Robbie McEwen advises Tadej Pogacar to "be conservative in the Giro d'Italia. It's a long time until the end of July"
Cycling
With Tadej Pogacar attempting to become the first man since Marco Pantani to win both the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France in the same year, Eurosport expert Robbie McEwen has advised the Slovenian to try and win the Giro whilst being as conservative as possible.
"Be conservative in the Giro. It's a long time until the end of July," warns the Australian, twelve-time Giro d'Italia stage winner, in conversation with Eurosport. "No matter if you're the big favourite and you're stronger than everybody in the Giro, it's a race and a course that can really hurt you if you have ambition to do the double. Yes, of course, ride to win the Giro but be conservative for the energy."
In somewhat recent years, both Tom Dumoulin and Chris Froome have paid for their Giro d'Italia winning efforts at the subsequent Tour de France. Given the fact Pogacar is such an overwhelming favourite for the first Grand Tour of the year and that his arch-rival Jonas Vingegaard is unlikely to compete for victory at the Tour de France after his Itzulia Basque Country crash, this could be a perfect chance to Pogacar to write his name even further into the history books.
"Pogacar can win the Giro-Tour regardless of whether Vingegaard or others would have or not have fallen," adds McEwen's Eurosport colleague, Alberto Contador. "It is undoubted that Jonas Vingegaard is a great rival. It is true that he is very solid, he has a very good measure of the Tour of France, as he has demonstrated the last two years. But Pogacar, even if these riders would not have fallen, had many chances of winning the Giro and the Tour."
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.
claps 0visitors 0
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- Well I just watched this and I thought it was great! If you’re a Pogi fan, like me, you’ll enjoy it. Even if you’re not necessarily a Pogi fan I still recommend it. There’s plenty of new stuff I didn’t know about and I’m a Pogi-maniac! Nice interviews with Pogi & Matteo Trentin too.Lozza14-11-2026
- Well I just watched this and I thought it was great! If you’re a Pogi fan, like me, you’ll enjoy it. Even if you’re not necessarily a Pogi fan I still recommend it. There’s plenty of new stuff I didn’t know about and I’m a Pogi-maniac! Nice interviews with Pogi & Matteo Trentin too. So Zonnewotsit can stick it!Lozza14-11-2026
- Who’s gifting grand tours at UAE? Defo not Pogi! Stage wins maybe.Lozza13-11-2026
- Sepp Kuss Vuelta 2023.Lozza13-11-2026
- they have no expertise with classics, they have no leaders in classics. the classics is dominated by the few Fuori Classe riders where other riders are left with scraps. the Hiring , the salaries dont make sense at all. Same problem as Man Utd. over paid players, egos, very little performanceabstractengineer13-11-2026
- Contract year means you gotta win, at least collect UCI points, helping be damnedabstractengineer13-11-2026
- Arensman is their best rider and he is paid very less in comparisonabstractengineer13-11-2026
- I'm not trying to argue with you but if you didn't see Del Toro struggling in the Tour I'll pay for some glasses for you lol. He struggled so much that Tadej missed winning stage 15, Tadej also dropped the pace along some stages to help Del Toro hold onto the podium. Now he may have been sick, that is a possibility, but he definitely struggled. You have a nice weekend as well brother.awp13-11-2026
- Im not copmaring him to jonas palmares...but current level of power and again like you even pointed out 19sec difference and on other ocassions del toro dropping him. Its evidently their close and based on both their different trajectory its self explanatory...where we are next year.And Del Toro didnt struggle if getting a podium in his first TDF at 22 year old is struggling you sure dont know how to be objective haha. But have a good weekend this is so dumb to discuss as its not even a discussin in reality as facts speak for themselves of what were actually speaking of - and self explanatory.miguel13-11-2026
- fingers crossed. my son has a poster of wout and mathieu battling each other at the beach at ostend up in his room. would be great to see them again there!Ketterechts13-11-2026
Loading
Tadej Pogačar and Urška Žigart enjoying their time together at home. 🥰 Tadej before the Giro d’Italia and Urška after Gracia Orlová.
10 Comments