Pogacar consulted ‘a little bit’ on 2026 Slovenian European Championships route

The Slovenian star, fresh from his dominant performance at last week's World Championships in Rwanda, addressed questions about his home nation, Slovenia, securing the 2026 European Road Championships hosting rights, a historic first. During his pre-race press conference, when asked if he thought it was his own impact in the sport that led to this, Pogačar was his modest self.

"I wouldn't say it's thanks to me or anything, but for sure it helps that we have a few cyclists on the top of the world right now, and for sure it helps that we have European [Championships] in the future and Grand Depart for the Tour, but yeah I don't get too much into that," said Pogačar.

Slovenia is also showing strong ambitions to host a Tour de France Grand Départ in the coming years, further cementing its growing importance in professional cycling, which Pogačar also mentioned.

Pogačar maintains his signature relaxed attitude about race locations, insisting he races his bike to win, wherever or whenever the race is. "Like I said before, it really doesn't matter where the race is, I will always be ready."

When questioned about the potential difficulty of next year's course in Slovenia, Pogačar expressed hope for a challenging route. "Yeah, it should be hard. I hope so."

The 27-year-old revealed he had limited input in the course design despite being consulted. "Yeah, we were looking at it a little bit, but it's not that easy to design a nice lap where I train in Slovenia. It's either too hard or too easy."

Sunday's European Championships in France featured multiple short but steep climbs, with Pogačar set to face strong competition from Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel. However, after his commanding victory at the World Championships, Pogačar enters as the clear favourite to add another prestigious title to his remarkable 2025 season.