CNN Sport. “After I won my first Tour – which is the ultimate goal in cycling – everything else is a bonus.”
“I race for fun, without feeling any obligation, and with a free mind,” said Pogačar, who became the youngest cyclist in the post-World War II era to win the Tour when he shocked Primož Roglič four years ago, overtaking him in the penultimate stage.
Pogačar secured another title the following year in what at times felt like a victory parade, before being twice defeated by Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard, seemingly the only rider capable of challenging him over a three-week race.
The two have developed a fierce rivalry, and the 2024 edition of cycling’s most prestigious race offered Pogačar a chance for revenge. He was ruthless, winning six stages, including five in the mountains. Despite Vingegaard’s determined effort after recovering from a severe crash in April, he couldn’t keep up.
As the youngest rider to win the yellow jersey three times, Pogačar is closing in on the record of five, held by cycling legends Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Miguel Indurain. Lance Armstrong, who won seven consecutive Tours, was stripped of his titles in 2012 for doping offenses.
“I don’t like to talk about what could happen or what records I might break,” Pogačar said. “But with three Tours de France under my belt and possibly ten more years in my career, the odds are good to reach five, though that’s not my goal.”
Instead, Pogačar prefers to plan his career race by race, carefully choosing his targets each year alongside his UAE Team Emirates.
Unusually, Pogačar’s versatility allows him to win races of varying lengths and terrains, including one-day classics, where explosiveness is often sacrificed by Tour contenders for endurance. He aims to win all five cycling monuments, with only the Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix left to conquer, and he hopes to complete the Grand Tour set by winning the Vuelta a España. Only one man, cycling legend Eddy Merckx, has achieved this feat.
Pogačar’s ambitious goals seem within reach. Winning the Vuelta would make him the eighth male cyclist to complete the Grand Tour sweep.
Reflecting on the past year, Pogačar said everything “fell into place perfectly.” After winning the Tour, he opted to skip the Olympics, partly due to fatigue but also because his partner, Urška Žigart, was unexpectedly left off Slovenia’s team.
Pogačar returned to racing in early September at the PlumeStrong Cycling Challenge in Switzerland, a charity ride to raise over $1 million for humanitarian causes, including developing schools in Sierra Leone. He participated in the leg from Zürich to Venice, saying, “It fits with who I am—cycling and raising money.”
This event also helped Pogačar prepare for his next big goal: the world road race championships starting later that month in Zürich. A third-place finisher last year, no Slovenian has ever won the road race at the world championships, and victory would allow Pogačar to don the famous rainbow jersey for the following season.
Pogačar’s success has made him a national hero, with thousands of fans celebrating his Tour victory in Ljubljana and his hometown of Komenda. “Both were crazy,” Pogačar said. “I couldn’t believe so many people came to my small hometown.”
His rise to cycling’s peak is not just due to talent; he credits his team’s planning and his rivals, like Vingegaard, for pushing him to be better. “Jonas has beaten me twice at the Tour, which made me hungrier and gave me more motivation,” he said.
With both riders still in their prime, their rivalry seems set to continue, with Pogačar’s name frequently mentioned among the sport’s greats. Though he resists comparisons to Merckx, Pogačar knows they are inevitable.
For his part, Merckx has praised Pogačar, saying last year that the young rider is a “blessing” for the sport. Few would disagree with that assessment.
Leave a Reply