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Tadej Pogačar will head to the Tour de France with only two days of racing in his legs this month as he confirmed that he won’t be starting the Tour of Slovenia.
The two-time Tour champion is on the road to recovery from a wrist fracture sustained at Liège-Bastogne-Liège back in April. He’s been back training on the road since last week and is currently at UAE Team Emirates‘ June training camp at altitude in Sierra Nevada.
Pogačar is part of a 13-man group in Spain including his key Tour de France lieutenants Adam Yates and Rafał Majka, although he will stay on to train as others head off to pre-Tour warm-up races, the Critérium du Dauphiné and Tour de Suisse.
Speaking in a press conference from Sierra Nevada, Pogačar confirmed his June plans, with two race days at the Slovenian National Championships his main preparation for the Tour outside of altitude training.
“Unfortunately, I lost some training and couldn’t do much on the road in the last four weeks, so I need to focus a little bit more on the intervals and long training outside,” Pogačar said of the Tour of Slovenia.
“I’ve been training quite good until now. Home trainer, running, start now this week on the road. The shape is not so bad as I thought it was going to be after the rollers. Now I’ll try to get as much as possible out of this camp.
“Normally I really like to have a race before the important race. But a Grand Tour is 21 stages and sometimes it’s good to be a little bit fresher. I’ll do the National Championship so two days of racing. You can always do some good training behind the motorbike and stuff like this to simulate races, so I’m not so worried this year.
“I have great support from the team, and I can do big hours on the bike, have massages and physiotherapy here. It’s a lot of work and on Jun 11 I go to do a recon of a few stages. Then back on Sestriere training camp. Then hopefully I’ll do the National Championships TT and road race.”
Pogačar will head to Sestriere in Italy for one last camp after a recon of several key stages on June 11, while next Monday brings a CT scan on his wrist to check on how the scaphoid bone in his wrist has healed. Broadly, things are looking on track for the Tour and a rematch with reigning champion Jonas Vingegaard.
He did say, however, that his wrist may not be at 100% for the Grand Depart in Bilbao but noted that the injury shouldn’t hold his legs back from being in top shape when the race kicks off on July 1.
“Hopefully, I’ll be at 100%….
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