Back in force for Tadej Pogacar. The double winner of the Tour de France won a third Slovenian time trial title on Thursday, where he returned to competition after his violent fall in April and his broken wrist. Last to set off, the UAE team rider swallowed the steep 15.7 kilometers of the course between Zgornje Gorje, near Lake Bled, and the alpine plateau of Pokljuka (1,365 m) in 29 minutes and 43 seconds .
The dolphin more than five minutes away
His closest opponent, Marko Pavlic, finished at five minutes and 14 seconds. Anze Skok took third place at 6 minutes and 30 seconds. Primoz Roglic, the other big name in Slovenian cycling, recently winner of the Tour of Italy, skipped the national championship. “My arm is better, it’s not quite there yet, but I don’t feel any discomfort in training anymore,” he commented.
The 24-year-old Slovenian prodigy will also participate in the road race on Sunday in northwestern Slovenia, where the plateau will a priori be higher with the presence of Matej Mohoric, the rider from Bahrain-Victorious winner of Milan -Sanremo in 2022 and stages on the three Grand Tours. Irresistible at the start of the season, Pogacar, which notably flew over Paris-Nice and won the Tour of Flanders, suffered a setback when it fell on April 23 during the classic Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Countdown to the Tour
Victim of fractures of the left scaphoid and the semilunar bone of the left hand, he was operated on the same evening in Belgium before starting a convalescence in the form of a countdown in order to be ready for his big goal. of the season, the Tour de France (July 1 to 23). Winner of the Big Loop in 2020 and 2021, he was beaten last year by the Dane Jonas Vingegaard.
“For now, I just have to make sure I don’t fall or hit a bone,” continued Pogacar, quoted Thursday evening by the Slovenian public television site. “My injury bothers me a bit on technical aspects, but it doesn’t bother my legs, and I was able to train well,” he observed. “For this time, nothing slowed me down. So I gave it my all and I think everything went according to plan,” added the rider, nine days before the start of the Tour on July 1 in Bilbao.
During his absence from the pelotons, Pogacar was active on social networks, appearing on his exercise bike in his kitchen, sheathing on the terrace of his apartment or even climbing, weighted with a backpack. back, stairs in Monaco, where he resides. At the same time, Vingegaard, who had appeared a little behind at the start of the season, unable in particular to keep up with the pace imposed by his Slovenian rival on the roads of Paris-Nice, has dramatically increased in power. The Dane from the Jumbo-Visma dominated the Critérium du Dauphiné, which he won last weekend with a very comfortable lead enhanced by two stage victories.