Tadej Pogacar steals show as Urska Zigart’s ‘HAB’ at Tour de France Femmes

The five time Tour de France winner spent the final weekend of the race supporting his fiancée Urška Žigart, first on Mont Ventoux and then in Nice, where a playful encounter with Belgian broadcaster Sporza showed a very different side of cycling’s biggest star.

Sporza's presenter Linde Merckpoel approached Pogačar outside his motorhome while pretending not to recognise him, instead treating the Slovenian simply as another fan waiting for the peloton.

Asked who he was supporting, Pogačar pointed to Žigart. His reason was straightforward.

“Because she’s my fiancée,” he laughed. “I’m very lucky. I consider myself a lucky guy.”

Pogačar played along throughout the exchange, joking that he sometimes rides with Žigart but struggles to follow when she decides to pick up the pace.

“Sometimes she drops me and I have to let her go,” he said.

The exchange eventually turned to what life is like alongside Žigart, Slovenia’s leading female road cyclist.

There was an obvious irony to the question. Žigart is far more accustomed to being introduced as Pogačar’s partner than the other way around, but here the roles were deliberately reversed.

“Sometimes it can be difficult,” Pogačar played along when asked about being known simply as Žigart’s boyfriend. “I try to support as much as I can.”

When Merckpoel suggested that he appeared to be doing a good job, Pogačar quickly turned the compliment back towards his fiancée.

“I try. She’s a better girlfriend.”

Merckpoel also had a gift waiting for Pogačar: a shirt carrying the letters ‘HAB’.

The acronym stands for “Husbands and Boyfriends”, a playful counterpart to WAGs, meaning “Wives and Girlfriends”. The latter became widely used in British media for the wives and girlfriends of high profile sportsmen, particularly around England’s football team during the 2006 World Cup.

Pogačar clearly appreciated the joke and was later photographed wearing the HAB shirt while supporting Žigart, helping the unusual souvenir travel well beyond the original Sporza video.

The shirt fitted his role throughout the weekend.

On Friday, Pogačar had already been spotted on Mont Ventoux during stage 7. Rather than riding up the climb himself, he was seen running alongside Žigart to encourage her as the race passed.

For Pogačar, the weekend offered a brief change of pace between two major objectives of his own.

The 27-year-old is set to return to the Vuelta a España later this month, making his first appearance at the Spanish Grand Tour since finishing third on his debut in 2019.

Victory would complete Pogačar’s collection of Grand Tour titles, adding the Vuelta to his Giro d’Italia and Tour de France victories.

Before attention returns to his own ambitions, however, cycling’s biggest star appeared perfectly content with a rather different job.

Urška Žigart’s HAB.