Miguel Indur\u00e1in knows the demands of staying at the top of cycling\u2019s biggest race. The Spaniard, who won the Tour de France five times from 1991 to 1995, says Tadej Poga\u010dar has the talent to match that mark \u2014 but warns that the biggest threat may not be physical.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re close\u2026 but that last step is always difficult,\u201d Indur\u00e1in said to Mundo Departivo.<\/a> \u201cIn the end, finishing sooner or later depends on the desire you have.\u201d<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar, 26, has already won the Tour four times. A fifth title would put him alongside Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Indur\u00e1in (and another guy from Texas, sort of) in the record books. The UAE Team Emirates rider is the dominant stage racer of his generation, but Indur\u00e1in says the pressure of constant competition can take a toll.<\/p>\n \u201cIn sport now you start very young. There are crashes, near-misses, the stress of training camps, travel, and the daily work of racing,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you\u2019re in good shape and motivated, you\u2019re the one who sets the limits. But psychological fatigue is real. If the motivation goes, it all becomes much harder.\u201d<\/p>\n Indur\u00e1in retired from racing at 32\u2013the same as Bernard Hinault, but not quite the same. The Badger quit at the top of his game\u2013big Mig\u2019s Poga\u010dar already thinking about retirement\u2014 but wants to win in Quebec<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Whether Poga\u010dar can maintain his dominance may come down to the \u201cfire\u201d Indur\u00e1in describes \u2014 the ability to keep wanting the next win after years of pressure and expectation.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s about enjoying what you do,\u201d Indur\u00e1in said. \u201cIf that\u2019s still there, you keep going. If not, it\u2019s another story.\u201d<\/p>\n Flashback Friday: Watch Bernard Hinault\u2019s retirement \u2018cross race<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Although the world champion is skipping the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a \u2014 something Indur\u00e1in never won due to its earlier scheduling in his era \u2014 he is still focusing on the world championships. Part of the preparation for defending the rainbow jersey includes racing at the Grand Prix Cyclistes de Qu\u00e9bec and Montr\u00e9al<\/a>. After that, he will head to Rwanda to acclimate and get ready to try for another rainbow jersey on the road \u2014 something Big Mig never achieved, though he came close.<\/p>\n Indur\u00e1in did win the rainbow jersey at the time trial world championships twice, but the closest he came to the road world championship was 1993, when a young Lance Armstrong took the title and the Spaniard finished second.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Miguel Indur\u00e1in knows the demands of staying at the top of cycling\u2019s biggest race. The Spaniard, who won…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-70358","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\/70358","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=70358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
final act was different.<\/p>\n