"Sometimes Tadej says something before he thinks it through well": Matej Mohoric downplays Pogacar’s hints about skipping future Tours

Following a mixed spring classics campaign, Matej Mohoric has completed a training block in Tenerife, Spain, to prepare for a busy summer schedule that includes the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (formerly Criterium du Dauphiné) and the Tour de France. Speaking at a road safety event in Slovenia, the Bahrain Victorious rider opened up on a variety of topics, including his unconventional training methods and his thoughts on Tadej Pogacar.

Mohoric chose to prepare for the summer season in Tenerife alongside his teammates, and he explained that the island provides ideal conditions to simulate the physical demands of the Tour de France.

"The heat is constant and the body can adapt to it well," Mohoric said. "I think we completed a very high-quality and demanding block of preparation. This is necessary to prepare the body for the efforts that await it a month later. Now I am already looking forward to the Critérium du Dauphiné, where I will be able to compare myself with rivals and see what level I am at and what I still need to improve before the start of the Tour in July."

When asked why he chose the Dauphiné as his final warm-up race instead of the Tour de Suisse or the Tour of Slovenia, Mohoric pointed to the scheduling advantages that the French race provides for final recovery and fine-tuning.

"The Dauphiné is on the schedule slightly earlier than the Tour de Suisse. Switzerland ends only a good week before the start of the Tour, which means there is practically no time left for high-quality training in between. After the Dauphiné, however, there is still a week left for final preparations," he explained. "Together with the team, we therefore decided that I would finish the classics season after the Ardennes classics. This was followed by some rest and then four weeks of preparation for the summer. I think everything went according to plan and I hope that the results of this work will be visible in July."

Bahrain Victorious enters the Tour de France with multiple objectives, balancing overall classification goals with aggressive riding in breakaways.

"On one hand, we will try to play for the general classification with Antonio Tiberi or Lenny Martinez, but on the other hand, there will be a big emphasis on hunting for stage victories. We have many strong individuals and almost every one of us can hope for a good result if the development of the race allows it," Mohoric noted.

The Slovenian rider added that the behavior of the dominant teams in the peloton would dictate how many opportunities are available for breakaway specialists. "Much will depend on how the strongest teams control the race. If they want to take all the stage victories and control every breakaway, it will be much harder for the rest," he noted.

"There are some interesting stages on the route that could suit me, but everything depends on the course of the race itself. Especially on how the strongest teams ride the race and how much energy they are willing to spend to control the peloton. If it goes full gas every day, it is significantly harder for cyclists who are not among the absolute best in the world to get an opportunity."

Mohoric remains a rare exception in the modern peloton regarding his refusal to participate in traditional altitude camps that require sleeping at high elevation, a preference he fought hard to establish.

"Altitude itself has never particularly suited me. In the early years of my career, altitude training was mandatory. The last time I was at such a camp was in 2020 in Andorra, and then I managed to fight for the right not to have to do them anymore. It was precisely then that the greatest successes of my career came, so I have no special desire to experiment and return to altitude," Mohoric admitted.

"However, this year I still completed most of the preparation together with the team, just at a slightly lower altitude. This allowed us to train together, compare ourselves, and encourage each other. The team spirit is at a very high level. We are convinced that we did everything necessary. The physical part of the preparation is behind us, and now it is necessary to transfer all of this to the race. In cycling, it is not just the legs that decide, but also many other factors."

He also praised the team's strong performance at the recent Giro d'Italia, where riders like Afonso Eulalio surpassed expectations. "This is very important. In the end, luck is also important. At the beginning, it seemed that we had quite a lot of bad luck, but then it turned out that the outcome was even better than the one we had imagined ourselves," Mohoric said.

"I hope that luck will also be on our side at the Tour. We will do everything in our power. Sticking together and giving our all is the most important thing in the end. Everything else is no longer entirely in our hands. At the Giro, it turned out almost fairy-tale-like. We hope that the Tour will also be successful and that we will achieve the goals we realistically set for ourselves."

Looking forward to domestic races like the Tour of Slovenia, Mohoric expressed optimism about his younger compatriot Jakob Omrzel. "I think he made the right choice. I myself did not have the kind of environment that Jakob has today. He is surrounded by people who guide him well and protect him from too much pressure."

"I do not want to place additional expectations on him. I am convinced that with his talent, knowledge, and work, he will achieve many beautiful things. We were together in Tenerife and I can say that he is a very calm and pleasant guy. You can see that he comes from an organized environment and that he has things well set up in his head. This is a big advantage," Mohoric explained.

Finally, Mohoric addressed recent media statements by Tadej Pogacar regarding his desire to focus on Monuments or potentially skip the Tour de France in the future.

"There is a question of how much truth there is in some of his statements. Sometimes Tadej says something before he thinks it through well. The Tour de France is the biggest race in the world and I believe he will be returning there for a long time. If he decides otherwise one day, that is his right. He has proven multiple times that he is the best cyclist in the world and that he can afford significantly more freedom in choosing his goals than most others," Mohoric concluded.

When asked whether the newly revealed course for the European Championships would suit Pogacar as the defending champion, Mohoric dismissed the idea that any modern route could realistically disadvantage his compatriot.

"I think Tadej is by a large margin the best cyclist in the world. It is very difficult to draw a route that would not suit him. Honestly speaking, even if we went over the key climb only once, he would still be one of the few who can ride it as fast as he does. Therefore, it is hard to talk about a route that would not be tailored to him."