CyclingUpToDate Podcast | “It’s probably the best Tadej Pogacar form we’ve ever seen” - Has UAE leader ever looked better as Tour de France warning lands?

Tadej Pogacar heads towards the Tour de France looking close to untouchable after turning the Tour de Suisse into his final statement before Barcelona.

That was one of the major talking points on the first episode of the new CyclingUpToDate Podcast, where Ruben Silva, Gavin Quinn and Carlos Silva assessed whether the UAE Team Emirates – XRG leader has ever looked better.

Pogacar won the overall classification by more than six minutes, took three stages including the time trial and final mountain stage, and left his Tour de France rivals with little comfort heading into July.

“Well, I’ve seen a lot of people say that it’s probably the best Tadej Pogacar form we’ve ever seen, really, almost going back to the 2024 Tour kind of form,” Quinn said. “I probably tend to agree."

“You said he put everything to bed on the final stage. I think he put everything to bed about 80, 90 kilometres into racing on stage one. I was away for a lot of the Tour de Suisse, so I didn’t get to watch much live, but on the first stage I went to see what was going on and with 72, 73 kilometres to go, Pogacar had already gone," he recalled. “He left everybody behind as if this was a mega mountain stage. Yes, it was a hilly stage, but he just picks and chooses these chaotic moments we’ve seen, like with these 80, 90-kilometre solo attacks, and they always seem to work.”

Pogacar did not need the final mountain stage to stamp his authority on the race. His long-range move on the opening day immediately changed the tone of the week, before he added another layer with his time trial performance and then finished the job in the mountains.

“It’s pretty clear that in the Tour de Suisse, Pogacar’s domination has left the cycling world with one clear conclusion: he looks stronger than ever before the Tour de France next month,” Carlos Silva said. “After three stage wins, an overall victory by more than six minutes and another display of brutal superiority in the mountains, several cycling outlets described his performance as a warning to the rest of the world."

“It’s not only the result that impressed, but the way he achieved it. Like Gavin said, he attacked from long range, controlled the race with ease and even showed his strength against the clock," he continued. “Against the clock, he did a good performance with the new Colnago TT2 bike for the first time in 2026, and I think he is very happy with the job that the team and Colnago did.”

The manner of the opening-stage move was what stood out most. It was not the obvious day for the decisive attack, nor the obvious point in the race, but Pogacar turned it into the moment that shaped the whole Tour de Suisse.

“It’s almost like doing training while doing his solo attacks,” Quinn said. “He puts himself in those positions quite often. I think it’s good race IQ from Pogacar because he doesn’t think only about his opponents around him. He sees opportunities. He sees gaps behind him. He gets a lead-out and realises that he has a couple of wheels behind him, and he just goes all in without even thinking about it, in an instant."

“That’s probably where he has got some of his biggest gaps and most statement performances, by genuinely capitalising on an opportunity when it’s there. I think some GC guys are maybe more reluctant to do that because maybe they’re thinking: ‘This isn’t the stage where we’re supposed to be battling it out. This isn’t the point in the race. There’s another climb to come,’ Quinn added. “Pogacar is just not afraid of it. Obviously, the easy answer is because he has the legs. He is the best rider in the world, so he can.”

The Tour de France will again bring the direct comparison with Jonas Vingegaard and Team Visma | Lease a Bike. Pogacar’s form is the first problem for his rivals; the strength around him may be the second.

“If we compare his shape with the shape of Jonas Vingegaard at the Giro d’Italia, I could say that Visma are in trouble, but we are going to talk about it later,” Carlos Silva said. “The general verdict was brutal for his opponents and for Jonas Vingegaard. Pogacar has not only won again, he has made a statement. With his climbing power, time trial ability and the strength of the team around him, I think he will start the Tour de France as the man to beat.”

On the final mountain stage, Pogacar wiped out the gap to the leaders on the last climb before sealing the overall victory, with Richard Carapaz finishing more than two minutes behind. “Look at the last climb on the last day of the race,” Carlos Silva said. “I think the leading group had more than one minute, a gap of over one minute, over Pogacar, and he went and got Lenny Martinez. Then Carapaz finished the race two minutes behind."

“In one climb, let’s see if that is the plan for UAE Team Emirates – XRG. They don’t need to attack on the last climb to Col de la Croix, but if Pogacar decides to attack on Col de la Croix, maybe he opens a gap of two minutes, maybe three, maybe four, because he has excellent skills downhill," analysed Silva. “I think at the Tour de France, let’s see how the legs of Jonas Vingegaard are, because I think the train for the mountains of Visma is at a lower level than UAE Team Emirates – XRG for the Tour de France. For sure.”

Pogacar now reaches Barcelona with three different Suisse statements behind him: the long-range attack, the time trial win and the final mountain stage. For the rest of the Tour de France field, the immediate problem is that none of those victories looked like an isolated effort.