Tadej Pogacar in good spirtis ahead of Tour de France "hopes to fight for the win and put on a good show"

Depite the general narrative of big show-down between the 'four GC kings' at the Tour de France, there's only one big favourite and that is the Slovenian superstar, two-time Grande Boucle champion Tadej Pogacar.

While other favourites were licking their wounds after series of crashes during this spring, Pogacar put in a unique show at the Giro d'Italia where nobody came even close to challenging the 25-year-old for his Corsa Rosa title, winning six stages along the way.

In a press communication, Pogacar shares his thoughts about returning to Grande Boucle for his fifth time, having won twice, but also finished runner-up the same amount of times. "It’s already my fifth time coming to the Tour and I’m really excited about it. We’ve worked really hard all year as a team to prepare for this and we hope we can give everyone watching 3 weeks of exciting racing."

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"It’s nice also to be going back to Italy again to start the Tour," he refers to his recent triumph on the Apennine Peninsula. "Obviously I’m coming from there with good memories of the Giro and thankfully I can say that preparation has gone very well since then. I took a bit of a break after Giro and then the past weeks have been fully focused on the Tour."

While his support crew in Italy was already strong enough to always keep Pogacar out of trouble, his teammates for Tour de France are at a whole different level. "We’ve spent a lot of time together as a group training at altitude and put in a lot of hours in the saddle. We’re in a really good place as a group and I think now we just can’t wait to get started and hope to fight for the win and put on a good show."

We'll quickly learn how much of a show has 'Pogi' got in mind. While the first stage already offers an opportunity to test his opponents, the fourth stage with Col du Galibier on the route (providing the climb isn't cancelled due to adverse weather) is the right time to open the first fireworks.