"I don’t like too much explosive stuff", says Pogacar, who provides interesting insight into his training rides

The road season has been over for a while and that automatically means that teams are already in full preparation for 2026. Riders will be hoping to surpass their performance from last year in the new year, although that obviously seems like a difficult task for Tadej Pogacar. But how does the world champion fill in his training and preparations? The Slovenian gave an interesting insight.

What Pogacar showed in 2025 was almost unparalleled. The 27-year-old Slovenian rode himself with apparent ease to no fewer than 20 wins, including De Ronde, Liège, the Giro, the Tour, a seconde rainbow jersey and Lombardy. Only in Milan-Sanremo, Paris-Roubaix, the Amstel Gold Race and the GP de Québec was he defeated.

How will Pogi make sure that doesn't happen again next year? His training sessions might help that. Still, from the conversation he had with Jakob Fugslang, for a podcast by Feltet, we can tell that he would like to focus on what he likes best this winter.

Because despite the fact that he might be able to use that best to finally win a race like Milan-Sanremo, Pogacar does not seem to focus on explosiveness. "I don’t like too much explosive stuff. And when the coach puts just riding and ten sprints at the beginning and ten in the end or something... It is the worst training, you know what I mean?"

The logical follow-up question, of course, is: what does the world champion like as training? "In the winter, I just love just zone 2, 5-6 hours. Especially when you’re just going alone and do a big loop or something. I really love this, keep the power high."

"You come home a bit tired and f*cked', laughs Pogacar, 'but you also go all day fast. It feels feeling so good to do it." That is mainly the training he likes best in the winter times. "But then in the summer or before the big one-day races, I like to do six hours again, quite high pace through the day."

Then the training is different from when the world champion trains in the offseason. "Then I also go 1, 1.5 hours behind the motor. Push it a little bit and then some explosive into the last hour," Pogacar - of course - also trains his explosiveness. "This is like one of the favourite trainings."