After finishing the 2023 UCI Road World Championships with a bronze medal in the elite men's road race and a distant 21st in the time trial, Tadej Pogačar needs a break.
Although the Slovenian's Tour de France rival Jonas Vinegaard, absent from the Glasgow Worlds, is going on to race the Vuelta a España, Pogačar reiterated that there is no way he's going to Spain.
"I've been on a high level since February, there's no chance to do the Vuelta. We have a super good team for the Vuelta, I don't want to even interfere with them," he said of the team behind Juan Ayuso and João Almeida. "They're a super good squad and they're used to each other, they've been training together. I think our team in the Vuelta can go for the win. I will be couch selection for one time."
Pogačar has had what he called "probably one of the best seasons of my career", coming out in February with wins in the Jaén Paraiso Interior, three stages and the overall in the Ruta del Sol, three stages and the GC in Paris-Nice, and a remarkable series of victories in the Classics: Tour of Flanders, Amstel Gold Race, and La Flèche Wallonne. Only a crash and broken wrist in Liège-Bastogne-Liège prevented a chance at an Ardennes sweep.
What is next for the remainder of the season is yet to be seen.
"The first goal is to recover from the World Championships, then we'll see how we'll proceed until the end of the season. It's been a long season, I've been on the top level since February with no recovery, no vacation – and an injury as well. It was a really hard season and probably the best season I've had of my career."
Pogačar couldn't match Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert in the road race but managed a long sprint to deny Mads Pedersen the bronze medal, an achievement for Slovenia.
"The road race was super hard and above my expectations to get the bronze medal. Slovenia before has only had one bronze medal and now we have two. It was my DS, my coach from the juniors [Andrej Hauptman] who was the bronze medal and I equalled this record."
Pogačar was in the final kilometres of his time trial when silver medallist Filippo Ganna (Italy) came storming past but Pogačar appeared to try to match his pace on the rolling climb before the cobbled ascent to Stirling Castle. Despite being a champion on steep, cobbled climbs, Pogačar couldn't stay with the Italian on the push to the line.
"That was not the first time he came past me. I already knew before I could not match the best today. I just tried to survive until the finish line. I did as much as I could and it was not my best day. I think I can train for the next time trials even more,” Pogačar said.
"I'm really happy but today I was just tired and couldn't push much.”
