Tadej Pogačar

Pogačar is coached by Road World Championship medallist Andrej Hauptman, who is also head coach and head of selectors for the Slovenian national cycling team. Hauptman first saw Pogačar race in 2011 when he saw the latter pursuing a group of much older teenagers from 100 metres behind. Thinking that Pogačar was struggling to keep up with the older riders, he told the race organisers that they should provide some assistance to Pogačar: the organisers explained that the younger rider was in fact about to lap the group he was chasing.[13][14]

Pogacar at the 2019 Tour of California

He has a contract with UAE Team Emirates until the end of 2023 season. In May 2019, he won the Tour of California, becoming the youngest rider to win a UCI WorldTour stage race.[13] In August 2019, he was put on the startlist for the 2019 Vuelta a España.[15] He won two stages in the 2nd week of the Vuelta and was in a high overall position going into the 3rd week. However, in the final week Nairo Quintana and Miguel Ángel López rode well and in the process jumped him in the standings, knocking him off the podium. Then he took his 3rd stage win in a 40-kilometre (25-mile) solo breakaway on the penultimate stage and gained enough time over his opponents to take over the Young Rider Jersey and climb back into the final podium position before the last stage in Madrid.[16]

Before entering the 2020 Tour de France, he announced that he would go into the race with the same mindset he had going into the 2019 Vuelta. He initially expressed his support for teammate Fabio Aru, stating that, "If Aru feels really good we'll go for the yellow jersey and I'll support him 100%."[17] However, Aru ran into trouble early in the Tour and was dropped by the GC contenders on the early mountain stages; the Italian eventually abandoned the race on stage 9. Pogačar quickly took the role as team leader upon himself. Pogačar managed to get through the first week of the Tour without being involved in any crashes, although he did lose 1:21 to the leaders on stage 7, as he was dropped in the crosswinds.

Tadej Pogačar, 2020 Tour de France, stage 21.

In the second week of the Tour, he won stage 9 to Loudenvielle by out sprinting rivals Primož Roglič and Egan Bernal, as well as Marc Hirschi, who had been on an 80 kilometer solo breakaway. In the third week, he won stage 15, another mountain stage, this one finishing at the summit of the Col du Grand Colombier. At this point, Pogačar found himself in 2nd place overall, within a minute of his countryman Primož Roglič, who was in the lead at that point. On the penultimate stage of the Tour, which was a 36-kilometer time trial featuring La Planche des Belles Filles, he captured his third stage of the Tour in a historic individual performance. He finished ahead of Tom Dumoulin and Richie Porte by 1'21" and, more importantly, he defeated his countryman Roglič by 1'56", taking over the lead of the general classification with an advantage of 59 seconds going into the final stage to Paris.[18] In addition to putting himself in position to win the Tour, he also solidified his grip on the young rider classification with a nearly six-minute advantage on the next closest rider, Enric Mas. By achieving the fastest time up the climb of La Planche des Belles Filles, Pogačar also took the lead in the mountains classification.[19] The last rider to win three jerseys was Eddy Merckx in 1972, and the last rider to exceed this was Merckx in the 1969 Tour de France. He is one of 7 men to win the Tour de France on their first attempt, the previous being Laurent Fignon in 1983.[20]