Tadej Pogačar is training again, getting ready for the rest of the season after winning the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia. He has several goals–but of course, the rainbow jersey is the biggest. If he does that, he would be the first rider to win cycling’s Triple Crown since Stephen Roche in 1987. The other rider was Belgian Eddy Merckx in 1974.
In an interview with Velo, UAE Team Emirates manager Joxean Matxin said his star rider is ready for the next month of racing.
“Canada, the worlds, Il Lombardia, and the Italian classics. Tadej is excited to race again and finish off the season strong,” he said. “Tadej can make history, but a rider of 25 years, and who’s never done two Grand Tours in one season, and in the first year he tries, he wins two.”
Many in the cycling world wondered if Pogačar would try to do something never done before in men’s cycling: win all three Grand Tours in the same year.
On the Vuelta
“But if we sent him to three Grand Tours in one year, we wouldn’t be thinking about his future. And if we look at next season, I am not saying it’s yet confirmed that he will do the Tour de France next season, that would have meant he would have done four Grand Tours in little more than one year. That doesn’t make sense,” Matxin said.
However, Matxin didn’t discount racing the Vuelta and trying to win the maillot rojo to complete his collection–but it’s not clear when.
“It’s too early to say. We will see how he concludes the fall campaign and then sit down with everyone to make a plan for next season. That might be great for the people who love the statistics. We don’t race for that, we race to win,” he said.
The good news for Canadians is that Pogačar’s next races will be the Grands Prix Cyclistes Québec et Montréal. They take place September 13 and 15. You can learn more at gpcqm.ca.
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