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The National
3 days ago
- Sport
- The National
Tadej Pogacar reveals burnout fears after stunning Tour de France victory
As Tadej Pogacar heads off on a well-earned holiday, the four-time Tour de France winner can look back with pride at his latest achievement. On Sunday, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider secured his latest Tour crown in style on the streets of Paris which brought him level with British rider Chris Froome for all-time Tour de France wins. Wout van Aert won the final-day cliffhanger on the cobbled roads of Montmartre, but Pogacar was spared any late challenge when the weather forced organisers to neutralise times to avoid potential accidents. However, Pogacar more than played his part in the finale in a six-man breakaway during a thrilling climax before Belgian Van Aert pulled away on the last climb. And the 26-year-old admitted defending his four-minute plus lead in the final week was a real challenge for his tired body. 'Winning four Tours, six years in a row on the Tour podium – I'm just speechless,' he said. 'This one feels especially amazing. I'm very proud I can wear the yellow jersey. 'Obviously, I was in the lead, I had quite a big gap – 4:24 in Paris on Jonas Vingegaard. So we were comfortably in the yellow, but yeah, I was a bit tired in the last week, to be honest I just want to enjoy this moment. 'Everybody has different ideas about how to celebrate. I want some peace and beautiful weather, enjoying some quiet days at home.' While Pogacar needs just one more title to match the record five crowns jointly held by Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain, he insists this is not a motivating factor in his career plans. 'Obviously it's not the goal to win five tours. Right now, I have no clear goals. Maybe the world championships this year and [the Tour of] Lombardy, but for now I just enjoy the moment and will think about the next goals quite soon,' he said. He also talked about how cycling's draining calendar and obsession with training are a danger that needs to be taken seriously. 'I'm at a point in my career where I could finish tomorrow, and I'd be happy,' Pogacar added, before making clear he was joking. 'Seriously, burnouts happen in sports, in a lot of sports, mental burnout, physical burnout. We train a lot. Cyclists are sometimes too obsessed with training, and everybody wants to train more and more and more. 'You see some riders have fatigue too early in the season and then the team needs you to race, race, race. In the end, you just keep going into this circle and you never recover. 'Then you come to October and you're like, finally a break. And then in December, you're trying to do it all over again. So burnout happens.' Pogacar also credited rival Jonas Vingegaard for pushing him to higher levels, calling their five-year duel a privilege. It is the first time that two riders finished first and second in five consecutive Tours, Vingegaard having beaten Pogacar in 2022 and 2023 while the Slovenian edged his rival out this year, in 2021 and 2024. 'It's incredible, we keep pushing each other to another level, we are privileged to have this competition because it makes us grow more and more,' said Pogacar, who was also eager to hail the support of his UAE Team Emirates-XRG colleagues. 'When you have such strong opponents, not just Jonas [Vingegaard] but everybody, you never know what is coming. So you can always have some doubts. 'But the team atmosphere helps you and if you go to races motivated and wanting to give it all, if you give it all on the road, you don't have anything to regret, you don't need to doubt. Or maybe always a little bit because – you never know.'
Khaleej Times
4 days ago
- Sport
- Khaleej Times
UAE Team Emirates' Pogacar wins Tour de France title
Slovenian Tadej Pogacar of the UAE Team Emirates won his fourth Tour de France title after finishing safe in the final stage won by Belgian Wout van Aert on Sunday. Two-time champion Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark took second place overall with German Florian Lipowitz finishing third.
