Pogacar explains the transformation behind his Tour de France dominance

Speaking at Friday’s post stage press conference, where he appeared as the Tour’s yellow jersey, Pogačar was asked to explain the difference between the rider who lost to Jonas Vingegaard in 2022 and 2023 and the one who now appears capable of putting substantial time into his rivals.

The question followed another commanding performance from the UAE Emirates-XRG leader. Pogačar had delivered a devastating attack on the Tourmalet during stage six, finishing almost three minutes ahead of Vingegaard. 

The scale of the gap once again prompted discussion about why the Slovenian has become so difficult to challenge.

Pogačar’s answer began not with training data or equipment, but with the environment in which he grew up.

“There are many factors that come into it,” Pogačar said during the press conference in quotes collected by In de Leiderstrui. “First of all, I have to thank my parents. They apparently raised me well.”

He also pointed to his early years in Slovenian cycling, when riding a bike was as much about friendship and shared ambition as it was about competition.

“When I was young, I was already part of a good cycling club,” he said. “I made friends on the bike and we dreamed big together. When you grow up in an environment like that, you naturally develop this kind of mentality. But some of it is also genetic, and that is difficult to explain.”

Talent and mentality, however, only explain part of Pogačar’s development. The more significant changes came after he discovered that natural ability was no longer enough to dominate the Tour.

In 2022, Visma’s collective tactics exposed UAE on the road to the Col du Granon. One year later, Pogačar suffered an even more visible collapse on stage 17, when his challenge faded dramatically on the Col de la Loze. 

Those defeats forced both rider and team to reconsider the details of their preparation.

“The biggest change since that final collapse in 2023 is mainly in my physical capacity,” Pogačar explained. “I am better than I was then, and mentally I have also grown. I have gained experience.”

Pogačar identified nutrition as one of the most important areas of improvement within UAE. The approach is now more structured, more precise and increasingly adapted to the demands of individual stages.

“One of the biggest changes within the team has been in nutrition,” he said. “During this Tour de France, my body temperature is simply lower than it was in 2022 or in the Tours before that. There is more focus now.”

"I think one of the biggest changes that we could make as a team is improving the organisation around feeding, hydration and nutrition," he said. "This Tour is hellishly hot, and my body temperature is probably cooler than it was in 2022 or during any Tour before."

The contrast with the early part of his career is considerable. Pogačar won his first two Tours in 2020 and 2021 while relying far more heavily on instinct, talent and a comparatively relaxed approach to preparation. As the level of the peloton increased, every part of his routine became more professional.

George Bennett, who rode alongside Pogačar at UAE in 2022 and 2023, described that evolution earlier this year. Speaking in Catalunya in March, Bennett said the defeat on the Granon had changed the trajectory of Pogačar’s career.

“I was there when we lost the Tour de France on the Col du Granon,” Bennett said at the time. “He already had huge talent, but he didn’t work as hard as others. Now he is completely focused. He trains a lot and he has changed his diet. He has the greatest talent in the world and a very strong mentality. He is unstoppable.”

Bennett summarised the transformation in one sentence: “The Granon woke up the beast.”

Those defeats did more than sharpen Pogačar’s motivation. They forced both rider and team to confront the weaknesses that had cost them the Tour.

The collapse on the Col du Granon in 2022 exposed UAE’s tactical vulnerability, while the defeat in 2023 raised questions about preparation, nutrition and Pogačar’s ability to manage the hardest days of a Grand Tour. Since then, almost every part of the operation has been refined.

The consequences are now difficult to ignore. Pogačar has won 15 times in just 23 race days in 2026, a level of dominance that has left rivals searching for answers and race organisers struggling to contain his influence.

Tour de France route designer Thierry Gouvenou admitted as much after the Tourmalet. The organisers had expected the first mountain stage to create differences, but not for Pogačar to take control of the race so emphatically.

“As far as the suspense is concerned, you could say it was a failure,” Gouvenou told TV 2 Sport. “The problem is not the route. The problem is the difference between Pogačar and the others.”

It is a revealing conclusion. UAE and Pogačar responded to defeat by systematically removing their weaknesses. The Tour is now living with the consequences: a rider so complete that the route can no longer be relied upon to contain him.