Pogacar wants to finally win Tour again: "His specific preparation helps him a lot"

The Giro d'Italia has just ended, but it's already time to look ahead to the next big goals, especially for Tadej Pogacar. He won the Giro, but he is only partway through his mission to achieve the Giro-Tour double this year, a feat last accomplished by Marco Pantani in 1998. Mauro Gianetti, sporting director at UAE Team Emirates, explained to Cyclingnews how they plan to tackle this. "Now that we have won the Giro d'Italia, we are ready to take on the Tour de France."

The experienced Swiss director believes that it was good for the Giro that Pogacar participated in the pink race. "We can all see how much the Italians love the Giro, but I think we have seen how Tadej helps the Giro globally. He is not just a very strong rider or an incredible rider; he is an international star. He committed to winning the races and stages, and he did just that. We at UAE are incredibly proud of him."

Two defeats motivate Pogacar to once again win the Tour: "He works so hard"

The plan from the beginning of the year was to aim for the prestigious double. Things are progressing more than smoothly, Gianetti explains. And it's all thanks to Pogacar himself. "So far, everything is going well. Tadej was fantastic. As I think everyone has seen over the past three weeks, he is in incredibly good form. That's because he has worked so hard and so seriously from the start of the season. He built up relatively quietly, but specifically towards the stage races."

"He has developed incredibly well, even better than we expected, in that build-up. It's wonderful to see. He's now at the age to try, and the Giro was not super tough. We are halfway there; we have to try. The focus will shift entirely to the Tour starting Tuesday." Pogacar will join his team for a high-altitude training camp at Isola 2000 on Monday.