“Pogi earns his millions, while I earn my own ‘peanuts’” - Urska Zigart calls out sexist Instagram abuse as injury rules cycling super-couple out of World Championships
Cycling
Urska Zigart has hit back at an Instagram follower who questioned why she continues to race professionally while partner Tadej Pogacar earns millions, responding with a pointed message about the treatment of women in high-profile relationships.
The exchange came beneath an Instagram post from Zigart's AG Insurance - Soudal Team confirming that the Slovenian had fractured her jaw for the second time this season and is likely to miss the remainder of 2026.
One follower wrote: “Pogi earns millions, fair play to you for being willing to race for peanuts and injuries. Take care of your health, dear Urska.”
Zigart responded directly. “Exactly. Pogi earns his millions, while I earn my own ‘peanuts’,” she wrote. “But if couples like us split up, then we women are always ‘evil bitches who only want money and did nothing to earn it’. So... you look after yourself and your wife, and I’ll look after myself. Have a nice Sunday.”
Zigart will miss the 2026 World Championships in Montreal through injury
Zigart's career continues to stand on its own
Zigart has spent several years competing at the highest level of the women's peloton and has increasingly developed into a genuine stage-race leader since joining AG Insurance-Soudal.
Her 2026 season has included sixth overall at La Vuelta Femenina and eighth at the Giro d'Italia Women, building on a 2025 campaign in which she finished second at the Tour de Romandie Feminin, fifth at the Tour de Suisse and ninth at the Giro.
The Slovenian has previously spoken openly about the difficulty of establishing her own identity within cycling alongside the sport's biggest male star. Reflecting earlier this year on the beginning of her time with the GreenEdge organisation, Zigart said: “When I came to GreenEdge, nobody knew who I was. Except that I was Tadej Pogacar's girlfriend.”
Her move to the AG Insurance - Soudal Team gave her more opportunities to pursue results for herself. The Belgian team described Zigart as a “rough diamond”, while her performances increasingly justified leadership roles in major stage races.
She entered the 2026 Vuelta as one of the team's options for the general classification and ultimately delivered the best Grand Tour result of her career with sixth overall. Another top-10 followed at the Giro. Those results had put Zigart among Slovenia's leading hopes for the World Championships in Montreal before another crash intervened.
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Injury leaves both Zigart and Pogacar out of Worlds
Zigart crashed on stage three of the Faun Tour Femmes, suffering another fracture to the jaw she had already broken at the Tour de Suisse in June. She had returned to competition after the first injury and was third overall at the Faun Tour Femmes when she crashed again.
AG Insurance-Soudal subsequently indicated that her season is likely to be over. Zigart had already been selected to represent Slovenia in the women's road race at the World Championships in Montreal.
Pogacar will also be absent from Canada after his own season was ended by injuries sustained during La Vuelta a Espana. The reigning world champion suffered a complex fractured collarbone and a stable C7 cervical fracture in his Vuelta crash, with UAE Team Emirates - XRG later confirming that he would not race again in 2026.
Slovenia will therefore head to Montreal without both members of cycling's highest-profile couple, with Zigart's latest injury ending a season in which she had produced her two best Grand Tour GC results to date.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- ❤️Lozza15-11-2026
- The greatest ever is a crazy claim. But in discussions about sport in our local media, among people with no particular interest in cycling, he has been the first person they've thought of when giving examples of exceptional athletes.Hills3315-11-2026
- Urska may be less keen on a cafe if keeping it afloat will fall to her, so maybe just a nice dream!Hills3315-11-2026
- Raise thine hand if the money you have made for retirement slips away on poor investments.Most of us will outlive our financial comforts because we don't have the financial acumen to ensure a comfortable lifelong retirement and that is a statistical fact not my opinion.Many millionaires have pissed their money away or had it taken away by so called conniving "financial advisors".The world of wealth is a dangerous place that most of us will never experience nor appreciate.
Brucegel15-11-2026 - You are interested in Pogi for one reason only, you feel like you are somehow related because you share some vague geographical identity. Other than that you have very little interest in cycling as all your posts show, if it can’t be connected to Pogi you have nothing to post. That said, recent activity here shows we are attracting quite a crowd from his region.Jumpyjohn15-11-2026
- From knowing past cycling stars with shops I can only say, think it through. Not only is it mundane after a while but it really doesn’t take you out of the limelight, in the end you’ll be trying to stay away from the place yourself whilst all your fans keep coming for you.Jumpyjohn15-11-2026
- Careful investment? I think he can live very comfortably with zero investments, what does he need more? The world would do well if more people set a target for how much they need or would make them “happy” and then stop worrying about perpetually having to make more.Jumpyjohn15-11-2026
- Yes, Roglic could theoretically have beaten Sepp. Jonas must have had complete confidence that he could come back and win the Vuelta another year. Visma had not allowed Roglic to ride the Tour that year, so his future did not look so bright, despite his narrow Giro win..Hills3315-11-2026
- So far, a good series about riders before my time, even if the text feels AI generated like so much on this site. About the rider, he seems like one of many who are active fan favorites but don’t survive in the stories of cycling, a few decades later - I didn’t really know anything about him and this was a good read, thank you!RidesHills15-11-2026
- A calm, honest documentary, a bit of hagiography but mostly not too much. When he talks about a coffee shop, it aligns with several things in his world - he might want calm, but he does (more than a little bit) have someone near him (his fiancee) who makes sure that things happen the way he expects. Many atheletes have retired only to find out just how much others were taking care of their lives for them. If they work out (I'm old, things happen), I am sure it will take a renegotiation, which is a good thing. I truly enjoyed watching it, seeing him, seeing her, seeing the whole system built around him.RidesHills15-11-2026
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