Tadej Pogačar reveals UAE’s ‘Pantani’ nickname for Nicolas Prodhomme after Alpe d’Huez battle

This year’s Tour de France may have looked relatively straightforward for Tadej Pogačar, but that does not mean the UAE star was not impressed by his rivals. In fact, the Slovenian—and his team—were briefly left stunned by the work of Nicolas Prodhomme. The Decathlon domestique working for Paul Seixas even earned himself a memorable nickname.

First, we need to go back to Stage 20 of the Tour de France, which was unquestionably the queen stage. For the second day in succession, the riders finished on Alpe d’Huez, where Pogačar had already won the previous afternoon. In Stage 20, however, the Slovenian stayed alongside his close friend Isaac Del Toro, and the pair crossed the finish line together, more than a minute behind stage winner Richard Carapaz.

During that stage, Pogačar was seen speaking to an impressively strong Prodhomme. “Pogačar asked me several times to take a turn on the front, but because Matthew was already riding ahead of us, there was no reason for me to do that,” Cyclism’Actu reported Prodhomme as saying after the stage. The Frenchman had his own theory about Pogačar’s request.

As Prodhomme explained: “I had the feeling he wanted to show that he was willing to work with me, purely to prevent me from coming past him and making the race more difficult.” That was exactly Decathlon’s strategy. “That was the game. There was nothing malicious about it and there was no intimidation. He may simply have been surprised that I did it.”

The French outlet later reported comments made by Pogačar about the exchange on the Val 202 podcast. “At that point, I was already pushing pretty hard. With the headwind, it was not exactly easy either. Yes, I tried once or twice to convince him to take at least one turn on the front for me, so that I could catch my breath for a moment before continuing.”

Unfortunately for Pogi, Prodhomme refused to do so. “He did not take a single turn on the front. They also had another rider with them, so there were two Decathlon riders who could at least have helped me a little. But I understand. That is cycling. Nobody was under any obligation to help me.”

Pogačar even admitted that he had “reached his limit” at that moment. “I said to myself: ‘Okay, I am going to hold this pace all the way to the summit.’ Everything was under control. Isaac was still in the white zone, even if we all reached the finish together. That was my first objective. Then Prodhomme came past me.”

UAE were certainly impressed by Prodhomme—extremely impressed, in fact. “We were already joking about it within the team and calling him ‘Pantani’, the rider who always managed to find the strength for the final sprint. He kept accelerating and stretching the group during the first 500 metres of the sprint. We did not really like that within the team. I caught him, looked at him and said: ‘Easy. What are you doing? Take it easy.’”