{"id":371067,"date":"2025-12-25T14:07:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T14:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/371067\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T14:07:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T14:07:10","slug":"was-surprised-to-see-him-in-so-many-different-places","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/371067\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Was surprised to see him in so many different places’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past two years, Tadej Pogacar<\/a> has raced just about every major event on the calendar. He started in every Monument and won the Tour de France in both seasons. But that kind of programme also comes at a cost: the season is long, and the obligations are many. Is all that activity actually good for him? And perhaps more importantly: is the Slovenian even stoppable?Philippe Gilbert<\/a> knows what it means to race – and win – many of cycling\u2019s biggest events. Yet according to the former world champion, the issue with Pogacar is not purely sporting. Instead, he focuses on the media attention and the obligations that come with being world champion. “Perhaps it is precisely this aspect that exhausts him,\u201d Gilbert tells Le Soir<\/a>. \u201cI was surprised to see him in so many different places this autumn. I sometimes wonder how he can rest and really focus on his training.\u201dAfter his long road season, Pogacar appeared in post-season criteriums in Andorra and Monaco, while also attending UAE team events on Gran Canaria<\/a> and in the Emirates. \u201cHe was present at many events. He is always extremely generous, gives a lot of himself, donates equipment for auctions, and so on. But from mid-October to early December, a professional cyclist needs rest and silence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pogacar himself has been open about the mental pressure that comes with such commitments. But Gilbert also believes the Slovenian has been draining himself in races. The Belgian sees a rider who has been forced to go against his natural instincts in recent years. \u201cHis team told him: \u2018Stop attacking, just follow, just follow – we\u2019re not asking you to win stages anymore.\u2019 By imposing that on Tadej, you force him to race against his natural instincts. He\u2019s the kind of rider you should be telling: \u2018Go for it, enjoy yourself.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"tadej-pogacar\"\/What makes Pogacar, Pogacar? \u201cWe\u2019re not talking about Miguel Indurain\u201d<\/p>\n

There is currently no rider with the same appetite for racing and winning as the Slovenian, and only one comes close to matching his hunger for success. \u201cHe wants to become the greatest cyclist of all time, and he\u2019s well on his way. Although comparing eras will always be difficult, cycling has evolved enormously between the time of Eddy Merckx and today. It\u2019s hard to compare performances, but there is one thing we can compare: the will to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEddy never stopped, and neither does Tadej,\u201d Gilbert continues. \u201cWe\u2019re not talking here about Miguel Indurain, who could win the Tour without winning a single stage. Poga\u010dar is the complete opposite: he needs the queen stages, the time trials, maybe even all the jerseys to write history.\u201d\u00a0Gilbert points to the final stage of the Tour de France as an example.<\/p>\n

Wearing the yellow jersey, Pogacar went all-in to win the stage, even though it involved considerable risk. In the end, he was beaten by Wout van Aert, but Gilbert loved every moment of it. \u201cThe cobbles were wet and slippery; all the ingredients were there for a crash and for putting the overall victory in danger, but he went for it. He loves it!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the past two years, Tadej Pogacar has raced just about every major event on the calendar. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,200734,85,6494],"class_list":{"0":"post-371067","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-philippe-gilbert","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tadej-pogacar"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}