Tadej Pogacar: "The duo-leadership with Yates is good, I'm not quite sure of my condition yet"

Tadej Pogacar is in Bilbao and ready for his fourth Tour de France. No matter what happens he will be in the spotlight throughout the upcoming three weeks, and he talks about his injury, co-leadership with Adam Yates and the tough first week.

"The wrist feels good on the bike, I think the mobility is sixty to seventy percent. It didn't bother me during training and the CT scan I did on Monday showed that two of the three bones are completely healed," Pogacar said in an interview with In de Leiderstrui. "The approach was of course a bit different, but the team is in good shape and the atmosphere is also great."

Not only has he shown good results with the win in both national championship events, but over recent weeks he's also removed his wrist cast on the bike, and has raced comfortably out of the saddle, as well as seen doing tricks on the bike. Most evidence points towards a healthy Pogacar, but his top form is not something guaranteed currently.

"The first week is very tough, everything is actually already there. When I saw the course for the first time, I was very excited. After my injury that has become less, but I hope I will be there. If an opportunity arises, we will certainly try to seize it," he says. In ideal conditions he would be a prime contender for the first yellow jersey of the race, the possibility remains true.

This Wednesday team DS Mauro Gianetti talked about how Adam Yates, who finished second in the Criterium du Dauphiné, would be co-leading the team alongside Pogacar. What that means exactly race-wise for the team remains to be seen and will depend on the form of both riders, as well as those around them, however it has certainly came as a surprise for fans.

"For me, the duo-leadership with Yates is good, I'm not quite sure of my condition yet. So that way it's better to have a back-up plan and go for the GC with two guys instead of one," Pogacar assured however. "Jonas Vingegaard is the big man for this Tour, he has already shown that in the Dauphiné. And then he said that he was not yet at his best there."

"Adam also came directly from that race, and he was not far from Vingegaard there either. Furthermore, we are not really concerned with Jumbo-Visma, we focus on our own performance and therefore think that we are very strong together," Pogacar continues.

"Ready to rumble, you would say. Saturday and Sunday, for starters, in the Basque Country. The first stage is always tricky, but we've watched the final and I think it will be an explosive ride. I only see ten to fifteen riders surviving. Men like Mathieu van der Poel can also be there, but it will also be a difficult job for them. In that last kilometer he is the best anyway, he concluded.