Urška Žigart’s new soigneur is also a cyclist himself

Tadej Pogačar and Urška Žigart make up one of the most famous cycling couples in the pro peloton, and they both happened to be racing in Glasgow in their respective categories this week. Pog’s racing was done, but he stuck around to see his fiancee battle it out in the last big race of the so-called super worlds, the elite women’s road race.

Soigneur for a day

But he wasn’t just there to watch. The UAE Team Emirates rider jumped into the feed zone to help give out bottles to the Slovenian squad.

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In June, Žigart came heartbreakingly close to taking Stage 3 of the Tour de Suisse Women. It was a terrific attack on the break with 13 km to go, but she got caught by the bunch with 100 m to go. Eleonora Gasparrini, the Italian sprinter from UAE Team ADQ would instead take the win. Žigart, an accomplished professional in her own right, as well as national champion, made the headlines the next day for her race.

The genesis of the joke

Well, sort of. Belgian paper Het Nieuwsblad’s headline was somewhat controversial, to say the least. “Girlfriend of Pogacar stranded 75 (!) meters from the finish in Switzerland, Eleonora Gasparrini wins the sprint and puts an end to SD Worx’s winning streak,” read the header.

Belgian newspaper refers to Women’s WorldTour cyclist Urška Žigart as “Pogačar’s girlfriend”

The caption was immediately flamed on social media. Commentator José Been, tweeted about it, asking, “Isn’t it great when a female athlete who almost wins her first UCI world tour race loses her own name and only goes by “girlfriend of Pogačar”?

And thus the joke was born, on both Twitter, and in the webpages of Canadian Cycling Magazine. “Urška Žigart’s boyfriend heads to Slovenia in final race before Tour de France,” read a headline in CCM.

Pog himself got a laugh out of it, reposting it on his Instagram.

During the women’s road race, the commentators spotted the two-time Tour de France champion doing some soigneur duties. And of course, one of the commentators went there, referring to him as, “Just Urška Žigart’s boyfriend.”

Check out the fun moment below.