Pogacar opens up about his plans for next season, with the Vuelta once again looking unlikely

Pogacar himself first looks back on another long and successful year. “It was a positive season,” he tells Marca after the Andorra Cycling Masters, a unique criterium in the tiny country. “In 2024, there were more victories, but this year we added more classics. The results were good, and I think this season was better than the last.”

That's not surprising: the Slovenian finished on the podium in every Monument and won three (The Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and The Tour of Lombardy). He also defended his title in the Tour de France and became both European and world champion. It seemed that 2024 couldn't get any better, but the superstar proved that it could.

Sometimes it doesn't seem easy to maintain the desire to keep performing. Pogacar himself is often open about this, but at the moment, he has no problem keeping the engine running. ‘“We want to be just as good next year, or better,” he states with determination. “It’s difficult to improve every year, but that’s what we want. It was a perfect season this year, but we’ll see if we can do even better.”

A favorable winter will be decisive in the performance of this top rider. At 27, he is still young, and there is still plenty to achieve. “Every year, I make progress, and we’ll see if I can improve in the future. We haven’t discussed my schedule yet, and now that the holidays are starting, I mainly want to rest.”

There are still several major goals missing from Pogacar's list of achievements, such as Paris-Roubaix, Milan-Sanremo, and the Vuelta a España. The latter will be difficult next year. The final weekend of the Vuelta overlaps with the GP Québec and GP Montréal. “The World Championships in Canada fit in well with the Canadian one-day races,” says the Slovenian. “But there is still a long way to go before the calendar is finalized. There is always a chance.”

Pogacar aims to improve on last year's performance, but he remains vague about his specific goals. His manager, Alex Carera, is not. “Next year, he could win his fifth Tour de France, take his third world championship, win the Vuelta, break Cavendish's record for stage wins in the Tour de France, and set the record for Monuments won.”

However, the Spaniard knows that the rider has had an almost flawless year and that everything has to fall into place for him to match it. “To have a great season, you have to have a great winter: training, resting, recovering physically and mentally. Without that, miracles are not possible. And that recovery also depends on Urska,” he says, referring to Urska Zigart.

Carera cannot stress enough the importance of the relationship between the two. “He needs to have someone who makes him feel good: spending time with Urska, in Monaco, watching a movie, or just staying at home. Because to her, he is Tadej, not Pogacar; and to him, she is Urska, not Zigart, the cyclist. This normality protects and keeps them balanced.”