“It will be good to battle against him” – Tadej Pogacar excited for showdown with Jonas Vingegaard at the European Championships

Tadej Pogacar will line up at the European Championships road race today in Drôme–Ardèche as the clear favourite, but the Slovenian knows he faces a formidable field, including Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel. Speaking to Cycling Pro Net before the start, Pogacar was relaxed but focused, acknowledging both the difficulty of the course and the depth of competition.

“Tough field,” he smiled. “Most of the top European guys are here, and also Jonas, after a while that he did a one-day race. It will be good to battle against him as well on the day’s parcours.”

After a long season that included victories at the Tour de France, the World Championships, and multiple Monuments, Pogačar still feels there’s something left in the tank. “Yeah, for sure. It’s still a whole week to the end of the season for me, a bit more than one week,” he said.

He also shared insights from watching the women’s race a day earlier, where his partner Urska Zigart rode strongly. “You can see it’s a really hard course, super hard climbs,” he said. “Urska was happy with her performance, she was really close to the top 10, and I’m super happy for her. It was a great race.”

Asked about Demi Vollering’s decisive move in the women’s event, Pogacar smiled: “It was a good time to attack. She was the strongest, she rode really, really good until the finish, measured her effort really well, a beautiful win.”

Despite an already glittering palmarès, Pogacar admitted the European title still motivates him. “Yeah, a little bit, yes,” he said when asked if it added extra fire.

The course features three ascents of the Saint-Romain-de-Lerps (7.1 km at 7%) and six climbs of Val d’Enfer (1.5 km at 9.9%), with the long climb sitting 70km from the finish, too early, perhaps, even for a rider as daring as Pogacar. “It’s really far from the finish, just 130km into the race,” he said. “It’s possible to go on the attack early, but it’s going to be hard to go solo to the finish for sure.”

He laughed when told that Denmark’s team would be watching his every move. “If they just look at me, for me it’s good,” he joked. “We just roll to the finish and sprint on the line, that would be good.”

But behind the humour, he showed respect for his rivals. “Jokes aside, they have two co-leaders. They don’t have to look at me because they can anticipate the race with two riders,” he said, referring to Jonas Vingegaard and Mattias Skjelmose.