"Just my speculation that it might have something to do with Tadej’s decision” - Jens Voigt believes Urska Zigart's Olympic snub influenced Pogacar's withdrawal
Cycling
Neither Tadej Pogacar or Urska Zigart will be representing Slovenia at the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris. Can the controversial absence of Zigart from the women's team be correlated with Pogacar's last-minute withdrawal though? In Jens Voigt opinion, it sure could.
“His girlfriend Urska won the national time trial with a four-minute gap to second, she won the road race with a 10-minute gap, and she is not selected,” the vastly experienced Voigt explains of the situation. “And to make it even more funny the national coach is the team boss of the two young women selected for the Olympics. So even for me as an outside observer, I go ‘I wonder what that is’, that’s just my speculation that it might have something to do with Tadej’s decision.”
When it comes to Pogacar's Olympic absence however, Voigt is in no doubt that the Slovenian, who already this year has triumphed at the Giro d'Italia and more recently the Tour de France, will be a very big miss. “I would have put him in an unbeatable decision for the road race," Voigt says. “Plus, Slovenia, despite only having two million people living there, has five/six riders in the top 100, so you also have the right to have four starters possible which is the maximum so Tadej would have had a team around him. He would have been the favourite but has decided to focus on the World Championships and other races at the end of the season.”
However, Voigt does not believe any pros should compete at the Olympic Games, as used to be the custom. “I think we should not go to the Olympics, I think it should go back to under-23 or strictly amateur racing," he concludes. “In professional cycling, we have the Tour de France, we have all the classics, we have the World Championships. We have so many important and traditional races that the Olympics are not as much of a highlight as they would be for say wrestling, so we should give it back to amateurs.”
Sad too see and if the coach did that, it's hard to see how the coach is going to be perceived well in Slovenia. I wish in protest he would ride one of the two events and call out the reason.
Time for wild speculation...maybe Urska and Tadej are hoping to quietly marry while cycling eyes are focused on the Olympics. Maybe Tadej is now tempted by the Vuelta and thinks that if he can rest for a bit that he might be able to win or get on the podium at the Vuelta. I can see the temptation building after the year he has had. And let's face it, he tells UAE he wants on the Vuelta team they'll make room for him no matter what aspirations Ayuso and Almeda may have for that race.
If this is true, then Tadej will come to regret it later in life. It's never a good idea to do things out of spite, and ruin your own chances. The saying "cut your nose off to spite your face" sums up this situation (if Tadej really was this spiteful - however, Tadej certainly doesn't strike me as the spiteful type though). Tadej didn't look close to being burnt out either - he's in the form of his life and the Olympics road race is just a one-day race and it's a few weeks from the end of the Tour, which is more than enough rest for someone who arguably has the quickest recovery rate of any pro. Add to the fact he will actually have a pseudo-team around him, he won't even have to do any work to tire out his greatest threats (not that he needs the help, but the option(s) are there).
The Olympic road race comes only 4 years. The next one might not be suited to him. The course is very well suited to Pogi and MVDP and with MVDP not being in stellar form, he can easily get gold.
With the way Pog likes to win everything I was surprised he pulled out
Probably didn't make him overly belabor his decision to pull out. Plus an all around win-win. Pogi gets an extra 2 weeks of recovery then build up time for his true late season objectives. And exemplary domestique Damen Novak gets Pogi's Olympic spot.
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