We miss Pog!
Where is he?
SO WHERE is he? His absence has given me “Pog”
withdrawal symptoms.
He's all I've been writing about this year.
Where has the great entertainer, Slovenia’s world
road race championTadej Pogacar been hiding since dominating the Spring
Classics and then running amok in the Tour of Romandy to win that as well?
Gone, like a dancing Will o’ the Wisp. He turns up for
targeted races, smashes them, and then disappears.
He does this. He has specific targets and doesn’t
ride anything in-between, to recharge his huge energy block. That tells you he
is human, that he can’t expect to turn it on for every race. Is it my imagination
or does he ride fewer races than most riders? His skill is to carry off the
victory when he chooses and with such commanding performances… mostly.
The big exception this season being Paris-Roubaix in
April, when he was outsprinted by Belgium’s Wout Van Aert.
Pogacar, the ever smiling world champion and
phenomena who spreads his wings and rides away from opponents like a bat out of
hell, is lying low. To the relief of his rivals no doubt.
But where has he gone?
To a hidden retreat in Spain’s high mountains, that’s
where. I fancy he’s hanging upside down from the roof of a cave, encased by his
folded wings!
Well, perhaps not. But he is in the high mountains certainly;
the chosen place to be for riders before the big Tours, for high altitude
training. The aim being to boost haematocrit levels to provide the oxygen
muscles demand for the big races.
He will come down to earth again, for the Tour of
Switzerland where he will destroy the field in preparation for doing the same
in the Tour de France in July, aiming for a record-equalling fifth victory.
That’s the plan. Can’t wait.
But who will challenge Pogacar?
Let’s remind ourselves of last year’s Tour de France
result.
Pogacar won his fourth Tour, winning four stages in
2025.
Second was the Dane Jonas Vingegaard, the Tour
winner in 2022 and ’23, at 4-24; 3rd was Germany’s Florian
Lipowitz at 11 minutes;
And FOURTH?
Let us not forget Britain’s Oscar Onley, fourth at
12 minutes, after a brilliant performance in only his second Tour.
Vingegaard is seen as Pogacar’s main rival for Le
Tour. In fact he is aiming for a Grand Tour double this year, currently bidding
to win his first Giro d’Italia. And much will depend on whether he is
successful at the Giro, currently into its second week.
Belgian former world champion Remco Evenpoel the double
Olympic champion in the road race and time trial is also touted as a Tour
rival. He made his Tour debut in 2024 when he was third overall and won the
young rider classification. In 2025 he won the individual TT, beating Pogacar into
second. But t hen illness forced Evenpoel to abandon.
And what of up and coming French star Paul Seixas, only man to h old Pog’s
wheel in Liege-Bastogne-Liege; and winner of the Fleche Wallonne only the week
before?
At 19, if he rides, he will be the y youngest rider ever to start Le
Tour. Too young, many will say, to put
such expectation on such young shoulders.
Ride a Tour too soon, you may never ride another, goes the health warning.
However, Slovenia’s Primus Roglic, winner of Le Tour four times and the
Giro once, will miss Le Tour this year, aiming instead for the Tour of Switzerland
in June and the Tour of Spain in September, enjoying family time in-between.
