Tadej Pogacar ready for Tour de France: "We are going there to put on a good show and of course with the aim of victory"

Tadej Pogacar has been confirmed to race the Tour de France this morning as UAE Team Emirates revealed their lineup. He is coming in with a team built around him and with the goal of winning, and he has shown nothing but good signs over the past few weeks.

“The Tour is one of the biggest events in world sport and we’re very pleased and excited to be a part of it. As a team we have worked so hard to prepare and everything is where it needs to be, we have a very good group," Pogacar said in a press release. "There will be some serious competitors but that will always be the case in the biggest races. We are going there to put on a good show and of course with the aim of victory.”

With the likes of Adam Yates and Rafal Majka in the mountains, Mikkel Bjerg and Matteo Trentin for the flat days, it's safe to say the Slovenian will be well protected all throughout the race. Pogacar has suffered wrist fractures in a crash at Liège-Bastogne-Liège which kept him off the road for a whole month. He returned to the bike in late May and then had altitude camps at Sierra Nevada and Sestrière.

In between he also explored some Tour de France stages, however his best tests for form came at the national championships. Comfortably however he won both the time-trial - with over five minutes of advantage over second place - and the road race yesterday on a hilly course. He will be the big favourite to win the Tour de France alongside Jonas Vingegaard.

“The team and I decided to immediately separate the wheat from the chaff and thin out the peloton," Pogacar said after his win last afternoon. "It was quite selective and only the WorldTour riders remained. When I attacked, it was still a long way to the finish.” He joined up with Luka Mezgec after a long-distance attack, and then dropped the Jayco AlUla rider on the final lap.

“Luka and I wondered every kilometer whether it was wise to continue with just two, but we worked well together. In the end we managed to stay ahead. I am very happy with this victory. It is a nice boost towards the Tour that starts next week," he concluded.