![\"The](\"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2227977683.jpg\")
<\/p>\nTop agent Alex Carera speaks about finding the joy again, and how Tadej Poga\u010dar can keep it: ‘He was non-stop from January to July.’<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Tour is always a very difficult race but Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates – XRG) looked more drained this year than after his other three victories (Photo: Jean Catuffe\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Published September 10, 2025 07:16AM<\/p>\n
With Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a> about to return to racing for the first time since his Tour de France<\/a> win, his agent Alex Carera explained the reason for his apparent slump in the final days of that race and how the rider and his team will avoid the same issue next year.<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar stunned many in cycling when, as the Tour drew to a close, he spoke about burnout and possible retirement, even if he said the latter was still some years away.<\/p>\n He currently has a contract with UAE Emirates-XRG until the end of 2030. However he stunned the world of cycling when he suggested in July that he might hang up his wheels after the 2028 Olympic Games.<\/p>\n He would be just 30 years of age then, considerably younger than the retirement age of most Tour winners.<\/p>\n So what happened to bring about that potential change of heart, and what can be done to ensure he retains his usual joy of racing?<\/p>\n \u201cTadej\u2019s season, until July, was really full gas all the time,\u201d his agent Alex Carera told Velo this week.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the first year that he rides all the classics. He rode Roubaix for the first time, and he rode Flanders, San Remo, Li\u00e8ge, Amstel, Fl\u00e8che, plus the Dauphin\u00e9 and Tour de France.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter Li\u00e8ge, two days after Li\u00e8ge, he was already on training camp until the Tour. From January to July he had no stop.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd it\u2019s the first time like this, because when he won the previous Tours de France, maybe some seasons he doesn\u2019t ride Flanders. He never rode Roubaix, and sometimes he also didn\u2019t ride Li\u00e8ge.\u201d<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar\u2019s change of mood was very marked during the Tour. He ran riot in the opening week, winning stages four and seven, and also taking second on stage two and in the stage 5 time trial.<\/p>\n He took yellow after the latter and even though he and his team voluntarily and temporarily relinquished leadership to Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) the next day, and again gave it up to Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) at the end of stage 10, he was always in the driving seat.<\/p>\n Further victories followed on stages 12 and 13. However the wind gradually went out of his sails and he was visibly lacking his usual spark on and off the bike towards the end of the race.<\/p>\n A big change The version of Poga\u010dar seen in the final week of the Tour was in clear contrast to how Carera had described him earlier this year.<\/p>\n Speaking back in February, he talked about an upbeat personality and a joy of the sport.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of fans in the world, not only Slovenia, love him for this reason,\u201d he told Velo at the UAE Tour in February. \u201cBecause all the time he smiles, he enjoys when he stays on the bike. For him, is not a job, it is a great opportunity to live the life in the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed his enjoyment of what he does was obvious at that event: the previous day, Poga\u010dar had gone on a long range breakaway on flat terrain, just for the heck of it.<\/p>\n \u201cHe loves to race in this way,\u201d Carera affirmed. \u201cAnd when he takes the bike and goes for training, he also goes full gas. He loves riding the bike.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is the key point why Tadej is different than others.\u201d<\/p>\n The balance between full on and full gas That effervescent tone changed completely at the end of the Tour. Many people felt a sense of anticlimax, with the expected all-out battle between the Slovenian, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and others spluttering rather than really sizzling.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery Tour de France is a really hard race,\u201d Carera said. \u201cIt is hard because you ride three weeks. Sometimes you feel very well, and you drop Jonas for two minutes, and sometimes you don\u2019t feel well, and the level is similar.<\/p>\n \u201cBut in the end, if you win the Tour de France with ten seconds or ten minutes, it doesn\u2019t change anything.\u201d<\/p>\n And yet saying the Tour is always a hard race doesn\u2019t quite explain things. Last year Poga\u010dar went on a rampage and won the three final stages. Had that Tour stretched another week, the feeling was he could have won more.<\/p>\n This time around it was different, with that attacking tendency snuffed out. Carera pointed out that Poga\u010dar had a heavier workload this year and that this had an effect. He took on those extra races in the Classics, always trying to win, and had other commitments too.<\/p>\n For example, the day after Li\u00e8ge he travelled to Switzerland to do a photo and video shoot for sponsor Richard Mille. He then flew directly to Sierra Nevada for a training camp, and stayed there until shortly before the Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9.<\/p>\n After winning in Dauphin\u00e9 he travelled to Isola for another camp; all in all, Carera said he was out of Monaco for three months. That\u2019s a long time away from any semblance of normality.