Four days can be a long time in cycling. Already this week, Tadej Pogačar has been on two training rides, raced against Kigali locals on rusty bikes, and welcomed his Slovenian road race team-mates to Rwanda. He’s been crowded by fans, and stopped for selfies. Business as usual. And just like that, the disappointment of the time trial at the UCI Road World Championships feels like a distant memory.
Pogačar finished just one second off a medal in time trial last Sunday, after he was tagged and passed by Remco Evenepoel, who started two-and-a-half minutes behind. At the time, the Slovenian said the overtake was a “hard one to swallow”, but a long four days have passed, and he’s now raring to put the “bad feeling” behind him, and keep his rainbow jersey.
“When I arrived here [in Kigali] I was training two days on the TT bike and then raced, and I didn’t catch my rhythm, I didn’t catch my legs,” he said in a press conference on Thursday. “After Sunday, I switched to road bike, and I don’t have any issues now this week. I’ve gotten used to the environment, to the altitude, also to the weather and just everything. I think now the legs are turning pretty well every day.”
As Pogačar sat in front of the world’s press, a row of microphones in front of him, he looked calm, relaxed, perhaps worn down by the volume of interviews he’s done this year as the world’s number one cyclist.
Within the Slovenia squad that will support Pogačar is five-time Grand Tour champion Primož Roglič, Milan-San Remo winner Matej Mohorič and UAE Team Emirates-XRG domestique Domen Novak.
Sunday’s course in Kigali has been hailed as one of the hardest in World Championships history, stretching 267.5km, with 5,475m of elevation. The largest climb – Mont Kigali at 1,771m altitude – will be summited with around 100km remaining.
Coincidentally, Pogačar’s winning attack in Zurich last year came with 100km to go – a move he described afterwards as “stupid – but it worked”. Might he try from range again? “It’s always an option to attack wherever you want if you have the legs,” he said.
“For me personally, the best part on paper would be the longer climb, Mont Kigali. The consecutive two next climbs, the cobbled climbs, are short and sweet, but the only problem with that it’s quite a long way to the finish.
“When you race so much, and you always race for the win, and most of the eyes are on you all the time in the big races, obviously you can make mistakes. You have to try different things as well. You cannot always do the same thing.”
Pogačar won his first road world title in Zurich last September.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
As the defending champion, Pogačar understands “there will be guys who just look at me” in Sunday’s race. He, too, will be looking at certain riders. Asked who he sees as contenders, the first name he listed was Evenepoel, the man who caught him in the time trial.
“We saw how he was flying in the TT. I think he’s in good shape also for the road race,” Pogačar said.
“Then I have my teammates from UAE, they’re quite big contenders, like [Mexico’s Isaac] del Toro, Pavel [Sivakov, France] is flying now. And then you have [Great Britain’s Tom] Pidcock; he’s coming off a good Vuelta, so maybe he still has really good legs.”
Still, the Slovenian was keen to add: “We shouldn’t care too much about the opponents, but focus on your race, on your legs, because it’s so long and so difficult.”
With three sleeps to go, the finishing touches have been made, the acclimatisation is complete. “I got an extra boost now these days for Sunday,” Pogačar said. On Tuesday, he completed his final training ride in the rainbow jersey, a privilege he will now give his all to keep.
Might he also be fuelled by revenge after the pain of the time trial?
“Probably Remco also wanted revenge for the Tour de France when he was caught by Jonas [Vingegaard] in the mountain TT. I think that was good for him. I think he ticked off one bad moment of this year,” Pogačar said.
“Now, on Sunday, maybe it can be my turn to tick off and put away that not so bad day, but bad feeling when someone catches you, to put it aside.”
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