“He basically already has the Tour de France in the bag” - Chris Froome sees little stopping Tadej Pogacar from fifth yellow jersey
CyclingFriday, 03 July 2026 at 15:30
Chris Froome spent the 2010s as the Tour de France rider everyone else had to solve. Four yellow jerseys, seven Grand Tour victories and the Team Sky machine made him the defining force of his era. The fifth Tour, though, never came.
Pogacar starts the 2026 Tour in Barcelona chasing the same mark. A fifth yellow jersey would put him alongside Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain among the race’s official five-time winners. Froome, who won the Tour in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017 before finishing third behind Geraint Thomas in 2018, sees very little mystery around the favourite.
“Tadej is much younger than I was back then,” Froome told AFP. “He has had an incredible season, and it is hard to imagine what could stop him.”
“If he stays injury-free, he basically already has the Tour de France in the bag,” added Froome.
Read also
Four Tours, not five
Froome’s own fifth-title attempt came in 2018, after he had already added the Giro d’Italia to his Tour and Vuelta a Espana wins. He arrived in France with the chance to join the most exclusive club in Tour history, but Thomas became Team Sky’s strongest rider and Froome ended the race third.
A year later, his crash at the Criterium du Dauphine ended any realistic chance of returning to Tour-winning level. Froome’s later seasons never brought him back into the yellow jersey fight, leaving him permanently one short of the number Pogacar is now trying to reach.
Pogacar reaches that threshold from a very different position. The UAE Team Emirates – XRG leader is still in his prime and has built a 2026 season that already includes victories at Strade Bianche, Milano-Sanremo, the Tour of Flanders, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, the Tour de Romandie and the Tour de Suisse. His only major defeat came at Paris-Roubaix, where Wout van Aert took the win and Pogacar finished second.
Froome’s dominance was built around Grand Tour control, altitude camps, climbing depth and time-trial strength. Pogacar’s has stretched across Monuments, stage races, one-day attacks and the same July terrain where he can now move beyond Froome’s four yellow jerseys.
Froome was the dominant Grand Tour force of the 2010s
“Everything can change in a flash”
Froome did not want to predict whether Pogacar could eventually become the Tour’s first official six-time winner. In 2018, Froome looked like the rider closest to five. By the summer of 2019, his Tour-winning years were effectively over.
“In this sport, everything can change in a flash, and I learned that the hard way,” said Froome. “In theory, he could continue for another five years. But will he have the will, the motivation? I do not know. He has to think day by day.”
Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel, Paul Seixas and the rest of the GC field still stand between Pogacar and Paris. Froome’s verdict from Barcelona was blunt: stay upright, and Pogacar already has one hand on the fifth Tour title Froome never managed to win.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
claps 0visitors 0
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- GC at Giro vs GC at the Tour is different. The field is stacked. Most GC contenders at Giro can only fill the role of super domestiques at the Tour.
KerisVroom03-07-2026 - Yes, taking turns with Pogačar was what Horner would call "a knucklehead move". There was no terrain between La Redoute and Roche-en-Faucons for Pogačar to drop Seixas, and Pogačar was always going to attack on the second climb. Plus it's not like the group behind would have caught up
Rafionain-Glas03-07-2026 - Recently, Chris Froome described Pogačar as someone who could dominate the Tour for years to come, while Eddy Merckx backed him to win this year's race and even suggested he could eventually become the first rider to reach six Tour victories. I know that Merckx knows very well that Pogi is already the GOAT, but he will not admit it yet, not until Pogi has six Tours.mus-musculuspeedypogigonzales03-07-2026
- Pogi is all class, on and off the bike. There are a lot of guys in the peloton who are both absolute beasts of competitors, but also thoughtful and respectful. Such a great time to be a cycling fan!DAS03-07-2026
- How's that a win for Seixas?Rafionain-Glas03-07-2026
- Would love to see this.anonymouscyclist03-07-2026
- Is he hinting at a repeat of 2018 with Torito winning?Rafionain-Glas03-07-2026
- Oh? How about an outside the box solution that’s win win for all involved. Swap IDT with Seixas with some spare cash to cover his first salaries at Decathlon. UAE get Seixas IDT gets leadership Deca has security Cycling doesn’t deteriorate Money and commissions (I’ll accept symbolic payment) stay low.Jumpyjohn03-07-2026
- if he didn't plan to train anyways, then he didn't really have to stop training for 3 or 4 days . . .mij03-07-2026
- Another crap headline. "In the end the race will tell" totally used out of context. He mentioned something similar, not exact, when talking about his competitors. Not his teammates.mij03-07-2026
Loading
2 Comments