"I have really bad knee pain": The hidden scare that nearly derailed Tadej Pogacar’s Tour as told by Nils Politt

The 2025 Tour de France was not an easy edition for Tadej Pogacar, even if his four stage wins might say otherwise. The Slovenian prodigy suffered a knee injury that kept hindering him and threatened to derail his entire race, something that in the end did not happen.

After Tim Wellens talked about this situation a few weeks ago, revealing the world champion required an emergency hospital scan mid-race due to a serious knee scare, it was turn for Nils Politt to comment on the issue.

Speaking on the Ulle and Rick podcast, hosted by former German riders Jan Ullrich and Rick Zabel, Politt recounted what happened after Pogacar injured his knee on Mont Ventoux. “On that Mont Ventoux stage in the sprint, where he wanted to take a few seconds off Jonas [Vingegaard] again, he hit his knee on the handlebars,” he explained.

“And then he had a big bruise under his kneecap. And the next day, or two days later, he came up to me. You could hear from his voice that something was wrong. He said, ‘Shit, my knee hurts. I have really bad knee pain.’”

Team management were immediately informed, prompting medical checks and an MRI scan. No structural damage was detected, but the concern remained, especially with the decisive stage over the Col de la Loze approaching, which was the climb that had punished Pogacar heavily in the 2023 edition.

“He was really worried, especially because the Col de la Loze stage was coming up,” Politt said. “That was his stage where he said, ‘Last time I completely cracked there.’ It was the Col de la Loze from the other side, but still. He said that was the biggest blow-up of his career. So he had huge respect for that stage.”

Politt described the tactics used by the team, aimed to blunt any potential attacks from his competitors, especially Vingegaard. “We have to ride so hard that we break Jumbo so they cannot go any faster. So we completely smashed it into the Col de la Madeleine,” he explained.

Discretion was essential, as nobody had to know Pogacar was not in 100% shape. “You have to keep quiet about it, of course. You cannot go out and say, ‘Hey, Tadej has knee pain.’ Because then they will think, right, we will roast him. They would hammer up the first climb and try to make it even worse.”

Relief only arrived once the race reached Paris, although Pogacar still managed to give his teammates one final fright during the rain-soaked Montmartre finale. “We were very happy when the Tour was finally over. Even when he said in Paris, he was going to take it easy. Then you hear on the radio, ‘I am in front’, and you think, ‘oh no’. No teammate with him, and he is up the road alone.”

“But that shows how much he enjoys cycling. He just smelled an opportunity. He thought, winning on the Champs Elysées in yellow, that would be something too. He is a bit of a playful kid in that sense,” Politt said.

The German also highlighted the extraordinary level within UAE Team Emirates. “At our December camp, there is basically never a clear plan. Some teams do team time trial practice, some do lead outs. With us, it is just full gas,” he noted. “I remember one training ride last year where I looked at the file afterwards, and the numbers were exactly the same as in the Tour of Flanders, where I finished third [2024 edition]. And that was training.”

Politt’s exact 2026 programme remains undecided, but he confirmed he will again focus on the spring classics and will not make his Giro d’Italia debut. Having contested nine Tours in a row (2017-2025) but no Giro or Vuelta a España, he may return for a tenth appearance next summer, potentially helping Pogacar pursue a record-equalling fifth overall victory.