"I like to stay seated" - Tadej Pogacar explains untraditional attacking style and expectations into Dauphiné queen stage

The Criterium du Dauphiné may have been decided this Friday with Tadej Pogacar's attack on the Côte de Domancy, but this weekend he will have to defend his yellow jersey in stages that feature long climbs and also altitude. The Slovenian is ready to fulfill this goal however.

“It’s always nice to win, but the goal is to keep the leader’s jersey until Sunday. We want to do that as calmly as possible. We’ll see if we can do that. Today is a serious mountain stage," Pogacar said in an interview this morning.

With three categorized climbs that are over 15 kilometers in length, the terrain has nothing to do with the previous day in which he managed to gap Jonas Vingegaard and put in over a minute on the road alone.

“We have to be prepared for a very aggressive climb of the Madeleine. Not just because of Jonas, but because of his entire team. We’ll see what the situation is at the top. But I expect fireworks on the first climb," Pogacar anticipated.

After his victory yesterday there were a lot of comments on how he attacked and dropped his rival with a seated acceleration, and asked about that, he explains the reason why he does that.

“Not really. Everyone says I sit a lot, even when we’re delivering a lot of power. But that’s the way I always ride," Pogacar responds. Since 2024, it has been more common to see this sort of acceleration from the World Champion.

"If you want to give an extra punch, you have to stand on the pedals. But yesterday the pace was already very high for the real attack. Then you don’t have to stand up to pedal a few more watts and accelerate. It depends on the course. But I like to stay seated.”