Proficient Pogacar’s Paris plans perish post pullout

Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar on Monday pulled out of the Paris Olympics citing “tiredness”, his Slovenia team announced.

“Unfortunately Tadej Pogacar has cancelled his participation because of a state of extreme fatigue,” Slovenian Olympic cycling coach Uros Murn said in a statement.

Pogacar won a third Tour de France title in Nice on Sunday. Victory also gave him the first Giro d’Italia-Tour de France double since Marco Pantani in 1998.

But the 25-year-old, a bronze medallist in the road race at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, had been angered by his girlfriend Urska Zigart not being selected for the Slovenian women’s cycling team for the Paris Games.

He said he was “angry” and “speechless” in a message posted on his Facebook account.

“I need a little rest after the Tour and I’m not sure what I’ll be doing next,” Pogacar had said on Sunday.

“And I want to relax and rest and spend some time with my girlfriend.”

When asked about the Olympics on Sunday, he remained very evasive, preferring to mention his “dream” of one day wearing the rainbow jersey of world champion.

At the worlds in September in Zurich, the Slovenian is aiming for a triple of the world title, the Giro and Tour, only held by two men, Ireland’s Stephen Roche and Belgian Eddy Merckx.

Pogacar will be replaced on the national team by Domen Novak.

“Once again Tadej, congratulations for Tour de France win!” Team Slovenia said.

Earlier, Pogacar hailed a new “golden age” for cycling after securing a third Tour de France title on Sunday to add to his 2020 and 2021 triumphs.

The 25-year-old won the final day’s time-trial with defending champion Jonas Vingegaard coming second at 1 minute 03 seconds on the day to seal second overall ahead of Remco Evenepoel, third on the day and also third overall.

Victory also gave Pogacar the first Giro d’Italia-Tour de France double since Marco Pantani in 1998.

“It was an amazing journey. What a battle with Jonas and Remco. So much happened,” said the champion who finished 6mins 17secs ahead of Vingegaard in the final standings. Evenepoel was 9mins 18secs off the pace.

“We are living in the golden age of cycling. The rivalry with Remco (Evenepoel), Jonas (Vingegaard), Primoz (Roglic) is just incredible. We have to take advantage of this moment.”

Astonishingly Pogacar won six stages on this edition of the Tour, just as he did when winning the Giro earlier in the season.

“To achieve the double is incredible,” added Pogacar who had been runner-up to Vingegaard for the last two years.

“When I won the Giro, some people said that it would serve as a safety net for me if I didn’t win the Tour. Winning the Tour still represents the level above and winning the two is the next level.”

The world’s greatest bike race, broadcast across the globe, featured a novelty finale on the French Riviera because of the Olympic Games in Paris.

Instead of the last day race around the Champs-Elysees the Tour avoided the Olympic Games sites altogether.

With five stage wins already under his belt, Pogacar stormed out of his adopted hometown of Monaco and up the coast to Nice where he leapt into the arms of his teammates on the celebrated Promenade des Anglais.

Pogacar took the overall lead on a downhill on day four as the race arrived in France from Italy via the Alps.

By the time the race returned to the Alps, Pogacar was three minutes clear and Vingegaard was starting to flag with the Dane still not fully recovered from a major crash in March.

After winning stage 19 on Friday, Pogacar knew he had won and Vingegaard switched his attention to finishing second.

Vingegaard crashed heavily earlier this year and was praised for even making it to the start line, but ahead of Sunday’s time-trial he expressed a desire to win another stage.

“Under normal circumstances I would have been disappointed. This is such a wonderful race, the yellow jersey is the most beautiful of all. I’ll be back to try for a third one next year,” said the 27-year-old.

Although he started well, as has often been the case in this Tour, he was a distant second best.

Agencies