{"id":261333,"date":"2025-11-13T23:26:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T23:26:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/261333\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T23:26:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T23:26:20","slug":"how-rough-diamond-was-polished-to-become-cycling-great","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/261333\/","title":{"rendered":"how \u2018rough diamond\u2019 was polished to become cycling great"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the age of ten, Tadej Pogacar already looked like a very special cyclist. He\u2019d followed his older brother, Tilen, into the sport and while football was his first love, the bike soon took over. Pogacar was small and skinny and he loved the climbs. The longer and harder an ascent the better, and he took his first win up Krvavec, a mountain near his home of Komenda, Slovenia, in 2009, against boys three years older than him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter my first year on the bike, I wanted to become a top cyclist,\u201d he said in 2019.<\/p>\n

By 18, it was clear that the young man was destined to become a professional rider and might even win the biggest races. He\u2019d swapped his \u201cbeloved\u201d pancakes with cottage cheese and bread dumplings for pasta, shunned birthday parties and nights out, and trained hard and enjoyed competing. It was then that his mother, Marjeta, asked Andrej Hauptman, the boy\u2019s coach, for Pogacar<\/a> to stop cycling. \u201cWe talked about it a lot,\u201d she told L\u2019\u00c9quipe in 2021. \u201cI knew that if he went any further, they would want to dope him. That\u2019s when it starts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMothers whose children ride bikes are afraid of two things: accidents and doping,\u201d Hauptman, who was excluded from the 2000 Tour de France<\/a> for surpassing the permitted 50 per cent red blood cell count, told the same newspaper. \u201cIt\u2019s true there have been several cases in Slovenia. I had to personally commit to protect him from that.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Young<\/p>\n

It was evident early on that Pogacar had what it takes to be a top professional cyclist<\/p>\n

Pogacar did not stop cycling; instead he went on to become one of the greatest cyclists the sport has ever known and, at only 27 years old, there is still plenty to come. <\/p>\n

But what do we know about Pogacar? While the Slovenian is always polite with the media and good at giving a funny or poignant soundbite, he keeps the circus at arm\u2019s length. He wants to race his bike, and everyone who knows him will tell you he doesn\u2019t care for fame and is a humble guy who enjoys his unicycles, food, rap music and his life with his partner, Urska. But this leaves a lot of blank space. Pogacar is in some ways aloof and unknowable despite being arguably the finest athlete on the planet. <\/p>\n

However, a fascinating new biography by the British journalist Andy McGrath \u2014 Tadej Pogacar: Unstoppable, released on Thursday \u2014 draws on multiple sources to try to explain how the Slovenian became the best cyclist of his generation while shining a light on the trajectory of the winner for four Tours de France, ten monuments, two world championships, a Giro d\u2019Italia and more.<\/p>\n

There are three very clear strands. First, and perhaps sometimes overlooked, is how much Pogacar enjoys riding a bike. When his older brother dropped out of cycling, Pogacar continued; he\u2019d found his thing. \u201cI\u2019ve kept the same mindset I had when I played with my brother when I was little,\u201d Pogacar said. \u201cI always try to win but, first and foremost, to have fun. I like to fight against my competitors but I accept defeat, it doesn\u2019t make me sad. In truth, winning or losing doesn\u2019t change anything for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tadej<\/p>\n

Pogacar\u2019s \u201cmitochondrial density\u201d is said to be \u201cmagical\u201d \u2014 and one of the physiological features that sets him apart<\/p>\n