Khaleej Times
5 days ago
- Sport
- Khaleej Times
UAE Team Emirates star Pogacar on cusp of 4th Tour de France title
Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar was left standing on the cusp of a fourth Tour de France title as Alpecin rider Kaden Groves won Saturday's stage 20 after a long-range escape that saw the Australian finish well ahead of the big guns. Runaway overall race leader Pogacar maintained his lead over Danish rival Jonas Vingegaard ahead of Sunday's 21st and final stage in Paris. The UAE Team Emirates rider has a 4min 24sec advantage heading into what could be a tricky finale, a 132km ride from Mantes-la-Ville to the Champs-Elysees, but featuring three ascents of the cobbled streets of Montmartre. A fourth title now looms for Pogacar who said after a dominant ride across the peaks and plains of France he felt he's won. "It's starting to sink in," said the 26-year-old, who previously won the sport's most prestigious cycling stage race in 2020, 2021 and 2024. "Tomorrow, all being well, I'll be celebrating with my team," added a weary Pogacar. "This has been another level of hard, all the way. I enjoyed it though and I'm really looking forward to the last day tomorrow." Pogacar refused to rule out a tilt at a fifth stage win if he could escape up the climbs to Montmartre. "We'll see how we feel and how the others act, maybe we'll try something in Montmartre." The champion-in-waiting was left shaking his head after almost getting taken down in a fall 500m from the line on Saturday as lashing rain made the roads hazardous on the run in to Pontarlier. This was a third stage win for Alpecin after Jasper Philipsen and Mathieu van der Poel took the two opening wins. "They gave me a free role in the final days," Groves said after both Philipsen and Van der Poel pulled out. "I'm going to enjoy this one and celebrate with my team and enjoy the Champs tomorrow." Just 158 riders crossed the rolling hills at the foot of the Jura and many looked haggard after the fast racing in the Alps. So along the Swiss border, most of the peloton seemed happy to let an escape get a 7min lead after an exhausting slog that started July 5. Pogacar has dominated the 2025 Tour winning stages on rolling runs in the north and west at Rouen and the Mur de Bretagne in the first week, then on the mountain slopes of the Pyrenees on the Hautacam and Peyragudes in week two. As the Tour entered its end game Pogacar unexpectedly sat tight to protect his lead through the Alps rather go on his trademark all out attacks. Vingegaard, the 2022 and 2023 Tour champion, had two off days, first on a time trial and secondly at Hautacam, leaving Pogacar to surge into a lead he never looked like surrendering. Pogacar said he'd be back on the bike by Tuesday. "I travel home Monday. Tuesday I'll be going out for a ride with friends, stop somewhere for a coffee and start enjoying the summer, I've earned it." Pogacar returns to competitive action in September at Kigali, Rwanda, in defence of his world title. A boyish Pogacar first won the Tour as a break out star in 2020 with one of sport's great last-gasp turnarounds on stage 20. He followed up a year later with a crushing triumph, but the emergence of Vingegaard's patient long game earned the Dane the yellow jersey in the two following editions. Then Pogacar blew everyone away in a mighty 2024 season with a colossal racing programme, winning the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and world championships titles. Having extended his efforts into the all-in one-day classics season in 2025, his stamina was a question mark, but on Sunday that barrier also appears set to be breached.
The National
5 days ago
- Sport
- The National
Tadej Pogacar set to seal fourth Tour de France crown after coming through penultimate stage unscathed
Slovenian superstar Tadej Pogacar has all but secured his fourth Tour de France crown after easing through Saturday's penultimate stage. The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider and reigning champion maintained his advantage over Jonas Vingegaard of four minutes and twenty-four seconds going into Sunday's finish in Paris. However, the final stage is not a processional one, as is usually the case, and could potentially prove problematic towards the end with three consecutive climbs. But, barring any disaster in the French capital, Pogacar will be champion again. After winning the title in 2020, 2021 and 2024, the 26-year-old has dominated this year's race, winning four stages and having kept a grip on the yellow jersey since Stage 13 from which point his lead has never dropped below four minutes. Pogacar was given a pat on the back from Vingegaard as he crossed the line in Pontarlier with the rest of peloton, more than six minutes after stage winner Kaden Groves, with the Dane having been unable to drop his great rival despite numerous attempts in the final week. "It's starting to sink in," said Pogacar. "Tomorrow, all being well, I'll be celebrating with my team. "This has been another level of hard, all the way. I enjoyed it though and I'm really looking forward to the last day tomorrow." Alpecin-Deceuninck rider Groves took the honours claiming his first Tour victory after avoiding a crash on slippery roads before powering to a solo triumph on the 184.2km race from Nantua. Groves's bike-handling skills were on display when he managed to stay up