Background and career
Tadej Pogačar (Slovene: [taˈdɛ́ːj pɔˈɡáːtʃaɾ] ; born 21 September 1998), nicknamed "Pogi", is a Slovenian professional cyclist who rides for UCI WorldTeam UAE Team Emirates XRG. His victories include five Tours de France (2020, 2021, 2024, 2025 and 2026), the 2024 Giro d'Italia, and thirteen one-day Monuments (Milan–San Remo once, Tour of Flanders three times, Liège–Bastogne–Liège four times and Giro di Lombardia five times), as well as the World Championship Road Race twice. Comfortable in time-trialing, one-day classic riding and grand-tour climbing, he has been compared to all-round cyclists such as Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault. Despite his youth, he is considered one of the greatest cyclists of all time. Pogačar was successful as a junior rider, winning the 2018 Tour de l'Avenir. In 2019, he became the youngest cyclist at 20, to win a UCI World Tour race at the Tour of California. In both his 2020 debut at the Tour de France and the next year, he won three stages and the general, mountains, and young-rider classifications, becoming the only rider to win these three classifications simultaneously. 2021 also saw Pogačar's first successes in the Monument one-day races, at the Giro di Lombardia and Liège–Bastogne–Liège. Subsequent seasons saw further wins in these, with the Tour of Flanders also added in 2023. Meanwhile, in the Grand Tours, Pogačar had consecutive second-place finishes in the Tour de France to Jonas Vingegaard, with whom his rivalry is considered to be one of the greatest of all time. This run ended in 2024 when he completed the first Giro d'Italia and Tour de France double since 1998, winning 12 stages across both races, adding the World Championship to become only the third to achieve the Triple Crown of Cycling. In 2025, he became the first rider to retain both the Tour de France and the World Championship. In 2026, Pogačar became the 5th person to win the Tour de France 5 times. Pogačar has been praised for his attacking riding style, an approach which Pogačar himself has jokingly referred to as a "stupid instinct" during a time when many others have ridden more conservatively to manage energy levels. His aim to be competitive across both the Monuments and Grand Tours has been labelled as a return to "classic" bike racing of the 1960s–1980s, and this success across multiple fronts has led to him being the UCI road racing world No.1 for a record total number of weeks and record number of consecutive weeks.
Pogačar followed his older brother Tilen in joining the Rog Ljubljana club at the age of nine. In 2011 he came to the attention of Road World Championship medalist Andrej Hauptman, who later became his coach, and head coach & selector for the Slovenian national cycling team. Hauptman watched Pogačar pursuing a group of much older teenagers from 100 meters behind. Thinking that Pogačar was struggling to keep up with the older riders, he told the race organisers that they should provide some assistance to Pogačar: the organisers explained that the younger rider was in fact about to lap the group he was chasing. Hauptman subsequently managed Pogačar as an under-23 rider with the Rog–Ljubljana team, before joining UAE Team Emirates as a directeur sportif in May 2019, after Pogačar joined the team. In 2018, Pogačar won the Tour de l'Avenir (an under-23 race similar to the Tour de France), riding for the Slovenian national team.
In August 2018, UAE Team Emirates announced they had signed Pogačar for the 2019 season, describing him as a "very talented young Slovenian cyclist". In 2019, Pogačar made his debut for the team at the Tour Down Under, where he finished 13th overall. He went on to win the Volta ao Algarve, taking the race lead after winning the second stage. He also placed sixth at the Tour of the Basque Country. In May 2019, he won the Tour of California, becoming at this time the youngest rider to win a UCI WorldTour stage race. He took the race lead after winning the queen stage to Mount Baldy on stage 6. In June, Pogačar won the Slovenian national time trial championship after beating Matej Mohorič by 29 seconds. In August, Pogačar was named in the team's start list for the Vuelta a España, his debut in a Grand Tour. In the first week, he performed strongly, placing himself in the top ten on GC (General Classification) before winning his first Grand Tour stage on the rain-soaked stage to Cortals d'Encamp. The win allowed him to move inside the top five on GC. On stage 13, which finished on the steep climb of Los Machucos, he was the only rider to stay with the race leader and his compatriot, Primož Roglič. Pogačar ended up winning his second stage to move up to third overall, where he stayed heading into the second rest day. After losing time on stage 18, he dropped down to fifth on GC. On the penultimate stage, with one last chance to move up the standings, Pogačar launched an attack, going on an almost 40-kilometre (25 mi) solo breakaway. He eventually took his third stage win, winning by more than a minute and a half over the rest of the contenders. The win allowed him to finish the Vuelta in third overall, the final podium position, and giving him the victory in the young rider classification.