TIM DE WAELE\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

It is this mindset that makes him formidable. As Jaka Primozic, a Slovenian rider and friend of Pogacar, tells McGrath: \u201cIf you think one evening before the queen stage of the Tour de France that he\u2019s nervous and not sleeping during the night? No, it\u2019s not a problem for him because he just doesn\u2019t think like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Second is his physiology. Pogacar was one of ten young riders from his year group to be chosen for scientific testing, specifically the Conconi test for aerobic capacity and the Wingate test for anaerobic maximum, and he attended a facility three times a year for assessment. While the VO2 max numbers (which measure the maximum amount of oxygen an individual can utilise during intense exercise) of these tests weren\u2019t shared, the Slovenian physiology expert Samo Rauter told McGrath: \u201cWe can easily say that Pogacar was good in both tests \u2026 the majority of [riders] are not.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it is \u201cmitochondrial density\u201d that is thought to set Pogacar apart. Mitochondria are the part of cells that produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the body\u2019s preferred form of energy; a greater density in each cell means a higher capacity to produce easily accessible energy. According to McGrath, Pogacar\u2019s level was \u201cmagical\u201d. \u201cBlood analysis showed he was ready to race or train hard again after a few days when others were still knackered,\u201d McGrath writes. \u201cSuch capacities are part trainable, part genetic. He was a physiological rough diamond in need of polishing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He had two of the three things needed to be successful in this sport, which above all is a sport of performance and of suffering. So when he arrived in the World Tour peloton with UAE Team Emirates in 2019 it might not have been a huge surprise to those who knew him that he was on the podium in his first grand tour at La Vuelta.<\/p>\n

\"107th<\/p>\n

Pogacar, pictured with his partner Urska, is known to be a humble individual who doesn\u2019t care for fame<\/p>\n

TIM DE WAELE\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

But something else happened between his second Tour de France loss to Jonas Vingegaard in 2023 and the start of 2024. If Pogacar already had the physiology and mentality of a truly great cyclist, his full potential was finally unlocked over that winter. In 2023, Pogacar won ten World Tour-level races, fourth overall behind Primoz Roglic, Remco Evenepoel and Vingegaard, all of whom had 11 victories. In 2024, Pogacar won 23 and Roglic was second with eight.<\/p>\n

As well as a schedule change that allowed for fewer but more targeted races, which Pogacar enjoyed, the change of UAE coach from I\u00f1igo San Mill\u00e1n to Javier Sola was key to this transformation. Sola added more variety and interval work, and built on fatigue resistance and \u201ca lot of VO2 max work\u201d. As McGrath puts it: \u201cWhile not a drastic change, it was like putting premium\/super unleaded petrol in a sports car which was used to standard unleaded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pogacar also incorporated functional strength work with low-cadence workouts. He switched from 170mm cranks to 165mm ones to make him marginally more efficient and allow him to get lower on the bike for aerodynamic gains. In 2023 his time-trial position was too aggressive, so they loosened it a little and strengthened his physique. <\/p>\n

They played with every millimetre of his bike. He even had a different pair of socks made of breathable material to reduce lower-leg drag. He began heat training, riding on the indoor trainer in a sauna. He reduced the number of his favourite Snickers or Mars bars in his feed bag and got leaner: at the Tour in 2024 he was 64.5kg, 1.5kg lighter than previously. <\/p>\n

\"Slovenia's<\/p>\n

Pogacar\u2019s win at the World Championships last year meant he became only the third cyclist to complete the triple crown \u2014 joining Eddy Merckx and Stephen Roche<\/p>\n

FABRICE COFFRINI\/AFP\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

The Slovenian also worked with Stijn Quanten, a functional neurologist. Pogacar was given a plan with various mental games and tests and, according to McGrath, he did them every day through the winter of 2023 and into 2024, \u201cstaying up to midnight sometimes\u201d. \u201cEveryone can see how effortlessly he rides and lives,\u201d Quanten told Het Nieuwsblad. \u201cBut no matter how funny, jovial and instinctive he comes across, there\u2019s always a plan behind it. He knows exactly what he\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of these changes added up to an improvement of 6 to 8 per cent on some metrics. In 2024 Pogacar completed the triple crown: the Giro d\u2019Italia, Tour de France and World Championship. In 2025 he did the double-double, the Tour and worlds once again. He had become fully dominant on the road and in the mountains, a rough diamond polished. <\/p>\n

\"Book<\/p>\n

Tadej Pogacar: Unstoppable by Andy McGrath is out November 13 (\u00a320, Bloomsbury)<\/p>\n

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