Sports Poets Society

Tadej Pogačar crushed the opposition to win his second Tour de France at the age of 22. Procycling looks at the inexorable rise of the young Slovenian and the likelihood of a long period of domination WRITER Kate Wagner Procycling UK - Issue 285, September 2021 The first time I saw Tadej Pogacar at the grand départ in Brest; I recall how he rolled onto the stage to great fanfare, though not as great a fanfare as the Breton riders, of course. Even then, I had to remind myself that off the bike, Pogacar’s probably a normal 22-year old kid, liking memes, spending his time in WhatsApp chats and hanging out with his girlfriend. But when he’s on a bike, he’s someone - something - else entirely. I settled on the analogy of royalty pretty early on in my writing about him because I felt it fitted. As he stood there on a stage occupied by breakdancing French children not too long ago, his eyes peered out at all of us, his face the picture of relaxation, an easiness further cemented by the gentle...

After the strongest spring of any defending Tour de France champion in four decades, Tadej Pogačar has every right to feel confident for July. He will start the 2021 race as the favourite, and he has looked imperious in most of his races. But what makes the young Slovenian tick? Writer Alasdair Fotheringham Procycling UK - Issue 283, July 2021 Two seasons have almost passed since a slight and sodden figure clad in the white, red and green of UAE Emirates pedalled his way past crunchy clumps of fallen hailstones from the afternoon’s thunderstorms in the high sierras of Andorra, en route to a breakthrough win in a grand tour. The first week of the 2019 Vuelta a España had been quiet for Tadej Pogacar, but on a short, intense stage when the race crossed the border for a 100km mountain trek through the Pyrenean principality, the young Slovenian crashed heavily in the freak rain and hail showers that battered the hour-long, 25km grind up to the summit finish of Cortal d’Encamp, and another ...

Tadej Pogacar turned the cycling world on its head with his dramatic last-ditch victory in the 2020 Tour the day before his 22nd birthday. Procycling looks at the meteoric rise of Slovenis'snew cycling hero WRITER - Alasdair Fotheringham Procycling UK - issue 274, November 2020 Primoz Roglic won’t want to hear it, but Tadej Pogacar didn’t initially want to take part in the Tour de France this year. “I was talking to Tadej when the season was getting underway, and he wasn’t so interested in the Tour ,” Joxean Fernandez Matxin , UAE Emirates DS, tells Procycling. “He was much keener on doing the Giro this year and then the Tour the next. But I told him the best idea would be to do the Tour now, where with [Fabio] Amu as leader, he’d be able to learn what it’s like without any pressure .” Matxin’s argument about learning without pressure proved far more successful than the veteran Basque director could have imagined, even if Pogacar’s ability to grasp the essential notions of grand t...