"A cannibal? I eat sweets" - Tadej Pogacar jokingly plays down comparison to 'the Cannibal' after his fifteenth Tour stage win

Tadej Pogacar had no mercy with Matteo Jorgenson as he took the stage win on his 'home climb', the Isola 2000. Will his victory counter at this year's Tour de France stop at four, or will he add another either on Col de la Couillole or in Nice?

The Slovenian's hunger for victories already awarded him the 'Cannibal' title among many fans and experts, yet the UAE Team Emirates feels more like a 'Cookie monster', he confesses. "A cannibal? He eats human flesh. I eat sweets at the finish and gels and bars on the bike," Pogacar told Sporza jokingly. "Yes, of course, I know what you mean. But let's not talk about cannibalism. That's not so nice."

Besides, he argued, "With my fourth stage win, I've already balanced things out with last year when I got two. So now I can say I have three stage wins every year." With five Tour de France starts to his name, the 26-year-old Slovenian is currently at 15 stage wins.

"I was here training a lot after the Giro, and I was speaking to my teammates about how we wanted to race this day right up to the point where I attacked," Pogacar explained. "And it went really, 100% perfect."

Last year his preparation was a bit hampered by the wrist fracture at Liege-Bastogne-Liege. "I was riding with the bandage up until the Slovenian National Championships and I was still wearing it at nights during the first week of the Tour," he recounted. "It was a big issue last year. I was not ready physically and mentally for the Tour."

However, this year was different. With no major setbacks, Pogacar headed confidently towards the Giro-Tour double: "Everything since Lombardy last year, in fact, has gone smoothly, so this is the biggest factor in my 2024 success. This year, I'm back to the 'old me' - and still improving," he assured,