Remember me
If Sunday’s display at the Tour de Suisse wasn’t enough to worry rivals of Tadej Pogačar, there will be a further furrowing of collective brows following indications he’s better than ever before.
“During the past training camp in the Sierra Nevada, there is a climb where I tested myself last year,” he said in an interview with l’Equipe. “I really managed to set a good time there.
“I remember thinking, ‘Wow, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go faster.’
“This year I decided to give another attempt at the end of the training camp, just for fun. In the end, I was clearly faster than last year.”
Pogačar didn’t name the specific climb, but the take away point is obvious.
“I would say I am stronger than in 2025. Certainly from a training point of view.”
That plus his dominant display in Switzerland will likely stress out his opponents for the Tour.
He won three out of five stages in the race, including Saturday’s time trial, and walloped closest GC rival Richard Carapaz for two minutes on Sunday’s mountain stage.
That saw him end the Tour de Suisse 6:32 in front of Carapaz, a winning margin more typical of a grand tour.
Does he consider himself already in his Tour de France shape?
“It is not much to add anyway,” he told Cycling Pro Net and other media on Sunday. “Just ten days, almost two weeks to there. Travel there, all the media stuff and all this. There is not much you can do before that.
“Some small specific training but the shape must be ready.”
That’s music to the ears of his team and his fans, but a siren’s call to others dreaming of yellow.
‘A lot of work has been done’
Tadej Pogačar celebrated with specators as he crossed the finish line (Photo: Harold Cunningham / AFP)
Pogačar’s successes Sunday earn him his 13th win of the season, and the 121st of his career.
He’s the most successful rider thus far this season, in terms of victories, despite doing only 16 days of competition.
In contrast arch-rival Jonas Vingegaard has 12 wins but from 36 days.
The Dane has followed a completely different program, riding the Giro and then taking a break from racing since.
The Tour will show who got it most correct, but right now Pogačar is happy.
“It was good,” he said of his sensations on the final day. “This is how in the Tour we look like probably with this heat and so much elevation before. So it was really good to test the legs, the heart, the lungs everything on the final climb. I went all out and it was really hard, but actually a nice climb.”
For some riding the Tour de Suisse for the first time ever is a little bit of a gamble. It’s three days shorter than the Tour Auvergne Rhône Alpes, previously known as the Dauphiné, which was Pogačar’s preferred buildup last year.
However it’s thought his choice to race fewer times thus far this season is to avoid the fatigue he felt in the third week of last year’s Tour. Another aim is to set him up for a successful tilt at the Tour-Vuelta-worlds treble.
Is he satisfied the change in approach will work out fine?
“I think my preparation was every year a bit different, but more or less similar,” he answered. “This year also. I was satisfied with the preparation, we did super good training. We had a lot of time out of home with the teammates. A lot of work has been done.
“I am happy, and I am happy that there are also rewards already before the Tour.”
‘My plan collapsed’
Winning Sunday was the 121st victory thus far of Tadej Pogacar’s career (Photo: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Just under two weeks remain until the Tour starts in Barcelona.
Pogačar points out the Tour experience actually begins some days beforehand, with teams traveling to the event and doing press conferences.
That leaves seven or eight days to fill prior to travelling.
And while he feels his shape is more or less there, he and the other contenders will still want to get things exactly right.
To that end, he admitted that he is still deciding what to do in the days ahead.
The confusion stems mostly from the big crash his partner Urška Žigart had at the end of stage two of the Tour de Suisse Women.
She hit a speed ramp with 1km to go and fell heavily on her face, fracturing her jaw.
Pogačar was very troubled what happened, not least because the crash occurred shortly before he was due to start his own race. However he was reassured by his team staff that her condition was not as serious as might have been the case.
She’s back home and recovering, but the accident has introduced some uncertainty.
“I still need to decide,” he said when asked if he would train at home or cram in another altitude camp.
“I changed a lot of plans in the last two weeks. Now that Urška is recovering, her plans collapsed, my second plan collapsed and now it is the third plan.
“Maybe in two days it will be plan four but the most important is that we stay together the next few days and we see how it is.”
It seems to be the only hiccup he has experienced in getting ready for his top goal.
He’ll be reassured by that, by his form in Switzerland, and by his new climbing record at training camp.
For now at least, everything is perfectly on track.