Tadej Pogačar has virtually accomplished biking. He’s gained 4 Excursions de France, two World Championships, 10 Monuments, and rather more in between.
However as he marches on in direction of securing the title because the best bicycle owner of all time, he insists that he’s not as fixated as some presume about triumphing within the remaining races that he nonetheless hasn’t conquered. Together with, after all, Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix, the one two Monuments he nonetheless has to win.
“If I win these races,” he corrected a journalist at UAE Crew Emirates-XRG’s media day in Benidorm who requested “when” the Slovenian would win San Remo and Roubaix. “But when I by no means win them, I’ll assume that, kind of, there was not rather more I might do [in cycling].
“However there’s all the time one thing else, anyway. There’s a listing of 1 week races I haven’t been to but, the Vuelta [a España]… there are such a lot of issues left to attempt to win. However the years are going so quick that perhaps there’s not a lot time to attempt to win the whole lot that’s left.
“There’s fairly an enormous calendar in biking – massive races, smaller races, and that’s tremendous good, however I don’t rush myself to win any of those. I like to return to some races, I attempt to win those I haven’t gained but however I’m not obsessed about it like some folks may assume.”
Requested once more about Roubaix and San Remo – Pogačar has beforehand quipped that the latter race “goes to ship me to my grave – he insisted: “Like I mentioned earlier than, I’m not obsessive about any of these.”
However, the 27-year-old admitted, Roubaix is the one race he’s most determined to tick off. “I believe if I might select one [race to win between one extra Tour title or Roubaix] it’d be Roubaix. I’ve already gained 4 [Tours], so if I win 4 of 5… there’s a larger distinction between zero and one than 4 and 5.”
(Picture credit score: Getty Pictures)
Pogačar’s 2026 schedule is ready to be a mirror of 2025’s – no less than by way of his major targets: he’ll begin at Strade Bianche earlier than transferring to northern Europe to trip the 4 spring Monuments, after which he’ll return to the Tour earlier than concentrating on defending his rainbow bands on the World Championships.
The one different change is that he’ll do the Tour de Romandie and Tour de Suisse, two of the 4 remaining ‘Massive-7’ one-week stage races he’s not but gained. Racing the Classics, and skipping the supposed larger stage races like Paris-Good and Critérium du Dauphiné, will not be the everyday schedule of a Tour de France contender. However Pogačar will not be a typical bike rider.
“All people likes their very own approach to put together for the most important targets of the season,” he mentioned. “I noticed in myself that I can deal with the Classics and the Tour as properly.
“Clearly it’s perhaps tougher to race a Monument or an excellent massive Traditional each week, after which change to mountains and put together for the Tour. Generally I would favor to do a couple of one-week stage races within the first a part of the season and go to altitude, however that’s not me.
“I utterly perceive everybody else must win completely different races. I completely respect Remco’s [Evenepoel] resolution to not do the Classics, as a result of it’s not simple to do.”
There’s an admission from Pogačar that the Classics are inherently dangerous. “There’s all the time an opportunity that you’ve got dangerous luck and crash out of Roubaix and break bones after which can’t begin the Tour,” he acknowledged.
“However that may additionally occur in coaching and then you definitely compromise the Tour. We’re comprising the Tour day-after-day, and it’s not one thing you are able to do something about. It’s the best way it’s.”
Regardless, the Classics are when Pogačar will get to race how he actually likes to race. “The Classics are sooner or later: you go there, the whole lot is targeting that sooner or later, and it’s not just like the strain of the Tour, the place day-after-day you might be centered on the large purpose.
“The Tour is far more aggravating, and it’s not possible to have the identical quantity of enjoyable whenever you go deep day-after-day on the bike and also you get drained. You’re employed on the Tour for 21 levels and after you’re proud of what you’ve accomplished.”
Particularly up to now two seasons, Pogačar has made elite stage biking look simple, a easy matter of turning up and strolling to a victory. However he’s adamant that it’s something however.
“From my viewpoint, the racing battles are fairly tight, even when it appears they don’t seem to be. It’s all the time robust, all the time shut, even for those who see 4 or 5 minute variations. It’s all the time tight till the top.
“And in my view there shall be extra guys coming and bettering yearly, younger guys coming by. Now we had Lipo [Florian Lipowitz, third at the 2025 Tour] and Oscar Onley [fourth at the Tour] and so many different guys up to now who’ve come to the Tour and had some dangerous luck.
“There’s all the time going to be competitors and you need to combat for the win. There’s not one race the place I believe there’s an excessive amount of of a niche. Perhaps whenever you examine the outcomes you assume it was too simple for one man, or one other man isn’t on the extent, nevertheless it’s not true.”