'I think it will always be more known that I am Tadej Pogacar’s girlfriend' – Urska Zigart on building her own career in cycling

Speaking to Siol.net, Žigart acknowledged the label with candour. “I think it will always be more known that I am Tadej Pogačar’s girlfriend,” she said. “But that doesn’t bother me.”

Yet Žigart has steadily built a career of her own, marked by persistence, quiet improvement and growing visibility in the peloton. The 28-year-old Slovenian is the only rider from her country competing in the elite women’s race at the World Championships in Kigali.

The presence of Pogačar at her side in Rwanda inevitably attracted attention, yet her focus is firmly on her own performance. “On a race I prefer to hear people cheer ‘Urška,’ of course, but if on training someone shouts ‘Pogi,’ it doesn’t bother me and I find it quite normal,” she said.

Her season has already been the most consistent of her career, with top ten finishes at the Giro (9th) and the Tour de Suisse (5th), capped by second place overall at the Tour de Romandie. That podium finish in Switzerland was a landmark moment. “There were quite a few small sparks during the year, but Romandie was especially important,” she said. “I was particularly proud of the second stage with a summit finish. I was completely calm, I knew exactly what was possible and what I could achieve. I wasn’t nervous, I didn’t feel pressure, I just enjoyed it.”

Žigart points to another stage in Switzerland as a quiet breakthrough. “In the first stage of the Tour de Suisse I was dropped, but then I worked hard in the valley to close the gap. I rode to the finish full gas, even with cramps. For the first time I felt I could really follow the best. That was a big moment for me.”

Her move to AG Insurance – Soudal has also marked a shift in responsibility. After years of riding in service, she has been trusted with opportunities of her own. “Already in our first conversations last year I felt the team really believed in me,” she said. 

“On my first race I even had the chance to ride as a co-leader. At the start of the season that pressure was maybe too much, but as the year went on I saw that these were not just words, the team actually believed in me and in the idea that I deserved a chance.”

Those chances have translated into results, and with them a growing sense of belonging. “It was not easy, but everything we agreed on and everything I expected has come true – actually even more,” she said. “I hope the team is as happy with me as I am with them.”

Her path has been neither simple nor straightforward. The loss of her mother to cancer in 2022 remains a raw memory, and she draws comfort from the presence of her father Janko, often seen on the roadside with a flag bearing her image. “Sometimes just having a familiar face there, hearing Slovenian for a moment, really helps,” she said. 

The Giro brought an especially emotional reunion. “The last lap of the final stage went along the same road where my mother had last watched me race, at the World Championships in Imola. When I saw my dad standing there with the flag, it was one of the most emotional moments of my career.”

From family to partnership, Žigart reflected on the different temperaments in her relationship with Pogačar. “I would really like to be as stress-free as he is. He is the one who always says everything will be fine, everything will work out, while I am the one who sometimes still late at night sits awake like an owl and thinks about what all needs to be done for the next day.

But I think we complement each other well and we are becoming more and more similar. Now Tadej sometimes also remembers that bills need to be paid on time or that things in the fridge will spoil if they turn off the electricity.”

Žigart has also spoken openly about her past struggles with eating disorders, a subject that resurfaced after debates during this year’s Tour de France Femmes. “I consider myself lucky that I had this experience earlier, before I came into professional cycling. Now I know the pitfalls and what I don’t want,” she said. “No professional sport is healthy – unfortunately that’s just the way it is. But the most important thing is to develop and be healthy before you think about optimisation.”

With consistent improvement and growing confidence, Žigart has carved out a place of her own in the sport. She is not blind to the shadow cast by Pogačar’s brilliance, nor does she reject it. She prefers simply to write her own story alongside his. “I’m very proud of him,” she said. “And I’m also grateful that the media give me more and more opportunities to be ‘Urška.’”

Kigali may not deliver the rainbow jersey, yet it marks the continuation of Žigart’s steady rise in her own career.