“Look for my weak spots” - Tadej Pogacar teases rivals with playful insight into how to beat him ahead of Tour de France
Cycling
With less than two weeks until the Tour de France, Tadej
Pogacar is finding time for fun, and a bit of light teasing. The Slovenian has
launched the “Pogi Challenge,” an event that will take place later this year,
after the serious racing has concluded.
In a video promoting the event, Pogacar offers some
satirical advice on how to beat him. “My first tip is train consistently
throughout the year, no excuses,” he says with a grin, “that way there won’t be
any excuses like Tadej is faster!”
The world champion doesn’t stop there. With a wink, he adds:
“Look for my weak spots,” pointing viewers towards his race footage, though
finding any might prove difficult given his 2025 form.
The challenge itself is set for October 10th, high in the
Slovenian Alps. At a fork in the trail to Krvavec, participants will begin a
climb, before Pogacar sets off in pursuit shortly after them. Those who manage
to reach the summit ahead of him will earn a personal congratulations, and
bragging rights, from the man himself. What are the chances no one earns that
personal congratulations we wonder?
Given Pogacar’s run of victories this season, including
Liège–Bastogne–Liège, the Tour of Flanders, and the Critérium du Dauphiné, few
in the peloton may fancy their chances even with the extra head start. Let’s
hope Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel have been taking notes…
Fin MajorCycling Journalist
Fin Major is a UK-based writer at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2024. He is the site’s main writer for FAQs and evergreen explainers and has written around 2,000 pieces for the platform. Alongside this work, he focuses on in-depth analysis and covers the biggest races on the calendar, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, providing clear context around performance trends, tactics, and key storylines.
In his reporting, Fin uses reputable data sources such as ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available. Outside of writing, Fin is an active cyclist, which supports his practical understanding of the sport and its demands.
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- I think that they're not really used to dealing with this type of incident in a cyclocross race, and the situation has been magnified because it was a race for a championship title. It's very unfortunate that the race had to be decided in this way.
santiagobenites07-11-2026 - Seriously why do they keep doing stupid things like this. Its one thing to relegate when the placings are minor, when the action is blatant. But when it is ambiguous, why dont they at least take advice from some higher up to avoid embarrassing themselves. This is similar to the Halland goal when his teammate was clearly offside and interfered in play and VAR gave them the goal. if you dont have evidence you cannot convict. Even for doping they have these rulesabstractengineer07-11-2026
- So all those who went to watch, including all from abroad, waled there, spent nothing? Most places hosting events of the sort manage to make it worthwhile. If it was so obviously fruitless, don’t you think by now they’d have run out of hosting candidates? Why do you think the Tour can command such high prices for departure and arrival locations? If it didn’t bring anything locally they’d have to pay to get authorisation to use cities.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- What a travesty ! That little deviation did nothing to impede Brand !frieders307-11-2026
- I also wanne beat Pogacar in the tour but it aint gonne happen. Jonas unfortunately getting dropped by del toro and seixas several times this TDF and jonas team is very weak and joinas on way down, it aint happening thats clear. its also clear it only happened cause Pogacar was hurt and had a broken wrist that time everytime both full strenght its not close we just have to be honest about it :/miguel07-11-2026
- They do this but literally let cars on courses to run over riders.mij07-11-2026
- Looking at that photo she appears to be several feet from her. I’m not sure how that impeded brands sprint.mij07-11-2026
- Lucky to not get disqualified
leedorney07-11-2026
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