Tadej Pogacar | ‘Physiological freak’ and master tactician with serene calmness.
From the perspective of his parents, team manager and coach. They describe Tadej Pogacar is a physiological marvel, master tactician and supremely calm in every situation.
It is these three attributes that make Tadej such a supremely talented bike rider, able to dominate on the world stage.
Early life
Tadej was born, 1998 in Slovenia. His mother a Teacher and Father a factory manager.
Pogacar and is brother as children were very good at unicycling, Tadej’s mother said. “Like clowns in the circus. They were famous around here, many people watched and admired when they came by.”
These unicycles were stolen, marking the end of unicycling for the Pogacar brothers, and the beginning of life on two wheels.
Cycling and racing passion begins
When he was 11 and racing against 14-year-olds, national coach Andrej Hauptman, a former pro who rode for Italian teams Lampre and Fassa Bortolo, turned up to watch one of his races.
He was concerned to see a small boy riding alone half a lap behind the peloton. He asked why the organisers didn’t ‘put him out of his misery’ and withdraw him.
‘He’s not half a lap down, he’s half a lap up,’ Hauptman was told. Within another lap or so Pogačar had lapped the bunch.
He would then go on to win Tour de l’Avenir,(‘race of the future’) one of the sport’s most prestigious under-23 races.
In 2017, aged 21, he was fifth in the Tour of Slovenia behind Rafal Majka, Giovanni Visconti, Jack Haig and Gregor Mühlberger. A year later he was back to place fourth behind Roglič, Rigoberto Urán and Matej Mohorič.
Signs with UAE
UAE-Team Emirates showed their interest early, tracking Pogačar for more than a year. There were also links through Hauptman. he had raced for the team in the early Noughties, when it was sponsored by Lampre, and talented Slovenians Luka Pibernik and Jan Polanc turned pro there from his Radenska team. Pogačar also signed up with Hauptman’s former agent, Alex Carera, who has worked with champions like Chris Froome, Thor Hushovd and Vincenzo Nibali.
Professional debut
As is indicative of his career so far. Andrej Hauptman, was once asked about the big challenges Pogačar has faced, about his struggles. He’s never had one,” he replies. Nothing? No crashes? “Never a problem. Always alert, focused, in the right place at the right time.
Pogacar lost his passport on the day the team was to depart Australia after the TDU, which just so happened to be independence day, a national public holiday. Tadej didn’t panic however remarked Team manager Peiper: “I saw how relaxed he was under pressure and I think that's one of his strongest traits.”
As the 2019 season progressed, it became clear that he had a gift for stage racing to go with this preternatural calm. His contract was redrafted after he won the Tour of the Algarve. It was followed by sixth place in the Tour of the Basque Country and a first World Tour victory in California.
Pogacar Physiology
Pogacars trainer Iñigo San Millán described the Slovenian as a “diamond that needed to be polished,” when he arrived at the team. “From testing, his recovery capacity on a muscular and mitochondrial level was judged to be exceptional. Blood analysis shows he’s ready to race hard again after a few days, when peers are still exhausted.”
Such capacities are part-trainable, part-genetic. His parents were asked where they think Tadej’s physical and mental abilities come from, his mother Marjeta refers to his grandparents, lifelong farmers who did football and gymnastics in their youth. The whole Pogačar family helps out in the fields when required. With no machines, it’s long hours of manual labour, harvesting tons of potatoes or caring for their cows. “I think it’s important. The children saw that you have to work to have a result,” Marjeta says.
In an interview with Iñigo San Millán and training peaks, Iñigo revealed that on the “first physiological test I realised that this guy was from a whole different level.”
Tadej starts off his test at much lower lactate levels than anyone else Inigo has tested. “He starts tests at 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1, 1.1, 1.2 minimals, they are at 3 minimals. By the time he’s at 3 minimals they are at 6 minimals. He will be well below threshold when they are above threshold.”
“His suffering capacity is huge. His head is calm, relaxed. He never gets nervous. His a master tactician.” In the tour of California he wanted to know who his enemies were for the next days mount baldy stage. He told Iñigo “I wanted to see how they were breathing, look at their faces. I realised that there is no threat here for tomorrow, that he only had to worry about the two riders who attacked on todays stage.” Having that mental capability under pressure at such a young age is showing maturity far in excess of other riders his age, another factor in how Pogacar is able to win the worlds biggest bike races.