Tadej Pogacar: "I did my best to repay the whole team with success"

Tadej Pogacar has opted to race once again his home Tour of Slovenia this year, on home roads and as preparation for the Tour de France, where UAE Team Emirates easily dominated the hilly race to take four out of five stage wins.

“Today’s goal was to defend the leader’s jersey. Uphill the pace went up a lot, there was some gaps and so I tried to counterattack and reach the brow of the hill as fast as possible," Pogacar said at the end of the race. Today's stage into Novo Mesto was not mountainous, however the short but explosive ascent inside the final ten kilometers was enough for Pogacar to deal serious damage in the peloton, however matched by Matej Mohoric.

The Bahrain - Victorious rider, alongside Rafal Majka afterwards rode to the finish, where a sprint decided the stage winner. "There were three of us to lead the race, downhill we tried not to take too many risks and get to the sprint. In the sprint I did my best to repay the whole team with success for the great work done during the whole week," he concluded.

This was the second win of the week for Pogacar, who helped Majka into two separate wins. First and second in the overall classification confirmed the success, which despite the fears of a Covid-19 infection, seems to have been concluded without consequences.