Tadej Pogačar

Tadej Pogačar (born 21 September 1998) is a Slovenian professional cyclist for UAE Team Emirates XRG. Known as "Pogi," he has won the Tour de France five times (2020, 2021, 2024, 2025, and 2026), the 2024 Giro d’Italia, and thirteen one-day Monument classics: Milan–San Remo once, the Tour of Flanders three times, Liège–Bastogne–Liège four times, and the Giro di Lombardia five times. He has also won the World Championship Road Race twice. Pogačar is strong in time trials, one-day races, and Grand Tour climbing, drawing comparisons to versatile champions like Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault.

Despite his relative youth, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest cyclists ever. As a junior, Pogačar won the 2018 Tour de l’Avenir. In 2019, at age 20, he became the youngest rider to win a UCI WorldTour race, taking the Tour of California. During his Tour de France debut in 2020 and again in 2021, he won three stages plus the general, mountains, and young rider classifications—the only rider to claim all three at once.

That same year, he earned his first Monument victories at the Giro di Lombardia and Liège–Bastogne–Liège. He later added the Tour of Flanders in 2023. In Grand Tours, he finished second in the Tour de France to Jonas Vingegaard for consecutive years, a rivalry considered among the sport’s greatest. In 2024, he completed the first Giro d’Italia–Tour de France double since 1998, winning 12 stages across both races, and added the World Championship to become only the third rider to achieve cycling’s Triple Crown.

In 2025, he became the first to retain both the Tour de France and the World Championship. In 2026, he became the fifth rider to win the Tour de France five times. Pogačar is praised for his aggressive, attacking style, which he has jokingly called a “stupid instinct” in an era when many riders race more conservatively to conserve energy. His ambition to compete in both Monuments and Grand Tours has been seen as a return to the classic racing of the 1960s–1980s.

This success across multiple fronts has made him the UCI road racing world number one for a record total number of weeks and a record number of consecutive weeks. Pogačar started cycling at age nine with the Rog Ljubljana club, following his older brother Tilen. In 2011, former world championship medalist Andrej Hauptman noticed Pogačar chasing a group of much older teenagers from 100 meters behind. Thinking the younger rider was struggling, Hauptman asked race organizers to help him—only to be told Pogačar was about to lap the group.

Hauptman later managed Pogačar as an under-23 rider with the team before joining UAE Team Emirates as a directeur sportif in May 2019, after Pogačar had signed with the team. In 2018, Pogačar won the Tour de l’Avenir, an under-23 race similar to the Tour de France, riding for the Slovenian national team. In August 2018, UAE Team Emirates announced they had signed Pogačar for 2019, calling him a “very talented young Slovenian cyclist.” He debuted at the Tour Down Under, finishing 13th overall.

He then won the Volta ao Algarve after taking the lead on stage two, and placed sixth at the Tour of the Basque Country. In May, he won the Tour of California, becoming the youngest rider to win a UCI WorldTour stage race, after taking the lead on the queen stage to Mount Baldy. In June, he won the Slovenian national time trial championship, beating Matej Mohorič by 29 seconds. In August, Pogačar made his Grand Tour debut at the Vuelta a España.

In the first week, he placed in the top ten on general classification before winning his first Grand Tour stage on a rain-soaked stage to Cortals d’Encamp, moving into the top five. On stage 13, finishing on the steep climb of Los Machucos, he was the only rider to stay with race leader and compatriot Primož Roglič. He won a second stage, moving to third overall, where he remained until the second rest day. After losing time on stage 18, he dropped to fifth.

On the penultimate stage, he launched an almost 40 km solo breakaway, winning his third stage by more than a minute and a half over the other contenders. That result lifted him to third overall, the final podium spot, and earned him the young rider classification. Before the season, Pogačar announced he would ride his first Tour de France, supporting Fabio Aru. He opened his season at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, winning two stages and the overall.

At the shortened UAE Tour, he won stage five atop Jebel Hafeet and finished second overall to Adam Yates. In March, cycling events were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When the season resumed...