Tadej Pogačar: ‘The odds are pretty good to have five Tours de France, but that’s not the goal I want’

When Tadej Pogačar surged ahead of great rival Jonas Vingegaard at the top of the Col de la Couillole, it all but confirmed his return to the pinnacle of cycling.

When Tadej Pogačar surged ahead of great rival Jonas Vingegaard at the top of the Col de la Couillole, clapping his chest and stretching out his arms as he crossed the finish line, it all but confirmed his return to the pinnacle of cycling in thrilling fashion. Pogačar hadn’t needed to win the penultimate stage of this year’s Tour de France to secure a third yellow jersey, but the fact that he did – and the manner in which he did it – underlined his complete dominance over the past three weeks. And it wasn’t just at this year’s Tour that Pogačar was at his brutal best. Weeks prior, he was victorious in the Giro d’Italia for the first time in his career, becoming the first man to win both races in the same year since Marco Pantani in 1998. The rare double has been achieved by only eight riders in history, and Pogačar, a baby-faced 25-year-old from a small town in Slovenia, is the latest addition to that select club. Such success he never foresaw. “When I was younger, I was never thinking that I can win a stage in the Tour de France,” Pogačar tells CNN Sport. “After I won the first Tour de France – because that’s an ultimate goal in cycling – everything is more or less a bonus. “I’m just racing to have fun, not to feel that it’s obligatory or anything, and go with a free mind to races.”