Hailed as one of the most versatile riders of modern cycling, Tadej Pogačar has won almost all of the most prestigious races in the discipline – except one: the elite men’s road race at the World Championships.
The Slovenian is only 24 but has already amassed a palmares that would make any professional cyclist proud: two overall Tours de France and 11 stage wins, Tirreno-Adriatico twice, UAE Tour twice, and Paris-Nice. He’s won races from February to October, and with wins in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, and Il Lombardia and a bronze in the Olympic Games road race, showing he is as good at one-day races as he is at stage racing.
Having recently dipped his toe into the cobbled and Ardennes Spring Classics with astonishing success – winning the Tour of Flanders, Amstel Gold Race and La Flèche Wallonne, he can be considered a favourite for the rainbow jersey in Sunday’s elite men’s road race in Glasgow.
Unlike his main rivals Mathieu van der Poel, Remco Evenepoel and Wout van Aert (among others), Pogačar did not arrive early enough to give the road race circuit in Glasgow a thorough preview. He opted to maximize his recovery from a punishing Tour de France where he finished second to Jonas Vingegaard for the second year in a row, this time after a suboptimal preparation due to a broken wrist suffered during Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Flying in late on Friday evening, Pogačar sent Cyclingnews a brief statement on his ambitions for Sunday’s elite men’s road race.
“Every year is the same, it’s the biggest one-day race. This time is a little bit different time of the year just after the Tour. Let’s hope for good legs,” he said.
The elite men’s race begins in Edinburgh and travels 120 kilometres to Glasgow, passing over the 5.6-kilometre Crow Road climb after 96.4 kilometres of racing. The climb has some brutal gradients and, with a criterium-like 14.3km circuit, teams will want to break up the peloton on the 11-minute climb before hitting Glasgow.
Pogačar predicts the race will be “super selective”.
“The parcours is really tricky and really hard. The race itself will be super selective. Let’s see – it’s going to be a super interesting race and I’m super happy to be here with the national team on the start.”
A world title is one of the few honours missing from Pogačar’s results – his top finish was seventh in the under-23 race in 2018 – and one that he dreams of winning.
“I always have a desire and a dream to have the rainbow stripes….
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