Tadej Pogačar and UAE are preparing hard for the Tour de France, but don't expect team news soon

While Jonas Vingegaard was making a splash over the past few weeks in the Giro d’Italia, we heard a lot less about Tadej Pogacar. The UAE Emirates-XRG world champion is currently training at altitude in Sierra Nevada, but his regular team director Andrej Hauptman told RTVSLO how the Tour de France favourite is doing at the moment.

The Giro d’Italia was also on the agenda in Hauptman’s household. “Of course we followed him, but on the other hand we are mainly focused on ourselves. We know what we need to do to arrive at the start of the Tour as well prepared as possible. We already knew Jonas was a top cyclist, and I certainly had no doubt that he would be back at top level.”

At UAE Emirates-XRG, expected leader João Almeida had already withdrawn before the race, after which regular names Adam Yates, Marc Soler and Jay Vine all went out of the race on day two. Could all those injuries also affect the team for the Tour de France? “This season is tough, but I believe we will line up with the strongest team.”

With the team leader, everything is going well. “Tadej is still training at altitude in Sierra Nevada, then he will take part in the Tour of Switzerland (17-21 June), then he will do his final altitude training and then leave for the Tour de France.” When asked what the wattages say, Hauptman replied: “Tadej is on the right track for the Tour de France!”

“The Tour of Switzerland is an important benchmark for our preparations and for whether we can still change anything or fine-tune details in the final week before the race,” said Pogacar’s compatriot, who knows his team will have to be ready straight away in Barcelona.

“Stage one, team time trial: we will have to give everything there. It will absolutely be one of the most important stages. Well, every stage in a three-week race can be decisive, and if you underestimate one, it can cost you dearly. There can be a lot of unpredictable things every day.”

“Of course you can try to plan what will happen and how your rivals will race, you can prepare for everything, but in the end the most important thing is being able to adapt and react quickly to events you could not have foreseen,” Hauptman told RTVSLO.

At UAE Emirates-XRG, they are already keeping an eye on the opposition. “For Paul Seixas, it will be his first three-week race, and he will be the same age as Tadej Pogačar was in 2019, when he made his debut in Spain. Seixas showed last year and this year what kind of challenges he can take on. He will certainly play an important role.”

“And not only he and Vingegaard, but Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe also have two riders who can fight for a place near the top of the general classification, and there are a few other teams with exceptionally strong leaders,” the Slovenian added. “Not only Slovenians, but all cycling fans around the world will be very happy to follow these exceptional riders of the new era, such as Tadej, Remco Evenepoel, Mathieu van der Poel...”