'I expect a lot from my legs' - Pogacar poised to strike back in Worlds road race

Tadej Pogačar is still the man to beat and still upbeat about his prospects in the World Championships road race in Kigali despite his disappointing showing in the time trial last weekend.

The Slovenian placed fourth in the time trial, where he suffered the indignity of being caught and passed by Remco Evenepoel, but he shrugged off the setback as he turned his attention towards the defence of his road title on Sunday.

“Probably Remco also wanted maybe revenge for the Tour de France when he was caught by Jonas on the mountain TT, so I think that was good for him,” Pogačar said in his pre-race press conference on Thursday.

“He ticked off one bad moment of this year. Now on Sunday, maybe it can be my turn to tick off and put away that – not so bad day – but bad feeling when somebody catches you.”

Pogačar annexed last year’s world title in Zurich with a daring attack 100km from the finish, and the combination of a tough Kigali course and his remarkable 2025 form makes him the obvious favourite to retain the rainbow jersey. 

“Obviously, I am here in general for the road race, so the expectations are high,” said Pogačar, who will be joined by Primoz Roglic and Matej Mohoric in a strong Slovenian selection. 

“I expect a lot from my legs, and we should aim for the best result. I think we have one of the strongest teams here, so we should be considered as the top contender.”

Pogačar acknowledged that he had been affected by the altitude on his arrival in Kigali – he has been staying at 1,500m above sea level – but he expressed confidence that he had since adapted to the conditions.

“When I arrived here, I trained for two days on the TT bike, then I raced, and I didn’t catch my rhythm, I didn’t catch my legs,” he said. “But after Sunday, I switched to my road bike, and I don’t have any issues now this week.”

A number of potential contenders opted against the trip to Rwanda, including Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert, but he cited Evenepoel as his chief rival. He also namechecked Tom Pidcock (Great Britain) and his UAE teammates Isaac del Toro (Mexico) and Pavel Sivakov (France), though he did not reference the departing Juan Ayuso (Spain).

“We shouldn’t worry too much about the opponents but focus on our race, because it’s so long and so difficult. You need to save your energy throughout the whole race and be smart in every way,” said Pogačar, who downplayed the idea that he might be inspired to attack from distance on the climb of Mont Kigali, which comes with a shade under 100km to go. “It’s a shame they put Mount Kigali so early in the race, it would be much more fun if it was later.”

A repeat of the solo exhibition from Zurich, in other words, may not be on the cards.

“You cannot do it every time,” said Pogacar, who pointed out that he had Slovenian teammate Jan Tratnik and trade teammate Sivakov for company for part of his effort last year. “It was not being alone for 100k, it was always with a bit of shelter from somewhere. 100km is not an easy job to do, even if you have help, so it’s a little bit far.”

Pogacar smiled, meanwhile, when asked if he had trained in the rainbow jersey for the final time this week. “On Tuesday, I wore it for the last time in training,” he said. “But we’ll see next week if that was the last time...”