{"id":698306,"date":"2026-07-18T11:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T11:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/698306\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T11:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T11:22:09","slug":"quizzed-on-lance-armstrongs-tour-de-france-record-comments-and-prince-of-monacos-vuelta-claims-tadej-pogacar-is-deftly-dealing-with-the-curveballs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/698306\/","title":{"rendered":"Quizzed on Lance Armstrong’s Tour de France record comments and Prince of Monaco’s Vuelta claims, Tadej Poga\u010dar is deftly dealing with the curveballs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tadej Poga\u010dar has trodden heavily this Tour de France<\/a> so far, winning three stages, giving one to a teammate, and generally stamping his team\u2019s authority all over proceedings. But the world champion has also shown a deftness of touch that, in his dealings with the media, have kept the outside noise to a minimum.<\/p>\n

Having already spent eight days in the yellow jersey, and with eight more very likely to follow, there\u2019s a long line of questions to be answered as he goes about his media duties, in the mixed zones before and after each stage and also in his daily yellow jersey press conference.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

More often than not, there will be plenty of relevant stage-related topics to go at, but on quieter days, that vacuum will be filled with questions that might generate other talking points.<\/p>\n

Latest Videos From<\/p>\n

On Friday, Poga\u010dar<\/a> had to deal with a couple, and he sidestepped them with perfect poise.<\/p>\n

The first was related to his possible appearance at the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a<\/a> later this year, which roared back up the agenda with the Prince of Monaco\u2019s claims that Poga\u010dar had informed him he would be at the start. This year\u2019s Vuelta starts in Monaco, which is also Poga\u010dar\u2019s adopted residence, and Prince Albert told L\u2019Equipe<\/a> that “Tadej Poga\u010dar said he would be at the start, so we’ll see\u201d.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

When this was put to him, Poga\u010dar responded: \u201cIf the Prince said it, there’s a high chance.”<\/p>\n

The words were delivered with a smile and a sense of humor so even if the words themselves could be spun into a headline, the context in which he said them was totally non-committal.<\/p>\n

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar\u2019s team boss Mauro Gianetti later told Cyclingnews that nothing had changed in terms of the Vuelta, which would make a debut for Poga\u010dar and a chance to complete the Grand Tour set.<\/p>\n

“It’s a pleasure that he’d like Tadej to be there. But we’ve said it I don’t know how many times, that we do not know yet. We will make that decision after the Tour.”<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar also refused to be drawn on questioning surrounding the Tour de France victories record<\/a>, and in particular comments made by Lance Armstrong concerning the true nature of that record.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

Armstrong, who won seven Tours from 1999 to 2005 before being stripped of them all due to doping, had looked to stoke the fire on his own podcast by claiming that Poga\u010dar is aiming for seven Tour wins in his career, and not just the five that would give him a share of the official record.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar, winner of four Tours already, responded by claiming he has \u2018no interest in records\u2019. And while that seems a stretch to believe, given his notable push to win as many of the biggest races as possible, he also far more understandably has no interest in creating a needless controversy around himself.<\/p>\n

If he\u2019d agreed with Armstrong there\u2019d obviously be a storm coming his way, and even if he hadn\u2019t he\u2019d have given oxygen to a debate involving perhaps the most toxic name in cycling. And so, wisely, he declined to engage at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got this question the same in the morning. I don’t know, I can\u2019t say anything,\u201d Poga\u010dar said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t go for records, I just want to finish the Tour with yellow in Paris and this is the main focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar has been more forthcoming than usual with the media at this Tour de France, offering more insight and stronger lines than he has tended to in the past, but he\u2019s experienced enough in this game now to know how to deal with the curveballs.<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s biggest bike race deserves world-class coverage. Subscribe to Cyclingnews for unlimited access to our unrivalled reporting of the 2026 Tour de France. From Barcelona through to Paris, our experienced team will bring you breaking news, expert insight, and in-depth coverage from every stage as the battle for the yellow jersey plays out. Plus, access the Cyclingnews app to follow the action on the go! <\/a>Find out more<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tadej Poga\u010dar has trodden heavily this Tour de France so far, winning three stages, giving one to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-698306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698306","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=698306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}