"I don’t accept that second in the Tour de France is a defeat" - Tadej Pogacar

Tadej Pogacar has had a long and mixed season on the road. Whilst tremendously successful, the Slovenian failed to take the win at the Tour de France, his biggest goal. However, he stresses that it has not hampered what was a successful season.

"I’m still the same person I’ve always been. My life changed a lot but also didn’t change much either. I still love riding my bike, be it in training or racing," Pogacar said in an interview with Cyclingnews. "I guess my parents raised me that way. My father can be quite tough but is always very relaxed about life, I think that’s who I get it from."

"I suppose I am grounded. I don’t honestly feel the need to speak to a sports psychologist or anything," he continued. Pogacar is currently in Colombia where he has been spending his holidays with his partner Urska Zigart and fellow pro Rigoberto Uran who hosted several events throughout the last few weeks.

"I just try to enjoy the small moments in life and not think about being a star of the sport or anything else. I keep doing what I’ve done all through my career. I don’t want to change," he says. The Slovenian has also been in the UAE for a media camp and will race the Madrid Criterium this December, as he begins to prepare for the 2023 season.

As for 2022, he has had clear feedback from it: "It was an amazing season. It’s been a really eventful season. I don’t accept that second in the Tour de France is a defeat. I still won three stages and the best young rider's white jersey. If that’s a defeat, then it’s the best way to lose a race."

Pogacar finished second to Jonas Vingegaard, having lost several minutes on the 11th stage to the Col du Granon. Despite three stage win, several days in yellow, the white jersey and a lot of spectacular performances, he could not dislodge the Dane. "You can lose the Tour by not even finishing the opening stage. To be there on every stage is not too far away from winning," he believes however.

"I don’t think we need to change a lot. I had one bad day. We’ll use the experience and use defeat to our benefit in the future," the UAE Team Emirates leader assures. "Next year we’re going to go back to the Tour with an even stronger mentality, more hunger and see what happens. We’ll all give 100% to try to win. We just hope we don’t have the same bad luck and the same problems."

Asked on what happened on that mythical day of racing, Pogacar doesn't have a ear answer. "The reasons don’t really matter. Before that day and afterwards I was good and good in lots of other races too. I’ve no regrets. Maybe I made a mistake but I was racing in the heat of the moment, doing what I could do best against two big rivals from the same team," he adds however. 

At the Col du Galibier Jumbo-Visma tried to raid the yellow jersey, with both Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard going on the attack, with several teammates up front. This saw Pogacar respond to several moves, aswell as making his own towards the summit together with Vingegaard. Things would come back together, but in the final ascent Pogacar cracked in a way that is quite rare, whilst the Dutch team stormed to success.

"I was trying to keep the select group together but that day Jumbo-Visma were really strong and had one mission: to crack me. They succeeded that one time," he admits. "Of course I didn’t enjoy that day and it still hurts but it must have been great to watch on television."

Throughout the second half of the race Pogacar was constantly on the attack, making moves from far, not only in the mountainous stages but trying to surprise in some hilly days. "Riding like that is simply my way of racing, often based on instinct," he justified. 

"Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. But I’m not going to change. I’ll always race full gas," Pogacar concluded.