With the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France less than 48 hours away, Tadej Pogachal has confirmed that his overall condition is improving as he races less and trains more for 2024.

Pogachar has only raced 10 races this season, starting with Strade Bianche and including Milan-San Remo, Volta a Catalunya, and Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

That total will increase significantly after Saturday, when Pogachar takes on the first leg of the biggest challenge of his career, becoming the first rider since Marco Pantani to win the Giro and Tour simultaneously.

But in his final pre-Giro press conference, Pogachar, who won seven races this season, including his sixth monumental victory in Liège less than two weeks ago, said his overall form has taken an important step up as a result of the relatively limited race program so far. In addition to the physical improvements, he explained that the reduced number of races has also "increased my drive to succeed."

"I feel more comfortable on the bike this year and enjoy it more than I used to.

"I like to train hard and rest in between workouts. I like to train hard and rest in between workouts, because when you go from race to race, you get tired without even knowing it."

"Less race days, more training. Yes, I like that."

"Now I race for almost a month, and then another month of full gas.

At the same time, he says, by racing less, "Of course, I'm more motivated training at home. Of course, I'm more motivated training at home. Going into a race with this mentality is very beneficial mentally. It makes me more motivated to succeed."

After the race in Liège, Pogachal said that during this time he spent "training hard and resting," not to mention karting. Things were going well globally and I spent time with my family.

"Everything is coming together and I can't wait to get started. But that's in a good way. Everyone wants to race and so do I."

Pogachar dismissed the idea of a very steep race weekend, including a summit finish in Oropa on Sunday, with a pink finish that would leave him in the company of two-time winner Marco Pantani.

"My ambition is to wear the Maglia, but if I want to be pink in Rome, I don't have to be pink right now. I'll see how my legs feel early in the race and see how the race unfolds. But if there's an opportunity to wear pink, I'll take it."

Nevertheless, he agreed that the Oropa, which takes place early in the race, is tough enough to provide an important opportunity to assess each GC leader's condition.

Among its rivals, besides the "young guns" on Saturday's start line in Venaria Reale, veteran Romain Bardet (Team dsm-Filmenig-Post NL) and last year's Giro runner-up, Geraint Thomas (Ineos-Grenadier) Giro runner-up Geraint Thomas (Ineos-Grenadier) have been named as important contenders.

If some observers are to be believed, Pogacar has already won the Giro d'Italia almost before starting it, so his status is that of a favorite to win. However, the Slovenian took some umbrage at the notion that he was the only frontrunner to win, saying, "It kind of sucks, it's not good, and it's disrespectful to the other riders. Every team wants to win."

"It's bullshit, but probably my fault too. I've done some races, and I've prepared really well for them.

But he was aware that as the favorite, it was inevitable that his team would be under a lot of scrutiny and expected to "make the race." And he was adamant that, contrary to what his rivals suggested, his team might not have the depth of riders needed to maintain control of the Giro in the mountains, where the decisive final battle for victory was likely to take place.

"That's not true. I have real confidence in riders like Rafaou Mayka and Felix Großschartner. If everything goes well, we will have a really good team throughout the entire Giro."

"But we are considered the favorites to win every race we go to. So we have to lead the race from the start."

"Everyone follows our lead, but we always have to follow our plan."

The key to that plan is, of course, how Pogacar himself approaches the race. In this race, which is heavily time trialed, Pogacar told reporters that he has been spending more time on his TT bike over the winter, gaining confidence in his time trial skills.

While most questions were about the Giro, Pogachar was also asked about Jonas Vingegaard, who prevented him from competing in the 2022 and 2023 Tour de France.

Pogachar said he was watching the stage with his girlfriend when the crash happened. It was really horrible. Many of the competitors were on the ground, not even moving. I don't want something like this to happen to anyone."

Pogachar said that he was "so scared.

"I hope he recovers. It was a really dramatic crash and could have been traumatic for some of the riders involved." I wish him all the best for now."