Tadej Pogačar has made his decision for 2024. The UAE-Team Emirates Slovenian will aim for both the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France. This is because the situation allows it, because he loves the Giro, and because he wanted to try something different this year. IDLProCycling.com traveled down to Spain on Monday to have an extensive chat with Pogacar about the Giro-Tour combo, about becoming even better than he already is, defeating Jonas Vingegaard, seeing Mathieu van der Poel win in the Tour of Flanders, and much more.
"I've always wanted to ride the Giro, it's one of my favorite races," Pogacar begins, sitting in the warm sunshine in an inner courtyard of the Barcélo La Nucia Hills hotel. The UAE team leader was already quite vocal about his love for the Giro in recent years, but in Spain he took the time to explain a bit more specifically where that love comes from. "Italy is close to Slovenia, so as a child I often travelled there to watch Giro stages. I have beautiful memories of the Giro, including watching Luka Mezgec win a Giro stage in Trieste (in 2014, ed.). I was there, and it was an unreal experience."
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Tadej Pogacar addressed the press in Spain on Monday
However, he put off his Giro debut for five seasons. "It was a dream to start here someday, and when I joined UAE-Team Emirates, I first did the Vuelta in 2019. In 2020, I went straight to the Tour, and that was such a success that there was never really time to do the Giro," he explains simply. "I'm not as young anymore now, so I think I can handle two grand tours now. Maybe I could have handled it sooner, but now is a good moment for a new challenge in my career. It's no surprise that the team said 'yes' to the Giro this year. I could feel that they also wanted to try something different and not repeat everything every year. So we change the schedule and life up a little, because it wouldn't be good for my body to do the same thing every year. When I proposed it to the team, they immediately said yes."
An initiative from the rider himself. The Giro-Tour double, Marco Pantani was the last to win both in one season in 1998. "Everyone wants to try the double, it's one of the hardest things to do. The main goal for classification riders who have already won a grand tour is to win all three once," says collector Pogacar, with a twinkle in his eye. "That's something to have on your palmares, so I'm looking at the Giro first and then the Tour. I don't want to think too much about the double yet. I'm mostly looking forward to racing. There will be many Slovenian fans, although the Italian fans have also been putting a lot of pressure on me to do the Giro in the last few years. Was I jealous when Primoz Roglic won the Giro time trial in 2023 in front of all those Slovenian fans? No, man, I'm never jealous!" A smile follows...
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Pogacar won the Tour of Lombardy again in 2023
The decision for Pogacar to race the Giro was based on a careful assessment of various elements. Team boss Joxean Matxin explained that the 4.5 weeks (34 days to be exact) between the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France helped in a thorough preparation, and it is also significant that Pogacar's most impressive victories were achieved in cooler weather, in the spring, and for example, also in the Tour. "So far, my form has always been better in the spring. I perform better in colder weather, although it's also not nice if it rains for twenty days straight in the Giro. Let's hope for good weather, so we don't suffer as much as in 2023," he smiles again, referring to the bizarre weather conditions in last season's Giro. "We have to be prepared for everything, including hot days in May."
"I don't need to change things up too much. I know my body and how to prepare myself for such a race," continues Pogacar, in response to the question of whether he will approach things differently leading up to the Giro than he has done in recent years. "Things will be slightly different in the run-up with fewer races, but in the end, you go full throttle, even during training. You have to find the right balance in your preparation for a grand tour. In 2024 it will be different, with the focus more on two grand tours and not too many classics. So I need to find the right mix of training and rest. I'm definitely not going to do things too differently, the training philosophy remains the same."
An interesting topic, which Pogacar is happy to discuss in more detail. He is visibly relaxed, explaining that his body has proven capable of a lot in the past few years. "The Giro is demanding on the body, so you have to finish at a good level if you want to think about the next race. There's time to go to altitude training after the Giro, so if you're in good shape, the key is to carry over that good foundation from the Giro. You don't start from zero towards the Tour. I know myself quite well by now, if nothing goes wrong in my head, I could ride three grand tours. But racing with one hundred percent focus is something else. You don't know how it will be until you try. I'm going to give one hundred percent in both grand tours. It could be super good. Or mediocre, but I don't think it's likely to be bad."
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Pogacar couldn't finish higher than second place in the Tour in 2022 and 2023
The focus is on riding two grand tours. Pogacar will race only ten competition days prior to the start of the Giro d'Italia, all to save enough energy for a subsequent battle with Jonas Vingegaard and Jumbo-Visma in July. Racing the Giro with the Tour in mind? Skipping the world's biggest race never crossed his mind. "It was never an option in my mind to skip the Tour. I know how important the Tour is for me and the team. If you only do the Giro, then your season ends after that, and it's harder to prepare again for the last part of the year, without any races in the summer. So I never thought about it, although I can definitely see myself skipping the Tour at some point. Cycling is not just about the Tour, even though it's the biggest race of the year. There are many other fun things to do, and there will come a year when I won't ride the Tour."
