'The legs are there, the motivation is high' – Tadej Pogacar returns at Critérium du Dauphiné

Tadej Pogacar ramps up his preparation for the Tour de France when he lines up at the Critérium du Dauphiné on Sunday. The French event will be only his second stage race of the season after he devoted himself to the Classics in the Spring.

The world champion started his 2025 campaign with victory at the UAE Tour, and he proceeded to win Strade Bianche, the Tour of Flanders, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège during an intense period that also saw him place on the podium at Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix and Amstel Gold Race.

Pogacar spent a large chunk of May training at altitude in Sierra Nevada with the spine of the UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad for the Tour de France, and he now returns to competition at the Dauphiné, where his rivals will include Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep).

“We’ve just come off a really solid block of altitude training with the team and I’m feeling good,” Pogacar said in a statement released by his team on Friday. “The legs are there, and the motivation is high.” 

Pogacar has raced the Dauphiné just once, placing fourth overall in the shortened, pandemic-delayed edition of 2020. In the following years, he preferred to race on home roads at the Tour of Slovenia in June, while last season, he completed the Giro d’Italia-Tour de France double.

“It’s been a few years since I’ve been to the Dauphiné and we’re excited to be there and racing again after many weeks of training all together,” Pogacar said. “We have a very good ambience in the group, and we’re ready to pin on race numbers and show what we can do.”

Pogacar will be flanked by a strong team in France, with Jhonatan Narváez, Domen Novak, Nils Politt, Pavel Sivakov, Marc Soler and Tim Wellens making up the UAE roster for the Dauphiné.

Key Tour de France lieutenant João Almeida will lead UAE Team Emirates at the Tour de Suisse the following week. 

The Dauphiné will mark Pogacar’s first head-to-head encounter with Vingegaard since last year’s Tour de France, when he beat the Dane into second place. Their last meeting outside of the Tour came at the 2023 Paris-Nice, where Pogacar also emerged victorious.