Tadej Pogacar made it look easy on his way to clinching his fourth Tour de France title in six years.But UAE Team Emirates-XRG manager Mauro Gianetti insisted appearances do not always tell the full story, with the decision taken not to enter the Slovenian for the upcoming Vuelta a Espana.The three-week tour of Spain gets underway on Saturday, August 23 and will be shown live on TNT Sports and discovery+.
Pogacar will therefore return to racing in September, forgoing the opportunity to complete his Grand Tour set so that he can enjoy some well-earned “physical and mental rest”.
“Being Tadej Pogacar is nice, but it’s not easy,” said Giannetti via Cyclingnews. “He is under a lot of pressure when he races; everybody expects him to be strong, to win, to put on a show.
“So it’s important for us to handle this, because he’s not just a racer. It’s important he has enough physical and mental rest to be happy in races, to enjoy himself and to provide entertainment as he has always done.”
Having already picked up two Monuments this season, as well as emerging victorious in the Criterium du Dauphine, Gianetti was conscious of his star’s workload.
“He’s done all the Classics: Strade, Flanders, Roubaix, Amstel, Liege, and that is a really, really big challenge,” Gianetti said.
“Maybe from outside the team, people don’t appreciate that so much, because they think of Paris-Roubaix as being just a one-day race.
“But it has a much more appreciable impact on a rider than a week-long stage race, and doing all the Spring Classics is tougher than doing a Grand Tour.
“All told, it’s a very big physical and mental challenge, so it really wasn’t at all feasible that he would do the Vuelta.”
While some put Pogacar’s final week ease-off at the Tour down to fatigue – the Slovenian did not win any of the final eight stages, despite taking four of the first 13 – Gianetti insisted that his final-day battle on Montmartre against Wout van Aert was evidence that his hunger never abated.
“He’s been through a very stressful Tour, a very demanding one, above all on a physical level, a lot of transfers and for him, being Tadej, it became difficult,” said Gianetti.
“He’s a very straightforward person, and to be the centre of attention every day became tiring.
“He was tired, like everybody, but he won the Tour, he won it with a smile and on the last day in Montmartre, he put on an incredible show with Wout van Aert.
“He could have sat calmly in the middle of the bunch, but he wanted to be in the action, and to honour himself, to honour Tadej Pogacar, and honour the Tour and his rivals. So what he did on the last day of the Tour, smiling all the way – that was the answer to all things that had happened.”
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