And that's where Italy comes back into the picture. It is no coincidence that Pogacar starts his season in Strade Bianche and Milan-Sanremo, then rides the Giro and also looks forward to the Tour's start of three days in the so-called Boot of Europe. "It's going to be a year full of pizzas and good pasta," jokes the all-rounder. "I've already had one good pizza, when I scouted the fourteenth stage of the Giro, the time trial. I hope my nutrition coach will allow me that same pizza on that day." Then he continuous, on a more serious note: "It will be difficult to scout everything in advance, with the weather, my training and a busy schedule. But I will definitely scout some important stages in both grand tours."
Once again he is lighthearted, even when asked about how much room he still has to grow as a rider. "I primarily get better by training, and also by gaining experience and learning new things. I'm getting older, although the growth in my body will undoubtedly slow down at some point," he says. "However, there's always room for improvement in the mind. I don't see one particular thing where I need to improve specifically. I can improve in all areas. For instance, in time trials, I'm sometimes good, but sometimes not at all. That's something I can work on, but sometimes you reach a certain level and you can't get any better. I try to grow by working on the small details, but maybe this is it. I can only hope that I can get better. The results you achieve don't necessarily define whether you're better or worse. You know yourself, the way you train and live. That's how you know whether you're better or not. Because so much can go wrong in races. Sometimes you miss out on a certain result, but you were indeed better on the bike."
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Pogacar often wore the yellow jersey in the Tour... will he do so again in 2024?
We would almost forget that besides the Giro and the Tour, there's more on Pogi's calendar. Indeed, after the Tour de France come the Olympic Games, always an important race for Slovenians. "The Paris Olympics are a goal, although it is not entirely certain if I will start there, as the course doesn't suit me perfectly. In the Olympics, you race with small teams, so it's more of a gamble. You can win, but you can also not finish. A gold medal at the Olympics is huge in Slovenia, any medal really. I already have bronze from the road race in Tokyo, so it will be hard to improve on that result in this course. Yet, it's a goal, because I prefer one-day races and Monuments over a grand tour, when it comes to enjoyment. It gives you a bigger boost, more adrenaline."
In one-day races, you never know with Pogacar, who won the Tour of Flanders in 2023. A race he will skip in 2024, with a heavy heart. "I hope I won't have a long training session that day, so I can watch almost the entire race on TV. It will be different, I will undoubtedly miss racing that day. But it's a good choice not to do the Tour of Flanders," says the pure racing enthusiast. That enthusiast is also honest when asked about a possible Tour of Flanders victory for world champion Mathieu van der Poel. "Whether he will dominate now that I'm not there? I hope so. It would be great to see the world champion win in Flanders. Van der Poel is a great champion, so it would be good for cycling."
Not great news for Wout van Aert, who has also had the Tour of Flanders on his bucket list for years and will have a better chance in 2024, without Pogacar at the start. He will, however, encounter the Slovenian in May in the Giro - although Pogacar doesn't think he will have much trouble with the Belgian in his ambitions for the general classification. "If Wout prepares for stage races of a week, then he can perform well. I remember he finished second behind me in a Tirreno with a lot of climbing (in 2021, ed.). And in the Tour de France, he always climbs super well. He is sometimes among the best climbers, but a classification in a grand tour is different. I don't think he is thinking about a top ten finish. He will want to win the points jersey, along with some stages. That is something I can see him doing."
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Pogacar at the 2023 World Championships in Glasgow, wearing the Slovenian jersey
Time to circle back to Pogi's own ambitions, because talking about Van der Poel and Van Aert is fun, but one important name is missing from this story so far: Jonas Vingegaard. The Jumbo-Visma Dane won the Tour de France in 2022 and 2023 and is aiming for a hattrick in 2024. When asked whether it is wise to ride the Giro if he wants to beat Vingegaard in the Tour, Pogacar shrugs. "I don't know what he thinks of it, you would have to ask him. There is enough time after the Giro to recover, and with a not too busy schedule leading up to the Giro, I think I have a solid preparation. We want to try something new, different from the traditional lead-up to the Tour. I don't want to confuse anyone, but just enjoy my program."
"We don't have a plan to counter Vingegaard, that's not our mentality," Pogacar emphasizes. "We focus on ourselves and train a lot together as a team, where the internal bond is very important. We always have a good group and do our utmost. Whatever happens, happens. We don't plan to beat one person in particular - we want to beat everyone. You have to be prepared for the fact that someone might be better. You have to deal with that when it happens. I'm not obsessed with Vingegaard. As the Tour gets closer, the link is often made, then his name comes up more often in my head."
Is it not true that Pogacar, with Juan Ayuso, João Almeida and Adam Yates by his side, has a dream team akin to Jumbo-Visma 2022 and 2023 to counter a Roglic- and Van Aert-less Jumbo-Visma? "The Tour is still far off, so anything can happen. But whoever we line up, we will go to the Tour with a strong team. That has also been the case in recent years, and ultimately it doesn't matter that much who you bring from our team. Everyone who goes to the Tour prepares optimally for it. We will always have a strong team. We're going for yellow in Nice, it will be a fight," he says, sounding media-trained. His response to the question whether Pogacar sees a scenario where he doesn't ride the Tour to win sounds more natural. "It's hard for me to go to a race without worrying about my performance and the win. I never race just to train, it's better to do that at home. That is also why I race less leading up to the Giro, so I can be good in the races that I do ride."