Before the season started, Pogačar announced that he would ride his first Tour de France that year, riding in support of Fabio Aru. He made his season debut at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, winning two stages and the race. At the curtailed UAE Tour, he won the fifth stage, which finished atop the Jebel Hafeet, and finished second to Adam Yates on GC. In March, cycling events were postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic. When the season resumed, he took fourth overall in the Critérium du Dauphiné. In the Slovenian national championships, he finished second to Primož Roglič in the road race then defeated him in the time trial to defend his title. In the Tour de France, Pogačar quickly demonstrated that he was in better form than Aru, his team's initial leader, after finishing second to Roglič on stage four, which finished atop the climb of Orcières-Merlette. He lost almost a minute and a half on stage 7, which was affected by crosswinds. The next day, he clawed back 38 seconds when he attacked on the Col de Peyresourde. After Aru withdrew on stage 9, Pogačar won the stage to Laruns, his first Tour stage win, by outsprinting Egan Bernal; Roglič, who took the maillot jaune; and Marc Hirschi, who had been on an 80-kilometre (50 mi) solo breakaway. On stage 13, which finished atop the steep climb of Puy Mary, he was the only rider to stay with Roglič. He moved up to second overall at 44 seconds down and took the lead in the young rider classification. Two days later, he outsprinted Roglič at the top of the Col du Grand Colombier to take his second stage of the race.
At the beginning of the third week, Pogačar sat in second overall at 40 seconds behind Roglič. On stage 17, the queen stage, which finished atop the Col de la Loze, he struggled to follow Roglič, ultimately losing 17 seconds. Ahead of the penultimate stage, a 36.2-kilometre (22.5 mi) time trial finishing at La Planche des Belles Filles, Pogačar faced a 57-second deficit to Roglič. He began to claw back time from his compatriot, and he headed into the final climb with a lead of 36 seconds in the stage and a deficit of 21 seconds on the virtual GC. Pogačar gained time on the climb before going into the virtual maillot jaune with 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) left. He took the stage victory, his third of the race, almost a minute and a half ahead of Tom Dumoulin while Roglič finished almost two minutes down. The result meant he took the maillot jaune with a lead of 59 seconds on Roglič and the lead in the mountain classification. The next day, he finished safely in the peloton to officially win the Tour, becoming the first Slovenian winner of the race. At the age of 21, he was the second-youngest winner of the Tour, just behind Henri Cornet, who won the Tour in 1904 at the age of 19. In He also won the young rider classification and the mountains classification. The previous rider to win three jerseys was Eddy Merckx in 1972. He became the twelfth rider to win the Tour de France on his first attempt, and the first since 1983 (French rider Laurent Fignon). After the Tour, Pogačar competed in the men's road race at the World Championships, where he supported Roglič, who finished in sixth place. Three days later, he competed at La Flèche Wallonne where he finished in ninth place. He ended his season at Liège–Bastogne–Liège, where he finished in fourth place before moving up to third after Julian Alaphilippe was relegated.
Pogačar started the 2021 season by winning the UAE Tour, Tirreno–Adriatico, Liège–Bastogne–Liège — his first win in a monument and the Tour of Slovenia. Pogačar began the 2021 Tour de France as one of the pre-race favorites along with Primož Roglič, Geraint Thomas and Richard Carapaz. On stage one he finished with the group of favorites eight seconds behind stage winner Julian Alaphilippe and took the lead in the white jersey classification. Pogačar won the fifth stage, the race's first time trial, finishing 18 seconds ahead of Stefan Küng and taking significant time out of his GC rivals. On stage eight he launched an attack, from more than six minutes behind the breakaway, taking over the yellow jersey with a lead of over four and a half minutes on those considered to be contenders for the overall victory. Pogačar extended his GC lead on the ninth stage to Tignes, responding to an attack by Carapaz on the final climb 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) from the finish and dropping his rivals in the main group, emerging with an overall lead of over two minutes over second placed Ben O'Connor, who had moved up the order after winning the stage from the breakaway.
