Tadej Pogačar has lifted the lid on the training and nutrition strategies that powered him to a dominant 2024 season, in which he won the Tour de France-Giro d'Italia double, to name only his highest profile achievements.
Speaking to Peter Attia on The Drive Podcast ahead of the World Championships, a race Pogačar is the outright favourite to win, the Slovenian discussed his love of zone two rides - long outings ridden at low intensity - alongside some remarkable power figures, and detailed his balanced relationship with food.
"I love riding in zone two," he told Attia. "Around where I live in Monaco, it’s really hard to get to zone two for a long time because there’s a lot of climbing and then you have all the downhills. I try to hit a really high zone two on the climbs, they are like 20 to 40 minutes long, and then you can really recover on the downhills.
"But when I go home to Slovenia or somewhere else, maybe Spain when we’re training in Calpe where it’s more flat, I like to then stay for five hours in zone two. In some training sessions I love to do just zone two and just go nonstop."
When asked by Attia what his heart rate is likely to be in zone two, Pogačar said: "when I’m fatigued it’s like 140 or 145. When I’m a bit more fresh, maybe around 150 to 155."
He then explained that he can maintain "320 to 340 watts" at that same heart rate figure.
"In Monaco on the climbs where I can really recover after, you cannot look at zone two and say this is your zone two because you did two ten minute tests at this power," Pogačar added when providing further clarity on his training. "If you're doing a five hour ride, your zone two after five hours may not be your zone two anymore.
"You always need to know at what time this zone two will not be your zone two anymore. Because on the flat you will not recover and five hours of riding 320-340 watts for me also means that the next day I’m not riding my bike. So when going on the flat for longer, I drop my power to 290-300."
Power meters and VAM
Pogačar went on to say that he considers power meters to be "unreliable" and revealed that he has monitored his own heart rate since childhood.
"You always need to be careful with the temperatures outside, the calibration, everything. Sometimes I think it can be off and you need to be careful about this,” he said when asked to explain his view on power meters.
"I’ve been training with a heart rate monitor since I was about 12 years old," he added. "So I would say that I know how my heart rate responds when I’m tired or when I’m feeling good. I could go by heart rate only, but it’s always good to compare heart rate to power."
Diet and nutrition
It would be easy to assume that champion cyclists like Pogačar permanently refrain from eating chocolate, cake or anything else of a sweet variety that’s high in calories and fat. However, Pogačar's reality is very different.
"I never restrict too much or I never say I cannot eat cake or I cannot eat chocolate, but I do all in measurements and when the time is right," he said.
"That’s because if you restrict too much and you don’t touch chocolate for a month or six months then one time you will break and you will go crazy, and I think that’s not a good relationship to have with food. You need to have balance with the bad food also, I think.
"Then when it comes to the off season I don’t have cravings. When I go on vacation, I have nice, good food, quality food and not crazy amounts, so I don’t gain too much weight."