<\/p>\n As for the Tour itself, Carera pointed out that the weather wasn\u2019t good in the final days of the race and suggested that may have played a part on Poga\u010dar\u2019s mood.<\/p>\n He also pointed to the more conservative tactics adopted by UAE Team Emirates-XRG, who wanted Poga\u010dar and the team to follow wheels.<\/p>\n \u201cNormally Tadej loves to attack. Instead he decided to stay more calm,\u201d he told Velo. \u201cHe wanted his fourth Tour de France and that is it. And he wanted to go to home with Ur\u0161ka in Monaco, to have a no stress recovery.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes that\u2019s normal. It\u2019s human.\u201d<\/p>\n How is he now? It\u2019s now six and a half weeks since Poga\u010dar has been in competitive action, bar the Komenda criterium in his native Slovenia.<\/p>\n That time has spent switching off, recharging mentally and physically, and then gradually switching on again.<\/p>\n Carera said that it was essential for him to spend time with his partner Ur\u0161ka \u017digart<\/a>, to hang out with friends and to take the time to recover.<\/p>\n \u201cNot only the body, mostly in the mind,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause in the end, Tadej is a young guy, a young man, and he\u2019s human, and he needs recovery.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the first time that is you don\u2019t see the smile on his face, because he was really tired. Then he recovers and it is not a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n So how is he now? With the Grand Prix Cycliste de Qu\u00e9bec<\/a> to take place on Friday and the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montr\u00e9al<\/a> Sunday, has the joy returned?<\/p>\n \u201cYes, I think so,\u201d he answered. \u201cHe recovered for over a month. He deleted the Vuelta. After the Tour de France he rode only a one day race in Komenda. He comes back at the end of this week in Canada. In six weeks he recovered.<\/p>\n \u201cHe feels wells. He enjoyed that he went on the bike to see Ur\u0161ka in the Tour de Romandie. He came back to his normal life.\u201d<\/p>\n Keeping the dream alive Poga\u010dar is still only 26 years of age, young enough that talk of burnout and retirement is a red flag. He clearly wasn\u2019t in his usual frame of mind at the end of the Tour, something that likely concerned UAE Team Emirates-XRG, Carera and others.<\/p>\n It is in their interests that his usual joy at racing persists, and that things are tweaked to ensure that is the case.<\/p>\n He and the team will have learned from this season\u2019s experience, and will make changes for 2026.<\/p>\n \u201cFor sure next year he deletes some races, because he rode too much,\u201d Carera confirmed. \u201cPeople don\u2019t understand it is not easy to be Tadej Poga\u010dar. For other riders, if they arrive second, sometimes it is a great result.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the fans, if Tadej arrives second, he is the first who loses.\u201d<\/p>\n Carera makes clear that UAE Team Emirates-XRG is always supportive of Poga\u010dar; he said that both will sit down at the October training camp and will together decide his program for next year.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not true that Tadej decides everything. It\u2019s not true that the team decides everything. Always from 2019, they decide together,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd for sure they will find the right balance between the races that he loves, and the races that are important for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n The identity of those races will emerge at some point over the winter.<\/p>\n And, despite rumors that Poga\u010dar really didn\u2019t enjoy the Tour this year, it appears that Poga\u010dar fans need not be concerned that he might miss the sport\u2019s biggest event.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Tour de France is for sure a big goal next year,\u201d Carera said. \u201cAnd also San Remo, and Roubaix.\u201d<\/p>\n Everything else will be about preserving balance and keeping the joy of racing alive.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Top agent Alex Carera speaks about finding the joy again, and how Tadej Poga\u010dar can keep it: ‘He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,45284,101,60969,60971,60970,45287,60972,45288,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-129194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-parent_category-road","tag-sports","tag-tag-alex-carera","tag-tag-grand-prix-cycliste-de-montreal","tag-tag-grand-prix-cycliste-de-quebec","tag-tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tag-tour-de-france","tag-type-article","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"PARIS](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2227262747.jpg\")
Tadej Poga\u010dar of Slovenia was smiling again in Paris but he looked drained at times in the third week of the Tour (Photo: Tim de Waele\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\n![\"PARIS](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2227262345.jpg\")
Poga\u010dar\u2019s and his partner Ur\u0161ka \u017digart have supported each other over the years, on and off the bike. Spending time with her since the Tour has been important in getting his spark back (Photo by Yoan Valat \u2013 Pool\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\n![\"Poga\u010dar\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2172212546.jpg\")
Poga\u010dar won last year\u2019s GP Cycliste de Montr\u00e9al as part of his buildup to the world championships\u00a0(Photo: Alex Broadway\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\n![\"UAE](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2226361604.jpg\")
If he and UAE Team Emirates \u2013 XRG structure things differently next season, Poga\u010dar should be less jaded in the Tour (Photo by Loic VENANCE \/ AFP)<\/p>\n