Urska Zigart: "People warned me 'pay attention, Urska. Money and fame, it does something to a person.' But Tadej is still Tadej"
Cycling
Urska Zigart made a move towards AG Insurance - Soudal Team this winter and will be at the start of Strade Bianche Donne this weekend as an outsider. In a recent interview she talked about her relationship with men's World Champion Tadej Pogacar with some very interesting insight on their partnership.
"I haven't dared to watch Tadej's descents for a long time. I walk around the house a bit, or I clean the bathroom in the meantime, haha. I can still hear the TV from a distance, but I don't need to see it," Zigart jokes in an interview with Wielerevue. The Slovenian rider, fourth at last year's Giro dell'Emilia Donne, is evolving as a climber and much is due to her frequent training companion,
"When Tadej suddenly started to become successful, people warned me 'pay attention, Urska. Money and fame, it does something to a person.' But Tadej is still Tadej. That boy is so well-bred. Tadej and I both come from a small village in Slovenia. Monaco is actually a small community too. How you live there, you choose for yourself. Some people find it necessary to show off their luxurious lives. We don't. Tadej and I also just go to Carrefour in our tracksuits to do our shopping."
However she says that the Tour de France champion has however made quite a big purchase, that he hasn't shown off. "He finally dared to reward himself with something he had been dreaming of for so long: a Porsche. He has a great passion for fast cars. Don't look for photos on Instagram, because he will never show off. Our family didn't even know." However in Monaco in particular, their car is unlikely to grab the attention of many.
"He is spontaneous and goes with the flow. Tadej is never stressed. I, on the other hand, am a perfectionist and get worried quickly. But we complement each other perfectly," she continues. "He calms me down and I help him plan the more serious things. We take good care of each other and we grant each other everything."
The duo have been engaged since 2021 and over the past years have enjoyed the extreme success that could hardly be compared to any other cycling couple in the history of the sport. The 28-year old shares a story of when they were younger that convinced her to share her life with Pogacar.
"I was once angry with Tadej. I remember my mother getting really mad at me. I thought: what is this? I'm the one who should be angry. My mother said: 'Urska, don't you see how that boy looks at you? Don't you see how much he loves you? He's the best thing that could have happened to you.' I had to make it up to him as soon as possible."
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- In the race they talk constantly to each other; it seems as if they're teammates. Obviously, when the crucial moment arrive, they attack each other to win, but it's evident the respect, sympathy, and friendship between them.
maria2024202414-04-2025 - True, sorryMistermaumau14-04-2025
- Wout Van Aert won a Monument (San Remo, 2020), so he wouldn't be in that article. He might be in an article of riders like Sagan who were truly exceptional and won fewer monuments that expected. As for these two, they've won the last 7 monuments, 10 of the last 12, 15 of the last 20. Merckx and de Vlaeminck weren't that dominant in their era. It really is special the way these two race with such admiration for each other along the way. Rivals, not enemies.RidesHills14-04-2025
- So drunk Belgians will always target MvDP because they are drunk. That can't be right. If drunk Belgians target all other cyclist equally, then it may be reasonable.
KerisVroom14-04-2025 - Nobody cares about this nonsense.
Front24214-04-2025 - Thanks! Hadn’t heard of that word so would have been hard to search very specifically without your input.Mistermaumau14-04-2025
- Ok, that’s this year’s gold medal for classy comments :-)Mistermaumau14-04-2025
- of course it’s predictable. a dad is proud of his son. nothing else matters, and his dad was a celebrated rider in his own right. maybe if people respected the human side of this story, and these people, we would see fewer bidons thrown. lastly as a dad, I appreciate this. a dad should have be given grief for showing pride and love for his child. we need more dads and examples like Adriemij14-04-2025
- i willfully CHOOSE to believe in your theory about greatness being sharpened and driven by greatness, because in my ideal world that’s how i’d wish it to be. in this case, with mathieu in particular, i think the presence of first wout then tadej absolutely drives and consumes him to some degree. he’s a guy who admittedly gets BORED. and when mathieu gets bored he just goes and does something else. he’s very clear about the fact there are a BUNCH of things he just doesn’t really care about, and i think anyone who follows him has a sense that MVDP is here for a GOOD TIME, not a LONG TIME. my hope is that tadej’s greatness will keep mathieu focused and hungry. very sadly, wout no longer fills that role. he may again and i hope he does, but their career trajectories are going in different directions and have been for a few years now. i will be extremely sad for the truly SPECTACULAR van aert if his line MSR win is the only monument trophy on his mantle. at very least i want ONE roubaix cobblestone sitting next to it. he deserves to tell the story when the grandkids ask “why is there a big rock sitting up there, papa?”OCexile14-04-2025
- Why? He is being too hard on himself. No sane person will blame him if he stopped there and then.KerisVroom14-04-2025