When Tadei Pogachar stated last week that he would “99%” sit out this year's Vuelta a España, he mischievously left no room for doubt. With the Giro d'Italia already won and the Tour de France under his control, the possibility of a third consecutive Grand Tour victory shone on the horizon like a mirage.

However, UAE Team Emirates Sports Manager Mateixin Joxen Fernandez told Cycling News that he categorically rejected the idea of his charges lining up in Spain again. There is a limit to how many riders can win so many races.

“Everyone asks me why I don't go for the Triple Crown. I've been with the team since Taddeji was young, and we've always planned with his entire career in mind, not just one season,” Matsin told Cycling News in Nice.

“Having him compete in three Grand Tours in one season also means having him compete in four Grand Tours in a little over a year. We don't have that kind of short-term vision. We don't want Taddeusi to win this year. We want them to keep winning in the future.”

“For the rest of the season, Tadej will only compete in the Olympics, the Canadian race, the World Championships, and Lombardia. He now needs to recover physically and mentally. So no matter which side of the Olympics he is on, he needs mental peace and a normal life.”

Downtime and training at home were an important part of the UAE's plans for the 2024 season, when Pogachar would make his Giro debut and become only the eighth rider in history to win the Maria Rosa and the maillot jaune in the same year. Pogachar has competed in two Grand Tours, but only raced for a total of 52 days.

Pogachar began his search for readjustment and improvement after losing two consecutive races to Jonas Vingegaard at the 2023 Tour last year.

Pogachar ended the season in typical fashion with three consecutive wins at Il Lombardia, but his thoughts were already turning to a new campaign. For the first time in his professional career, he replaced Inigo San Milan with Javier Sola as manager, and the race schedule was drastically changed.

Less is more. Instead of racing and winning in February, as he had done in his career, Pogachar will now compete in the Strade Bianche, the first weekend in March. In other words, Pogachar was away from competition for five months before settling into a modified training regimen under Sola. In essence, the time away from racing provided a sort of reset.

“Between Il Lombardia and Strade Bianche, Taddei was away from racing for almost five months, from October to March. This was significant.

“Being away from racing gave him a great desire to train hard.

This was immediately apparent when Pogachar won Strade Bianche with an 82 km solo run.

Pogachar finished third in Milan-San Remo and won the Volta a Catalunya. Then, after a high altitude camp, he won the Liege - Bastogne - Liege in a predictable and convincing victory, and moved on to the Giro.

“In principle, Taddei's plan of not racing too much before the Giro worked out well.

“The idea was to race less early in the year and run the Giro a little more conservatively.

The men who suffered under Pogachar's yolk at the Giro are right to frown at the notion that he raced conservatively in Italy, given that he wore the pink jersey for 20 days, won six stages, and arrived in Rome with a lead of less than 10 minutes.

However, it is clear that Pogachar's performance, which had already reached stratospheric levels at the Giro, was further enhanced at the Tour.

“Yes, he's gone up a little bit. The numbers and the data show that he's gone up a little bit,” Matzin revealed.

“He recovered very well from the Giro, and that race gave him a rhythm to his race.

In the past, many of the men who have completed the Giro Tour have had very different experiences. Jacques Anquetil and Stéphane Roche, for example, say that they peaked in Italy and then used their endurance to pull off the victory in France.

Pogachar, by contrast, somehow seemed sharpest in July, as evidenced by the eye-popping outputs quoted for his victories in Pla d'Addes, Plateau de Beille, and Izola 2000. At the end of the Tour, Pogachar gave the disturbing impression that he still had a lot of power left in him.

“It's different cycling, and it still depends on the year,” Matsin noted.

“This year I decided to go to the Giro and the Tour. The Giro route had 11,000 meters less climbing distance and there were exactly five weeks between the Giro and the Tour. That allowed Taddej to rest for a week after the Giro and get in three weeks of quality training before tapering off for the Tour."

‘I am very happy with the Tour,’ said Taddej.

The new heights reached by Pogachar in this Tour generated its own headlines and questions. In particular, his erasure of the late Marco Pantani's tainted record in the Plateau de Beille is still fresh in the memory. Meanwhile, in the third week, a post earlier this year by a mysterious person known as “Mou” on the Cycling News forum was resurrected, bringing attention to Pogachar's 2024 training regime.

“Mou, or however you pronounce it, I don't have an opinion on it because I haven't read it and I don't know who he is,” Matschin said, adding that comparing climbing times between generations is limited.

“Journalists pay attention, but they don't race to break past records. Three athletes broke records in the Plateau de Beille.

“Today's riders are faster and their equipment is faster. If you try a bike today versus a bike back then, you will see the difference. Today's young riders are competitive at an earlier age, and there are junior riders with the numbers to compete in World Tour races.

But just as in the summer of three years ago, two riders were far ahead of the rest in this Tour. Pogachar and Vingegaard occupied first and second place overall for the fourth year in a row. Even though Lemko Evenpoel made his Tour debut, there is no sign that this two-horse system will be broken down in the future. Pogachar is not yet 26 years old, and Vingegaard is two years older.

Mazin suggested that the duel helped create the conditions for the double. Like a space race, the two appear to be pushing each other into new and uncharted territory.

“It is clear that Tadej is very strong mentally, and I think the loss gave him more strength and made him better,” Matuzin said. [I think Jonas made Tadej stronger and Tadej made Jonas stronger, just as Juan Earl and Juan del Paul made each other stronger. The rivalry and their proximity made them more competitive."

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