Tadej Pogačar mischievously left room for somewhat doubt final week when he indicated that he was ‘99%’ sure to not race this yr’s Vuelta a España. With the Giro d’Italia already received and the Tour de France firmly underneath his management, the prospect of a singular Grand Tour treble shimmered like a mirage on the horizon.
However UAE Team Emirates sports activities supervisor Matxin Joxean Fernandez firmly dispelled any notion that his cost would line up once more in Spain to Cyclingnews. There are limits, even for a rider who wins to such extra.
“Everybody is asking me why we don’t go for the treble. Well, it’s quite simple – we’ve had Tadej on the workforce since he was a younger rider, and we’ve at all times deliberate together with his entire profession in thoughts, not only a single season,” Matxin instructed Cyclingnews in Nice.
“If you place a rider in three Grand Tours in a single season, that additionally means he would find yourself racing 4 Grand Tours in little over a yr. We don’t have a short-term imaginative and prescient like that. We don’t simply need Tadej to win this yr. We need him to maintain successful into the long run.
“In the remainder of this season, Tadej will solely race the Olympics, the Canadian races, the Worlds and Il Lombardia. He must get well bodily and mentally now. So both facet of the Olympics, he wants psychological peace and a traditional life.”
Downtime and coaching at dwelling was a major a part of UAE’s planning for the 2024 season, when it was determined that Pogačar would make his Giro debut and search to grow to be solely the eighth rider in historical past to win the maglia rosa and maillot jaune in the identical yr. He has ridden two Grand Tours however a complete of solely 52 days of racing.
Pogačar’s second successive defeat to Jonas Vingegaard on the 2023 Tour final yr triggered a recalibration and seek for enchancment.
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Although Pogačar completed out his season in typical vogue, successful a 3rd successive Il Lombardia, ideas have been already turning to the brand new marketing campaign. His switched coach for the primary time as an expert, from Iñigo San Millán to Javier Sola, and his racing schedule was additionally closely tailored.
Less, it was deduced, could possibly be extra. Rather than begin racing and successful in February, as he had carried out all through his profession, Pogačar was as an alternative held again till Strade Bianche on the primary weekend in March. It meant that he spent the bones of 5 months out of competitors as he settled right into a revised coaching routine underneath Sola. The time away from racing, in essence, allowed for one thing of a reset.
“Between Il Lombardia and Strade Bianche, Tadej went virtually 5 months with out racing, from October to March. That was vital,” Matxin mentioned.
“With that point away from racing, he actually had this massive want to coach laborious after which when the season began, he got here in recent and with lots of starvation.”
That manifested itself instantly, when Pogačar annexed Strade Bianche with an 82 km solo effort, however his racing was nonetheless dosed sparingly throughout the Spring, with UAE adamant that he would have simply ten days of competitors earlier than the Giro.
Pogačar was third at Milan-San Remo, after which dominated the Volta a Catalunya. That was adopted by an altitude camp, the fruits of which carried him to a predictably crushing win at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and onto the Giro.
“In precept, the plan of Tadej to not race an excessive amount of earlier than the Giro labored properly,” Matxin mentioned.
“The thought was to not have an excessive amount of racing early within the yr, after which trip the Giro in a barely extra conservative means.”
Pogačar is healthier than ever
The males who suffered underneath Pogačar’s yolk on the Giro will understandably elevate their eyebrows on the notion that he raced conservatively in Italy, on condition that he wore the pink jersey for 20 days, swept to 6 stage wins and arrived in Rome with a lead simply shy of 10 minutes.
It is evident, nonetheless, that Pogačar’s already stratospheric stage of efficiency on the Giro was elevated even increased on the Tour.
“Yes, he went up somewhat bit, the numbers and the info present us that he went up somewhat bit,” Matxin revealed.
“He recovered very properly from the Giro and that race additionally gave him lots of race rhythm, and we’ve seen that right here.”
In generations previous, most of the males who accomplished the Giro-Tour had a really completely different expertise. Both Jacques Anquetil and Stephen Roche, as an example, each spoke of peaking in Italy after which grinding out the win in France on sheer endurance.
Pogačar, in contrast, someway gave the impression to be at his sharpest in July, as testified by the eye-watering energy outputs estimated for his wins at Pla d’Adet, Plateau de Beille and Isola 2000. Far from operating on fumes by the tip of the Tour, Pogačar gave the disquieting impression of getting a lot extra within the tank, serving to himself to the final three phases.
“It’s a special biking, and even now, it is dependent upon the circumstances of the yr,” Matxin identified.
“We determined to go for the Giro and Tour this yr as a result of this was yr to do it. There was 11,000m much less climbing on the Giro route and there have been precisely 5 weeks between the Giro and the Tour. That allowed Tadej to have per week of relaxation after the Giro after which three weeks of high quality coaching earlier than he tapered for the Tour.”
The new heights reached by Pogačar on this Tour have generated their very own headlines and questions, not least his obliteration of the late Marco Pantani’s tainted document on Plateau de Beille. In the third week, in the meantime, Pogačar’s modified 2024 coaching regime got here into focus because of the revival of posts by a mysterious determine known as ‘Mou’ that had appeared on the Cyclingnews discussion board earlier within the yr.
“Mou or nonetheless you pronounce it, I don’t have an opinion about, as a result of I by no means learn it and I don’t know who he’s,” mentioned Matxin, who added that there have been limits to evaluating climbing instances from one era to the following.
“Journalists take note of it, however we by no means race to beat information from the previous. And three riders beat the document at Plateau de Beille, that is merely the biking of immediately.
“The riders immediately are sooner, and the tools is far sooner too. I’d invite anybody to attempt a motorcycle from immediately and a motorcycle from again then, they might see the distinction. And younger riders immediately are far more aggressive at an earlier age, you’ve got junior riders with numbers that would make them aggressive in WorldTour races.”
And but, just like the three earlier summers, two riders have been once more lightyears forward of the remaining on this Tour. Pogačar and Vingegaard occupied the primary two locations general for the fourth July in a row. Despite Remco Evenepoel’s promising Tour debut, there may be little indication that this duopoly will recede within the years forward. Pogačar hasn’t but turned 26, whereas Vingegaard is simply two years older.
The duel, Matxin instructed, had helped to create the situations for the double. Like the house race, the pair look like pushing each other into new and uncharted territory.
“It’s clear that Tadej may be very sturdy mentally, and I believe that the defeats have given him extra power, they made him higher,” Matxin mentioned.
“Just like Van Aert and Van der Poel made each other stronger, I believe Jonas has made Tadej stronger and Tadej has presumably made Jonas stronger. The rivalry and the closeness of it has made them each extra aggressive.”
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