{"id":202093,"date":"2025-10-15T15:41:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T15:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/202093\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T15:41:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T15:41:10","slug":"british-lawyer-40-who-beat-tadej-pogacar-fuelled-by-mcdonalds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/202093\/","title":{"rendered":"British lawyer, 40, who beat Tadej Pogacar fuelled by McDonald\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"

The crowds near the top of the Krvavec climb in Slovenia had all come to see Tadej Pogacar, the best cyclist in the world in his hometown of Komenda, on the hill he trained on as a young man \u2014 but the first rider across the line was a 40-year-old solicitor from Bath.<\/p>\n

Andrew Feather had broken all his personal power records by the time he crossed the line of the Pogi Challenge, in which the 27-year-old world champion gave 1,190 amateur riders a six-minute head start on the 13.9km climb, which has an average gradient of about 7.6 per cent. Feather was the only rider to keep Pogacar at bay.<\/p>\n

Thousands had gathered at the summit to watch the conclusion of the hill climb, raising money for the Tadej Pogacar Foundation, which helps those affected by disasters and children battling illness. <\/p>\n

\"Four<\/p>\n

Pogacar, front, congratulates Feather, centre, on the podium at the end of the race<\/p>\n

GIORGIA BASCETTA<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were maybe a bit surprised when I came up and he wasn\u2019t there,\u201d Feather tells The Times. \u201cThere was an element of thinking \u2014 \u2018This is not about me, it\u2019s about him\u2019. I\u2019m not really sure why. It was a mixed feeling at the top.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was also an element of when I look back at it, it would be nice for him to have caught me. Just to really see how quick he was and to try to stay on his wheel and see how far I could go on his wheel. Obviously that didn\u2019t happen. I didn\u2019t have the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pogacar reached the finish line about three minutes after Feather at an event designed so that Pogacar could catch everyone. The riders set out in a bunch and rolled along for about 10km before the hill climb timing started. Feather believes they calculated that head start on the best amateur riding the climb at 5.5w\/kg \u2014 they hadn\u2019t anticipated someone riding a little more.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is initially pretty steep and I just went at my own pace and rode to a consistent 400 watts [6.2 w\/kg],\u201d Feather says. \u201cI quickly managed to drop everyone and I was on my own. I just rode all the way. I was just thinking towards the end that at some point he\u2019s going to come. It just depends on how much of a head start he\u2019s given us. It\u2019s funny because everyone\u2019s like, why did he give us such a head start?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tadej<\/p>\n

Pogacar passed every rider on the climb with the exception of Feather<\/p>\n

ANA KOVA\u010c<\/p>\n

Feather managed the climb in 44min 15sec while Pogacar did it in 40min 44sec \u2014 3 \u00bd minutes quicker, but not enough to catch the featherweight lawyer. But while the plan was to catch everyone, Pogacar was gracious in \u201cdefeat\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t realise they were doing this prize ceremony, but they called the top three men and the top three women through to this big stage and we waited for the prize presentation,\u201d Feather says. \u201cPogacar\u2019s parents were there. It was a really local family event. It was really nice. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we got on the stage, Pogacar came up and shook my hand and said, \u2018That was really, really fast. Well done\u2019. He also mentioned me when he was speaking in front of all the people, he said: \u2018I didn\u2019t anticipate there was going to be one rider who would escape\u2019 and he said, \u2018chapeau\u2019, which is nice. It\u2019s just funny thinking perhaps the greatest cyclist of all time knows my name now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to catch everyone, but I couldn\u2019t,\u201d said Pogacar on the Tour 202 podcast. \u201cHats off to the winner . . . [UAE Team Emirates XRG] is already full. But if someone can climb that fast, you can always use them. Maybe he never wanted to be a pro. Everyone has their own path.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Andrew<\/p>\n

Feather is looking to retake the British hill climb title at the 2025 event at the end of October<\/p>\n

TORQ FITNESS<\/p>\n

Feather is a four-times national hill climb champion. While his first love was cricket, playing for the first team at Exeter University, he always cycled for fitness. Then in his late 20s he started road racing, realising that he liked the hard-climbing efforts in particular. But he felt it was too late to follow the path of a professional cyclist and anyway that wasn\u2019t a lifestyle that appealed to him, whereas the popular hill climb circuit suited him perfectly.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe if I had my time again, it would be nice to do it as a youngster for a few years and see how you do,\u201d Feather says. \u201cI came into it too late. I don\u2019t have any regrets because I\u2019ve been really fortunate in having a nice, stable job, but still following a hobby and doing it to really high standards. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know the world of professional cycling is pretty tough. You have to be absolutely the best to make a living out of it. You get so many cyclists on the breadline all the time. If you\u2019re not in that top tier, it\u2019s pretty difficult. It\u2019s an insecure place to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Feather, being in shape for the September and October hill climb season is always the goal, after which he can put on seven to eight kilograms. Those hard, short efforts require a good power-to-weight ratio and no thought about nutrition and all that comes with riding a 180km road stage. His next goal, on October 26, is the final hill climb of the year on the 834m Bank Road in Matlock, where he hopes to take his fifth national title. Although he knows a two-minute effort in the Peak District is very different to a 13.9km climb in Slovenia. <\/p>\n

The decision to go to Slovenia, then, was a last-minute one. He spotted an advertisement on Instagram and while the timing wasn\u2019t ideal (two weeks before the key event of his own season) he thought it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He told GCN (the Global Cycling Network YouTube channel) about his plan and they came out to film the whole thing, which can be watched online from this weekend.<\/p>\n

\"Tadej<\/p>\n

Pogacar gave the challengers around a six-minute head start<\/p>\n

ANA KOVA\u010c<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very short,\u201d Feather says. \u201cI arrived in Slovenia late on Friday night and then I was back home on Sunday evening. I didn\u2019t have a pump out there so my tyres were very flat when I did the event. Preparation wasn\u2019t ideal, getting in very late, having a McDonald\u2019s the night before, not having enough air in my tyres. I suppose that comes part and parcel of being an amateur rider and not having the team looking after you.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing that does stand out for me from the event is that Pogacar just seems like a humble, genuine, nice guy. He was just not wanting to take the limelight and was very grateful to everyone who attended the event. They raised a lot of money for the charity. It was a really worthwhile cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so Feather, a man with a full-time job and a family in Bath, has become one of only a handful of riders to finish ahead of Pogacar on his own terrain this season, alongside the likes of Mathieu van der Poel and Wout Van Aert. He took away a 6kg bottle of champagne \u2014 which a friendly Slovenian put in his suitcase at the airport to transport home to Gatwick \u2014 a watch and a trophy. <\/p>\n

Does he have any tips for the others on beating Pogacar? \u201cI\u2019d say request a head start,\u201d he replies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The crowds near the top of the Krvavec climb in Slovenia had all come to see Tadej Pogacar,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-202093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202093","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=202093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}