Tour de France leader Tadej Pogačar has rejected the idea that he is professional cycling’s next Cannibal, despite his obvious predilection for winning as much as possible and leaving little for his rivals.
Pogačar (opens in new tab) has racked up eight stage wins in three editions of the Tour de France (opens in new tab) and took two in the last week. The UAE Team Emirates (opens in new tab) leader is currently the favourite to take his third Tour de France but downplayed comparison with the original Cannibal Eddy Merckx.
“I mean, who doesn’t want to always win?” Pogačar said. “But I don’t see myself as a Cannibal.”
“I think yesterday [Sunday] was about setting the pace that all the riders like in the team. And at a certain point it looked like we were going to go for the stage but the guys in the front were too strong.
“We then kept things under control to the finish line and we sprinted with 350 metres to go. Only Jonas Vingegaard was on my wheel and we gaped the others for three seconds, which is always good.”
While Vingegaard has been the only rider on terms with Pogačar at Châtel and at Planche des Belles Filles, Pogačar was once again non-committal it came to the subject of handling the Dane, currently second overall at 39 seconds, on the longer climbs in the Tour’s second week.
“We’ll have to see this week, we’ve had some climbs now but they were not crazy hard. Tomorrow is a kind of warm-up but the Col du Granon and Alpe d’Huez will be two really big stages.”
“We will see, but I’m pretty confident with my shape and I hope to have good legs this week.”
As for Alpe d’Huez itself, which he has never raced up before, Pogačar called it an iconic, hard climb.
“It’ll be a hot, hard stage,” he warned.
“It’s going to be interesting, it’s going to be one of the legendary stages of the race. It’ll be fun to watch on TV, but for us, not so much riding up there. I’m quite looking forward to it.”
While Pogačar has come through the latest round of COVID-19 tests with no problems, he recognised he’d have to be cautious about the upcoming heatwave in central and southern parts of France.
“It will be the same for everyone. You just need to keep your body cool enough, I don’t think anybody likes to ride in 40C for five hours, I don’t even think it’s healthy for us,” he suggested.
“It’s going to be a tough week, with extreme weather. I just hope we do everything correctly and we can stay cool enough to do a proper race.”
He brushed aside…
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