as Spain's Ivan Romeo and France's Romain Gregoire skidded out of control in front of him on a wet descent 21 kilometres from the finish. The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider then attacked from a reduced breakaway bunch and never looked back in the remaining 17 kilometres, bursting into tears in a mix of disbelief and exhaustion after the line. The Australian finished 54 seconds ahead of Frank van den Broek (Picnic PostNL), who was in turn five seconds ahead of his countryman Pascal Eenkhoorn (Soudal Quick-Step). It meant Groves had completed the trilogy of winning a stage on each of the three Grand Tour races with victories in the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana already safely in the bag. Groves seized his opportunity as Alpecin's third man after teammates Jasper Philipsen (who won the opening stage) and Mathieu van der Poel (winner of Stage 2) dropped out of the race. 'There are so many emotions to win here, the team came here with so many different plans with Jasper and Mathieu, and in the end, I get my own opportunities,' said Groves. 'They haven't gone the right way, but today I had super legs and I just suffered to the line and it rewarded me with a Tour stage. 'The team gave me the free role in the last days, especially today we weren't sure whether to go for the stage or save for tomorrow. But when the rain starts to fall, I always have a super feeling normally in the cold weather, and it's like my first-ever time winning solo, and it's a Tour stage, so it's pretty incredible. 'It's not really a childhood dream because I only started cycling quite late, but there's so much pressure at the Tour, and having won at the Giro and the Vuelta, all I ever get asked is 'Am I good enough to win at the Tour?', and now I have shown them.' The final stage is a 132.3km ride from Mantes-la-Jolie to Paris, where the peloton will cycle up the famous Butte Montmartre three times before the final laps on the Champs-Elysees.
Yahoo
23-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Milan wins Tour's 17th stage, Pogacar retains yellow
Italian Jonathan Milan has claimed his second victory in this year's Tour de France when he won a crash-disrupted sprint at the end of the 17th stage. Milan prevailed in a 10-man dash to the line after the peloton was held up behind a massive crash with just one kilometre to go as riders went down on slippery roads in rainy south eastern France on Wednesday. The spill involved Milan's rival sprinter Tim Merlier and others under the "flamme rouge" — the triangular red banner over the road signalling the final kilometer. Eritrean rider Biniam Girmay came off worse and was attended to by race doctors. "The last 25 kilometres were really, really, fast," said Merlier, who finished 25th, more than a minute behind Milan. "I think I did a mistake. I took one roundabout on the wrong side and I lost a lot of positions. And then I knew I needed to move up. The moment I wanted to move up, I crashed." Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) crossed the finish line safely to retain the overall leader's yellow jersey. "I'm really happy and without words, I have to say. After surviving (the ascent to the Mont Ventoux on Tuesday) I didn't survive alone," said a relieved Milan, who holds the green jersey for the points classification. "I survived all this with the help of my teammates. I really have to practice this because without all this I would not be here. Maybe I would have already dropped in one of the climbs (of the day). "So, with the help every single day of my teammates, we achieved this result. Today was a really tough stage... We controlled it from the beginning, of course, with the help of some other teams. But they helped me also when I dropped. In the first climb, in the second one, they really did a good pace." 🏁 Relive the last km of this stage marked by a crash that limited the number of candidates for victory...🏁 Revivez le dernier km de cette étape marqué par une chute qui a limité le nombre de candidats à la victoire...#TDF2025 — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 23, 2025 Frenchmen Quentin Pacher and Mathieu Burgaudeau, as well as Jonas Abrahamsen of Norway and Italian Vincenzo Albanese, broke away early but stood little chance against the collective power of the sprinters' teams. With the peloton breathing down their necks, Abrahamsen went solo with 11km remaining, only to be reined in 4.3km from the line. Milan was the strongest in the reduced sprint, edging out Jordi Meeus of Belgium and Denmark's Tobias Lund Andresen, who were second and third respectively. Adelaide racer Jarrad Drizners was clocked as first Australian home in 13th place, helping his Lotto teammate Arnaud de Lie to fourth on the day after joining a massed group in the rain-soaked sprint finish. Queenslander Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was placed 20th. Ben O'Connor, in 12th place, 31:08 seconds behind Pogacar, remains the only Australian among the top 25 General Classification riders. Norwegian cyclist Tobias Halland Johannessen remains eighth overall after returning to the race despite collapsing and needing oxygen after going down at the finish line on Tuesday's 16th stage on Mont Ventoux. Thursday's 18th stage is a brutal mountain trek between Vif and the Col de la Loze, one of the most feared ascents in the Tour de France.
