Miguel Induráin warns Tadej Pogacar into 2025: "When a season starts, what you won the previous year is worthless"
CyclingWednesday, 22 January 2025 at 10:45
The 2024 season was practically perfect for Tadej Pogacar. The Slovenian won the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and World Championships, as well as two monuments. But in a sport as competitive as cycling, all that doesn't count from the moment you start the next year according to Tour legend Miguel Indurain.
The Spanish legend recently attended Marca with an interview in which he spoke about many topics. One of them has been the UAE Team Emirates - XRG star. Although he has made it clear that he doesn't know him personally, Induráin has sent Pogacar a warning.
"He has a good structure behind him," he begins by saying about the Slovenian when asked if he can improve in 2025 on what he achieved last season. "In 2023 he had an injury, but last year he was very strong. Mind you, when a new season starts, what you won the year before is worthless."
UAE and Pogacar are well aware of this, long before Miguel Induráin's warning. For that reason, the Slovenian's calendar is as ambitious or even more ambitious than 2024. The official confirmation of his presence in the Vuelta a España is still pending, as the Emirati team has stated that they will decide later in the season. But his presence in La Vuelta is almost as certain as it is in Milano-Sanremo. These two races are among the few that Pogacar has yet to win, and he wants to do so in 2025.
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- "The Giro d'Italia 2024 saw a strong increase in audience figures across RAI networks, especially on Rai2 and RaiSport HD. The race also experienced a significant boost in online engagement, with record numbers of website visitors, video views, and media articles. The event reached over 700 million viewers worldwide...." Sorry, but Pogacar is boring only for ... envious? ex-riders.
maria2024202406-05-2025 - It's always the way in pro cycling - 1 rider wins and the rest,instead of working with each other to topple the better rider, they ride behind said rider collecting scraps that're left...
leedorney06-05-2025 - Better for the Giro? I'm sure viewers would rather see Tadej dominate the Giro from day 1, than see Van Hooydonck (if he were still racing for Visma) battle it out with whoever, maybe Uidtjebroeks (if he was in the Visma lineup).. pun not intended ,for the maglia rosa in the 21-day race.. A grand tour is not like a horse race. People want to see Tadej, Jonas, Remco, Primoz, MVDP, Van Aert etc... If not, I'll just watch the Tour of California.FredMan06-05-2025
- Respect to Caleb Ewan for making the decision to bow out of professional cycling. He's the only one that's knows what's best for him at this point in his life, and I wish him all the best in his future endeavors.
santiagobenites06-05-2025 - Yeah, a big one 😁
DareDevil06-05-2025 - That's a surpriseleedorney06-05-2025
- You were doing so well up until the last paragraph :-). So Almeida did not win a single stage race with UAE and now because of contract uplift he can win prestigious races? Come on. The man was being shaped to get to this level and took 2 years. After leaving QS he had lost his punch, he is not a sprinter of course but he had a good kick, he also lost a bit his TT performance, was a disaster going downhill. All this time he was improving his climbing and now he is recovering all the aforementioned qualities he had before. He is not putting on a show because of contract negotiations, he simply evolved also due to changing trainer. I think he will do a hat-trick in Tour de Suisse and then go with no pressure to the Tour. Depending on how well Jonas or Remco recover and how tired Roglic is from the Giro, a podium might fall on his lap. Then Vuelta maybe UAE can compensate his performance by making him the solo leader if Pogacar is doubting. However, where I am really interested to see Almeida is the World Championships. I am hoping the race is split early and then we see Almeida picking up corpses along the Rwanda streets up until he reaches an empty Pogacar and then tips him over the line. Then I wake up and life continues.Indioshak06-05-2025
- Jonas had also had a speed wobble on that same descent. They have both improved their descending skills since then, and in 2024 took scary risks on downhills.Hill3306-05-2025
- Should be a good one! It's been since 2022 since we have seen peak Pogi vs peak Vingo. 2023 Pogi had injuries and a suboptimal preparation. 2024 Vingo had even worse injuries and a poor runup to the Tour. UAE team has gotten stronger since 2022, while Visma maybe less strong.mobk06-05-2025
- You'd have to be an amoral prick to work for this team.Matt06-05-2025
Will see, but IMHO Tadej is more interested in Rwanda than in La Vuelta. Between La Vuelta and Rwanda the time-gap is only 2 weeks, very little. I think, after the Tour, he will rest and prepare perfectly the Autumn (Lombardia and World Championship). As usual. He will race La Vuelta when the World Championship parcours isn't suitable to him (2027?).
Pogi is just like to ride his bike and win it all for his team, family and fans. Whatever may comes is worthy to his palmares.
Yes, every year cycling is a zero sum game.
Thank you Captain Obvious for that rare insight !
I understand the meaning of the "warning", since 2025 starts with zero wins. But Pogi has a pretty sweet rainbow jersey to wear all year that isn't worthless!
I hope it doesn't carry the curse in 2025.