{"id":208790,"date":"2025-10-18T12:14:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T12:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/208790\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T12:14:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T12:14:10","slug":"now-i-understand-if-he-wants-to-quit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/208790\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cNow I understand if he wants to quit\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tadej Pogacar<\/a> capped off another phenomenal season by winning his fourth Tour de France. The Slovenian all-rounder from UAE Emirates-XRG did it in style, but his first public appearance after the Tour stirred up plenty of discussion. Pogacar admitted he was \u201ccounting down the years until retirement<\/a>.\u201d His mother, Marjeta, witnessed her son\u2019s exhaustion up close and offered some much-needed context for those comments.<\/p>\n

After making the decisive difference earlier in the Tour, Pogacar held back somewhat in the final week, at least by his standards. He still gave it everything in the final stage in Paris, but perhaps it was telling that the seemingly unbeatable Pogacar was defeated on that very day.<\/p>\n

After the Tour, he stayed quiet for a while, but during his first public appearance in his hometown of Komenda, he made some striking remarks.
\n\u201cEveryone has a bad day sometimes. You can\u2019t expect me to glow with happiness through all 21 stages. The Tour was really tough. One of the hardest I\u2019ve ever done. Everyone who fought for the general classification can confirm that,\u201d the Slovenian reflected.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I\u2019m rested, reset, and ready for new battles,\u201d he said in August, before surprising many with what came next.
\n\u201cThe truth is, I\u2019m already counting down the years until my retirement,\u201d Pogacar admitted. \u201cI started winning early, and there will be times when results aren\u2019t as good, but I\u2019m ready for whatever comes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\"vingegaard-pogacar-lipowitz\"\/\u201cI thought, now I understand if he decides to quit cycling,\u201d said Pogacar\u2019s mother.He\u2019s already racked up an incredible 108 victories, and naturally, that\u2019s come with a heavy racing load. In 2025, after a highly successful autumn campaign<\/a>, Pogacar ended the season with 50 race days, eight fewer than the previous year, when he finished at 58 after the Tour of Lombardy. In total, his career tally now sits at nearly 400 race days, and he only just turned 27 this September.So, Pogacar\u2019s fatigue is hardly surprising. Le Parisien<\/a> spoke with his mother, Marjeta, who offered more context about her son\u2019s comments. \u201cNot burnout, but overtired, yes. This year, I could see he was really exhausted. Completely drained, maybe. And I thought: now I get it, if he wants to stop cycling,\u201d she said candidly.<\/p>\n

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

\"tadej-pogacar\"\/Pogacar\u2019s mother sees little respect for her son: \u201cPeople stick stickers on his back, shout at him, touch him\u201d<\/p>\n

And it really wasn\u2019t just about the physical effort alone \u201cThere was simply too much, before and after the races. Sometimes it\u2019s all too much to carry,\u201d said Pogacar\u2019s mother, who witnessed it all up close. \u201cHe was so tired, mentally and physically. And all of it under the eyes of millions of viewers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marjeta has also noticed that things sometimes go too far during races. \u201cPeople stick stickers on his back, shout at him, touch him,\u201d she said, referring to the recent European Championships. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s just too much. Because he wins too often. Because he doesn\u2019t have time to sign autographs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tadej Pogacar capped off another phenomenal season by winning his fourth Tour de France. The Slovenian all-rounder from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-208790","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\/208790","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=208790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}