'Unfortunately, I’m stuck with the Tour every year' - Tadej Pogacar returns to stage racing duty at Critérium du Dauphiné

It wasn’t exactly a complaint, but it was a striking admission all the same. Tadej Pogacar returns to stage racing duty at the Critérium du Dauphiné as he builds towards the Tour de France, but he made it abundantly clear that the biggest bike race in the world is more of a professional obligation than a passion project.

“Unfortunately, I’m stuck with the Tour every year,” a smiling Pogacar told reporters in a video call on Saturday ahead of his first Dauphiné appearance since 2020.

For many Tour winners past, the Dauphiné has been an almost de rigueur part of their approach to July, but Pogacar’s long absence from the race underlines his desire – or perhaps his need – to do things resolutely his own way. Competing in the ASO Cinematic Universe every July might be baked into his contract at UAE Team Emirates-XRG, but that gives Pogacar the freedom to follow his less mainstream leanings the rest of the year.

In 2021 and 2022, Pogacar preferred to race on home roads at the Tour of Slovenia at this time of year, while twelve months ago, he spent June recovering from his exertions at the Giro d’Italia. This time out, circumstances see Pogacar follow a more conventional build-up to the Tour, though only after a Spring campaign where he indulged his predilection for the Classics.

Indeed, Pogacar’s lone stage race so far this season was the UAE Tour, convincingly won in February. Over the following two months, he lined up in seven Classics, winning Strade Bianche, the Tour of Flanders, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and claiming podium spots at Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix and Amstel Gold Race.

But Pogacar can avoid his burden for only so long. The world’s best bike rider is condemned to be present at the world’s biggest bike race, year in, year out. In May, he was stationed at Sierra Nevada for the drudgery of an altitude training camp, and this week, he lines up for the kind of week-long stage race that clearly doesn’t fire his imagination is quite the same way as a slugging match across the cobblestones of the Flemish Ardennes. 

“Changes here and there can benefit you in a good way,” Pogacar said. “For sure in my case, I gain a lot of experience riding in the bunch and understanding races differently, because I do all kinds of races. It’s not just one-week races, going from Paris-Nice to Catalunya to the Basque Country to Dauphiné or Suisse. I think those kinds of races are more or less always the same, with the same outcome, whereas the Classics are more interesting in my opinion.”

Racing just one stage race before June is a challenge to orthodoxy for a Tour contender, but that was probably part of the appeal. It certainly makes for a change from Pogacar’s 2024 approach, where raced the Giro ahead of the Tour.

“I just want to experience new things and not get bored by always doing the same thing,” he said. “I probably wouldn’t last long, that’s the main reason why I change the programme here and there. But unfortunately, I’m stuck with the Tour every year.”

Pogacar is also stuck with the same rival every year at the Tour. He has split the last four editions of the race with Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) and it would be a surprise if the 2025 Tour didn’t produce the fifth instalment of their never-ending duel, Remco Evenepoel’s progress notwithstanding. 

Both Vingegaard and Evenepoel are present at the Dauphiné, which makes it the most star-studded field at this race since the pandemic-delayed edition of 2020.

“I'm really looking forward to racing him. He looks in good shape, from what I saw, so I think we can expect that he will be at a super good level,” Pogacar said of Vingegaard, who races for the first time since crashing out of Paris-Nice in March.

“I'm really looking forward to seeing that because he had a tough spring. I hope we can battle it out, but I also do not forget about the other contenders. It's not just Jonas. There’s Remco, for example.” 

Pogacar hasn’t been beaten in a week-long stage race since Itzulia Basque Country in 2021, though he downplayed the idea that he was under to pressure to maintain that record here. “I have to remind myself I’m coming from a big training block and we’re tapering more for the Tour,” he said. “And a lot of times, we saw the Dauphiné is not a true indicator of where you will finish in the Tour.”

The indicators from his May training camp at Sierra Nevada, on the other hand, appear to be emphatically positive. “At the moment, the numbers and training for me are good,” Pogacar said. “But in December, in February, in April – all year round – they are quite good. Maybe in November, they're not the best, but yeah, I'm pretty happy with the numbers.”

When is he not?