Miguel Indurain warns Tadej Pogacar ahead of Giro-Tour double: "If he's winning so much now, he could pay the price for that later"
Cycling
Doing the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France on the same year and winning both is an extremely hard task, which only a few riders in cycling history have accomplished. One of them was Miguel Indurain, who warns Tadej Pogacar ahead of his attempt in 2024.
“If you are racing both Grand Tours, you have to be careful how to manage your energy and team support will be critical too, even though he clearly likes making solo moves," Indurain said in an interview with Cyclingnews. "For sure he's got the capacity. Of course, he has. In my era, the way we handled the season differently, but it remains a very hard challenge no matter which approach path you take."
Currently, top riders continue to be open about the possibility of racing two consecutive Grand Tours and reaching their best form in both. Pogacar, of all riders, is one that is extremely versatile and consistent and is definitely one of the sport's best options to tackle this colossal goal. "If he's winning so much now, he could pay the price for that later. But that said, there's so much more data about power output and watts and so on now than there was in my era, it's much easier to manage your effort," Indurain adds. The Slovenian only started his season in March, but with stupendous form, dominating Strade Bianche and the Volta a Catalunya.
"The effort you have to make is a big one, even though every rider is different. And then after starting at the Giro, there's the question of holding your form right the way through to the end of the third week of the Tour. That last week could drain him in particular. It's important just to stay focused on the race you have in front of you," the Spanish former pro advises. "Each race is different, with its time trials, mountains and so on. You can't be racing the Giro thinking about what might happen in the Tour."
Pogacar raced 9 days, and will add Liège-Bastogne-Liège before his debut at the Corsa Rosa. In terms of numbers it's definitely a light schedule although he's been the headliner in every single race he's participated in so far. However, he hopes to reach the Tour de France without too much racing in his legs, and reach his best level again - alongside a quartet of podium contenders in UAE Team Emirates.
"In my day, if you were older you could handle the longer efforts better and your endurance was better so that could have been an advantage. But these days they've got trainers on top of everything and they know how he'll react to different efforts, so that shouldn't be a problem."
Indurain worries however that his aggressive style of racing - as seen at the Volta a Catalunya - may prove costly. He tells that most likely it will be better to race different, but that this is not likely:
"The thing is though that Pogačar's racing style is not based around relying heavily on his team. And those efforts end up being paid for in the long run. That's the way he is though, and that's not going to change."
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