"There are three things left for me – the Giro, Vuelta and World Championships" - Tadej Pogacar faces Tour de France pressure but looks towards other big goals

Cycling
Friday, 03 November 2023 at 21:57
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Tadej Pogacar has stated his love to the 2024 Tour de France route however after many years of focus into the Grand Boucle and two consecutive second places to Jonas Vingegaard, he starts to eye and think of a plan that will see him prepare for races such as the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a Espana.
"The Tour is the most important race in cycling. Nothing compares to it. For the sponsors they just want to win the Tour. Everybody knows it in the whole world, even in non cycling. Other races cannot compare to the Tour," Pogacar told FloBikes. "From now, after my career, I would like to be world champion as well. I won a lot of races, big ones, I won more or less all the Monuments that I can win, the Tour de France two times. There are three things left for me – the Giro, Vuelta and World Championships. It's a dream and a challenge. We'll see in ten years what's going to be."
Having already won the Tour twice, winning it a third time won't be career-changing but the Slovenian is very keen on adding new races to his palmarès. After the Tour des Flanders where he stunned the competition this year, it would be safe to say that Milano-Sanremo, the World Championships and the other two Grand Tours are part of that list. The latter three he mentioned specifically, logically as the most likely to achieve throughout his career due to his natural climbing abilities.
However despite this, the Tour seems to be the main goal for the 2024 season. "I actually like this parcours. The designers do a great job every year. They try to spice it up with different things, like this year with the gravel and the last stage time trial," he says of the route revealed in Paris last week. Although Jumbo-Visma is heading to the Tour with their mind on a third Jonas Vingegaard victory, it is certain that Pogacar will not have thrown in the towel when it comes to climbing alongside the Dane in July.
"They try to spice it up so it's not always the same. But in the end, you always come to the conclusion that it's three weeks and you need hard and easy stages. Everybody is tired in any case, no matter the parcours. If I would design it then I'd probably do something similar to this year."

🇸🇮 Tadej Pogačar: „The Olympics are important for cyclists, and as a child it is something you dream about. But the road race does not have the ideal course for me. It would be a gamble, so I'm not going to focus on it. I better make other plans.”

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