Tadej Pogacar spotted testing a mysterious TT model - A secret weapon for 2026 Tour?

The list of Tadej Pogacar's palmares is already astounding at the age of just 27. The Slovenian phenomenon can win Grand Tours, hilly classics, on cobbles, doesn't fear echelons nor reduced sprints. The only discipline where he lacks something something on the best in the world is timetrialing where Remco Evenepoel is normally on a whole another level.

In 2023, just a day before his infamous breakdown on Col de la Loze, Pogacar took a massive defeat from Jonas Vingegaard who put a 1:38 into Pogacar over a 22-kilometer medium-mountain time trial to Combloux. That Tour de France edition still remains in fact the last stage race Pogacar had lost to this day.

Since then, the UAE Team Emirates - XRG star continues to work on his time trialing, which paid off with stage wins at both Giro d'Italia and Tour de France, but within the "Pogacar-metric" those are only small accomplishments. When it comes to World Championships against the clock, Pogacar is yet to collect a medal after having come one second shy of bronze medallist Ilan Van Wilder in Kigali 2025. And over 2:30 behind Evenepoel.

The 2026 Tour de France, will start with a team time trial where individual's ability won't be as important of a factor, however the 26-kilometer individual time trial on stage 16 could play an important role towards the final GC. Pogacar will not want to lose any time there to his main challengers Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel.

Pogacar does not have "defeat" in his vocabulary, and so, alongside the bike supplier of UAE - Colnago - the Slovenian was sighted testing some rather unfamilar TT specials.

Cyclingnews searched for more details, however Colnago responded with a firm 'no comment' regarding any information regarding the tested model, leaving room for guessing and assumptions.

What is clear is that this mystery bike seems slimmer than the current Colnago TT1 time trial bike released back in May 2022. The bike has shallower and much less aggressively shaped frame tube profiles in certain areas. Everything with an attention to the detail so that Pogacar can deliver the best performance possible when it matters the most.