50 years after Eddy Merckx and 37 after Stephen Roche, Tadej Pogacar also wants the crown with the three prongs. For the Slovenian, only victory counts in Sunday's road race at the World Cycling Championships in Zurich.
26.09.2024, 20:36
SDA
It is an unofficial crown and it should actually have four prongs - the overall victories in the three grand tours plus the world championship title, all in one year. However, this is hardly possible in terms of the workload, although Tadej Pogacar would have been expected to make such an effort in the 2024 edition. That's why two tours are enough. And Pogacar, like Eddy Merckx in 1974 and Stephen Roche in 1987, laid the foundations for a possible crowning glory with his triumphs at the Giro and the Tour de France.
After the Tour de France, only the World Championships on his mind
The 26-year-old is in enviable form. After the Tour de France, he left the stage at the Olympic Games in Paris to Remco Evenepoel without a fight and last Sunday at the World Championship time trial he was still not in Switzerland. Instead, he made headlines overseas a week and a half ago. He won his main World Championship rehearsal, the World Tour race in Montreal, solo.
If the World Championship route hadn't already been known for some time, it would feel like it had been tailor-made for a Pogacar coup: 273.9 km, climbs with gradients of up to 17% and almost 4,500 meters in altitude.
Pogacar set out his plans for the season back in December 2023, and at the end of July after the Tour de France he made it clear what was important to him from then on: "The rainbow jersey looks good on Mathieu, but it would suit me too. It's my big dream." Since this announcement in mid-July, even defending champion Mathieu van der Poel and Evenepoel - who with two Olympic victories and two World Championship titles is on the verge of an (also unofficial) Grand Slam - are challengers and not co-favorites.
How Pogacar sees the balance of power is not entirely clear at the media meeting at the "OYM COLLEGE" in Cham in front of almost a hundred media representatives. The Slovenian gives very diplomatic answers, praises the strengths of his opponents and refrains from attacking slogans. "Everyone wants this jersey, including me. If not on Sunday, then in the next few years," he says.
The kilometers make the difference
However, his praise of the route suggests that 2024 will definitely be a world champion year for him. "It's not just the 17 percent climb. You can attack everywhere. You don't have time to recover anywhere," he emphasizes. And when asked about a possible sprint, he adds: "There won't be a big group reaching the finish together. And after 273 km, I'm also a very good sprinter."
The form is right, the route is right, but will it work with the team? This is where some uncertainties come through. "We rarely ride in the national team," Pogacar points out. In addition, Primoz Roglic is a second strong Slovenian trump card, which could ultimately paralyze the team. They evade the question of how they will get rid of each other in the final round and refer to the national coach. The manager of Pogacar's bike manufacturer helps him out: "Tadej will pull off a start-finish victory so that his new world championship bike can be seen on TV for as long as possible." "We'll do that," adds Pogacar. "Then we'll both earn good money."
