‘First day back, last day with rainbow’ – Tadej Pogačar shows off scar from collarbone surgery as he returns to riding outdoors for the first time since season-ending crash

On his final day as the elite men’s road race World Champion, Tadej Pogačar returned to riding outdoors, 28 days after breaking his collarbone and neck in a high-speed crash at the Vuelta a España.

In a post to his Instagram page, Pogačar posted the most positive update to his recovery yet, with pictures of him alongside partner Urška Žigart, who is also on the mend after fracturing her jaw for a second time, Eddie Dunbar, who also fractured his collarbone at the Vuelta, and Gladys Verhulst-Wild, who suffered the same injury at the Tour of Britain Women.

All residents on Monaco, the three riders compared their scars from surgery, with Žigart jokingly rating the physical marks out of 10, with her trade teammate at AG Insurance Soudal scoring the highest.

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Pogačar captioned the post “First day back, last day with rainbow,” with his successor as World Champion to be decided in Montreal on Sunday. In his absence, Primož Roglič is leading the Slovenian team, with Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) taking up the spot of heavy favourite.

He was looking to match Peter Sagan’s feat from the 2010s of winning three world titles in a row, adding to his dominant solo victories from Zurich in 2024 and Kigali last season, but his crash on stage 8 of the Vuelta ended his season completely.

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There were whispers that he could come back early at the European Championships on home roads in Ljubljana, after his name appeared on the entry list, but his UAE Emirates-XRG team ruled that out, with his recovery taking priority.

Unable to defend his titles at Worlds, Europeans, and Il Lombardia, Pogačar should return in 2027, with the Vuelta, Paris-Roubaix, and Olympic Games in LA as his main remaining goals. But he did extend his contract until 2032, so he doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon.

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