Gilbert fears Pogacar’s offseason may be his only weakness: 'I was surprised to see him in so many different places'

Speaking to Le Soir, Gilbert zeroed in on everything that comes with being world champion, sponsor duties, team appearances, travel, the endless request for one more photo, one more handshake, one more smile. “Maybe it is precisely this aspect that exhausts him,” Gilbert said. “I was surprised to see him this autumn in so many different places. I sometimes wonder how he can rest and concentrate on his training.”

Gilbert’s point is simple: the body recovers in hours, the mind needs emptiness. After a long road season, Pogačar was visible at post season criteriums in Andorra and Monaco, his own even in Slovenia and then again at UAE related events on Gran Canaria and in the Emirates, a public itinerary that kept him in motion when most rivals were disappearing. 

“He was present at a lot of events,” Gilbert said. “He is always very generous, gives a lot of himself, donates equipment for auctions, and so on. But from mid October to early December, a professional cyclist needs rest and silence.”

That generosity is part of why Pogačar has become more than a champion. He is a figurehead, a brand, a magnet for attention, and that role follows him into the months that are supposed to rebuild him. 

Pogačar himself has in the past acknowledged the mental weight that can come with it, and Gilbert’s warning lands as a reminder that dominance is not only physical, it is logistical and psychological too.

Gilbert also believes that the pressure shows up inside the race, in how UAE Team Emirates-XRG sometimes tries to shape Pogačar into a safer version of himself. “His team told him: ‘Stop attacking, just follow, just follow, we are not asking you to win stages anymore,’” Gilbert said. “By imposing that on Tadej, you force him to race against his natural instincts. He is the type you should tell: ‘Go for it, enjoy it.’”

In other words, the very thing that makes Pogačar irresistible is also what makes him hard to manage. Gilbert argues that Pogačar does not want to win like a calculator, he wants to win like a collector. “We are not talking about Miguel Indurain,” he said. “Pogačar is the opposite. He needs the queen stages, the time trials, maybe all the jerseys to make history.”

Gilbert even smiled at the recklessness of it, pointing to the Tour’s final stage, when Pogačar, already in yellow, still went hunting on wet cobbles and ended up losing to Wout van Aert. “Eddy [Merckx] never stopped, and Tadej does not stop either,” Gilbert said. “The cobbles were wet and slippery, all the ingredients were there for a crash and to put the overall win at risk, but he went for it. He loves it.”