Tadej Pogačar would like to go to the Vuelta a España. Who wouldn’t? Three weeks in Spain, exploring the north of the country, with a fun bonus trip to Italy in the mix too. It’s a race he hasn’t won, and one that he needs to tick off on his ever-shortening list of races to win. He could, too, if he shows anything like the kind of form that has brought him to the brink of a fourth Tour de France victory.
There is just one problem with that: Tadej Pogačar is tired, understandably so. He has said as much, and sounded and looked as much in the last few days of yellow jersey press conferences. He might be winning by four minutes, have won four stages, this is his fourth Tour victory, but it has been a tough three weeks in France.
Stage 20 was no exception, with the rain on the road to Pontarlier and a tricky course, one which everyone had to be attentive on. His great rival, the man in second place, Jonas Vingegaard, explained it well: “It was a miserable day with the weather to be honest, I felt like we should have brought our swimming goggles at one point. It was raining a lot, and it was a hard stage. Luckily we made it through safely.”
Pogačar echoed this: “Every year we say ‘it’s the hardest Tour ever’, the hardest thing we’ve ever done, it’s all so crazy, but honestly I know that this year was something on another level. There was maybe one day that we went a bit easier, if you look on the power files throughout the whole Tour, it’s been really amazing and really though.
“Even today we almost did all-out from start to finish, and I must say that even though it was one of the toughest ones I ever did, I enjoyed it, because I had good shape and good legs, and I’m really looking forward for the last day tomorrow.”
The plan was for Pogačar to ride the Tour and Vuelta, after he did the Giro and Tour double last year, this was briefed well in advance, but now that plan no longer seems completely set in stone. The Tour de France has changed things.
“I said on, I don’t know which day, that we will decide a couple of days after the Tour when everything is calm and heads are clear, then we make decisions for the next races,” he said. “It’s going to be tough to decide. Of course I would like to go to the Vuelta. Every year I do the Tour and I would like to do the Vuelta one day also, so we will see.”
He couldn’t even confirm when he would next be riding a bike: “This year I don’t know. Monday I travel, Tuesday maybe I’m on the bike, you never know. If I feel good, I go a bit riding, stop for coffee, and enjoy summer at home.”
There is also still the small matter of the final day’s stage in Paris, not the usual procession, but a punchy affair with climbs of Montmartre. Who wouldn’t be tempted to be the first yellow jersey to win on the Champs since Bernard Hinault?
His sports director Marco Marcato hinted at this happening: “To have a chance to win on the Champs-Élysées in yellow is something really special, so probably if there is a good situation for us, and of course if the legs are there, why not?”
One more day of riding, then who knows? Perhaps this is all a bluff, and Pogačar will be on the start line of the Vuelta in Turin on 23 August. Or perhaps this is the 26-year-old sowing the idea that he might be taking a bit of a break. He definitely deserves it.
