Tadej Pogachar has completed his Tour de France high-altitude training and will head to Slovenia for the national championships, his first racing action since crashing and breaking his navicular bone in Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

The leader of UAE Team Emirates will participate in Thursday's time trial and Sunday's road race.

Pogachar, along with Adam Yates, Rafal Mayka, Marc Soler, and Felix Groschertner, have been training in the Italian Alps with a scouting ride of the final stage in Sestriere. All of them will join the UAE Team Emirates Tour de France lineup and are expected to help Pogachar win the overall.

Pogachar is no longer wearing a brace on the hand he broke in Liège-Bastogne-Liège and seemed confident in his form on his final recovery ride in the Italian Alps.

"He is in good shape," UAE Team Emirates sports manager Joxen Fernandez Mazzin told Italian website Bici.Pro.

Matzin confirmed that Pogachal's wrist injury is progressing well and that a training camp in Italy is the last objective before he returns to racing.

"His condition is getting better," Matosin added, "We had a training camp in Sierra Nevada, Spain, looked over the stages of the third week of the Tour, and now we are here to avoid going back to Sierra Nevada.

"I will now do two races in the All-Japan Championships and then go straight to the Tour de France.

Thursday's national championship TT is a 15.7km uphill time trial that finishes in the town of Pocrijuca. Sunday's road race is 156 km on a rugged course near Lodobrjka, which also hosted the championships in 2019. This year's 19.5 km finishing circuit has a 20% slope near the line that will be tackled several times.

Pogachar has won the Slovenian TT title twice, in 2019 and 2020, with his best result in a road race coming in 2020 when he finished second behind Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma).