"The best day of his career" - Col de la Loze implosion a turning point for Tadej Pogacar, UAE manager says

Tadej Pogacar has won a lot throughout his illustrious career. World Championships, Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, Tour of Flanders... The list goes on and on. The debate on which day was the best in the UAE Team Emirates - XRG's career can be a lively one, but in defeat riders can learn and evolve a lot as well. Team manager Mauro Gianetti believes his defeat at the Col de la Loze in the 2023 Tour de France might have been the most important in his years with the team.

A whole array of topics were discussed in an interview with Wielerflits, including his 2021 Tour de France victory, where for the first time in his career, he showed himself as an absolutely dominant career. "Winning the Tour at 21 isn't easy when you're not Tadej. It hasn't changed him. It wasn't that he suddenly felt like the king of the world. Or bought a new Ferrari. No, the first thing that went through his mind was that he wanted to prove the following year that he was the rightful Tour winner. That he wanted to win again. He enjoys his successes, but his focus is always on the next race".

That continuous focus is part of why the Slovenian has evolved so much and has been so dominant. Over the following years he has won plenty monuments and turned into a cobbled classics specialist, won two world titles, a Giro d'Italia and much more. Above all, his success at this point is so overwhelming that he is the face of the sport, although he is not often interpreted as a sport-wide star.

"Tadej doesn't feel like a star. He has no interest in being popular. He doesn't care. His interest is in winning big races. After every victory, he mentally resets himself," he continues. "After a race, he doesn't dwell too much on the win or the loss, but shifts his focus to tomorrow when a new match and new opportunities arise".

"I'm a hundred percent sure about that. You know, the second Tour he won in 2021 was so easy. He wasn't forced to work harder, to improve". But in 2022, Pogacar saw Jonas Vingegaard jump into his level, and on the mythical Col du Granon stage, Visma did the job correctly and cracked him. This posed a big challenge for Pogacar who now had to go through a stronger Grand Tour specialist.

"Vingegaard's victories did force him to go the extra mile. It made him much more serious in his approach. But that's understandable. He's reaping the rewards now." Since 2024, Pogacar's level has increased significantly, and after being defeated by Vingegaard twice, he has now returned the favour to the Dane. But those two years of defeats at the Tour were important for UAE to look towards other aspects of the sport for improvement.

In 2023, although he was injured in the spring, Pogacar faced a tough defeat at the Tour on the Combloux time trial and then his explosion at the Col de la Loze. "That was an important day for everyone. Of course, you enjoy the victories, but you often learn the most important lessons from your defeats. Jonas Vingegaard was impressively strong that day (on Loze, ed.)".

"Honestly? For me, that was the best day of his career," Gianetti goes as far as saying. "A champion like him, completely exhausted, reaching the finish line seven minutes behind the leader, having lost everything… Ninety percent of the other riders would have quit that day and abandoned due to illness. They would have abandoned the Tour. He could have quit. He could have cried. He could have shown that he couldn't handle it anymore. But that didn't occur to him".

That ended his chances of winning the Grand Boucle and Vingegaard was matching his two wins. However it was a bad day, which he overcame in the following days. "He respected the Tour, winner Vingegaard, his teammates, and himself. He was already looking ahead. Giving up wasn't on his mind for a second".

"For me, he showed that day that he's not only the best rider, but also how special he is as a person. He accepted his defeat and wanted to fight for some redemption in that Tour. He had the courage to persevere and not take the easy way out. Three days later, he won the stage in the Vosges (stage 20, ed.) and secured second place in the general classification".