'I'm lucky to be so strong' - Tadej Pogacar documentary reveals he trained for 578 hours before 2026 Tour de France victory

Tadej Pogačar trained for 578 hours in the six months before the Tour de France, had a resting heart rate of 38 beats per minute and reached a maximum heart rate of 198 during stage 10 of the 2026 Tour.

The data is revealed in the documentary series created by Eurosport, TNT Sports and HBO Max, titled ‘Anatomy of a G.O.A.T’, with Pogačar the first athlete to be profiled and the episode released on Saturday.

A preview of the documentary was held in Slovenia on Thursday night, with RTVSLO revealing some of the key numbers.

The 45-minute documentary includes five chapters each exploring a different facet of why Pogačar is so dominant. It includes data gathered by Whoop, with original graphics and explanations.

It also includes an exclusive interview with Pogačar and his parents, Eddy Merckx, Alberto Contador and Geraint Thomas.

"He’s bringing back a kind of cycling we had forgotten," Merckx said. "He is now above me."

Between January 1 and June 21, Pogačar trained for a total of 578 hours, across 200 individual sessions, often training nine to ten times a week, with multiple sessions per day, as he combined riding with strength work and other activities.

The data also revealed that Pogačar slept for an average of eight hours and 12 minutes each night during the Tour, with a sleep efficiency of 84 percent, higher than his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates.

His Whoop Strain metric (measured on a scale of 0-21) was an average of 19.9, with daily highs of  20.5-20.7. His rest day numbers were 11.6 and 10.2.

"Tadej’s resting heart rate, which is a very nice kind of global picture of your cardiorespiratory fitness, is 38," Whoop’s Global Head of Human Performance, Kristen Holmes revealed during the documentary.

"Sleep consistency is when you go to bed and when you wake up, and the stability of that. And it’s expressed as a percentage."

During the 2026 Tour de France, none of Pogačar's teammates had sleep consistency that compared to Tadej’s 84% and were mostly in the 70 to 80% range.

Asked about his sleep, Pogačar said: “I’m not a big sleeper, but if you eat well at dinner, I think it’s the biggest impact on the sleep. You just need to be relaxed and be organised for the next morning."

In 2024, Pogačar revealed during Peter Attia's The Drive podcast that his Zone 2 power range sits around "320 to 340."

The documentary had more information according to RTVSLO,  indicating his Z2 to be between 238-323 watts, his Z4 threshold is shown at 388-452 and his VO₂max between 453-516. His estimated FTP is 420 watts.

"I'm lucky to be so strong," Pogačar said in the Anatomy of a G.O.A.T’ documentary.