‘This year was on another level’ – after winning a gruelling Tour de France, Tadej Pogačar doesn’t know when he will ride again

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.