#318 ‒ Cycling phenom and Tour de France champion Tadej Pogačar reveals his training strategies, on-bike nutrition, and future aspirations

Tadej Pogačar is a three-time Tour de France champion and one of the most dominant cyclists of his generation. In this episode, he shares insights into his 2020 Tour de France victory, his historic 2024 season winning both the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France, and the struggles he faced in 2022 and 2023. He also dives into his training regimen, nutrition, and the key metrics he tracks, like power, VAM, and heart rate variability. Tadej offers a glimpse into his goals for the future and what it takes to stay at the top of the sport.

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We discuss:

• 2020 Tour de France win [4:30];
• Learning from previous mistakes [8:45];
• Training: simulating steep climbs and other challenging race conditions [10:30];
• Tadej’s historic 2024 season and what contributed to his success [12:30];
• Nutrition for optimal performance: offseason diet and carbohydrate intake during intense training sessions [15:30];
• Training metrics: heart rate, power output, VAM, and HRV, and his approach to zone 2 training [18:15];
• Epic climbs in the Tour de France, mindset after challenging stages, and rebuilding confidence after the 2023 Tour [25:45];
• Racing dynamics, media criticism, and Tadej’s reflections on racing records [32:15];
• Training in the off-season [39:00]; and
• More.

2020 Tour de France win [4:30]

• Tadej raced yesterday, has a race tomorrow, and we’re 2 weeks out from the World Championships
  • For him to make time for this podcast is amazing
• A lot of people listening will know everything about Tadej (like Peter or super fans), but there’s also probably a number of people listening who might not appreciate the magnitude of what he’s accomplished in a very short period of time
• Peter learned about Tadej in 2019 as the most promising young cyclist that was coming up
• Not many people (Peter included) expected what happened in 2020 at the Tour de France

What were your expectations going into the 2020 Tour de France? 

• Tadej was not expecting at all to win; it was a COVID year
• He had pretty good training, not too many races, so not too much to prove
• 2019 was the breakthrough year for him
• 2020 was a long period of doing nothing, just training
• He and Fabio went into the Tour as two leaders
• In the last week, he was fighting for the podium, for second place (he was really happy about that)
• The final time trial turned the table around and won the Tour

“It was unbelievable. I think still a lot of people don’t believe it happened.”‒ Tadej Pogačar

• At the time of that final time trial, people said, “We haven’t seen a race like this since LeMond and Laurent Fignon in I think it was ’89 when he had that come behind.”

At what stage in 2020 did you realize you were going to be on the podium?

• On the stage Col de Rousset, he was sure he was going to be second
  • This was the queen’s stage and he was just 15 seconds behind Roglic
  • Lopez won that stage on the high mountain

Tadej explains, “I also think Roglic thought that day that he’s going to win, so yeah, you never know.”

Going into that last time trial, what was your team telling you in the radio at the time checks (or even before the time checks) in terms of your delta per Roglic on a kilometer basis? 

• Roglic was studying behind him 2 time checks on the flat before the final climb
• He didn’t know who was leading that time
• On the flat section, he got that time and even how much he was behind
• Then when the climb came, there were so many people, he did not hear a word in the radio; he just went

Tadej explains, “I just went full gas to the top.”

Did you feel anything different that day? 

Did it feel better than some of the other stages, or was it simply a matter of he had deteriorated more than you across 20 days? 

• Because it was the last hard stage
• The next day is Mantes-la-Jolie (“you just roll through”)
  • Tadej shares, “It’s still a hard race, but eh. If everything goes normal your GC stays the same, yeah, it was okay.”
• In the final time trial, he just needs to be relaxed; he thought he has earned the white jersey and was going to end up 2nd place (but he ended up winning)

Tadej shares, “It was a dream, no?” 

Peter asks, “You didn’t feel the pressure?”

• Tadej didn’t feel nothing; he was really chilled out
• He knew the park course really well because he did recon before with Allan Pieper and Mikkel Bjerg

Tadej explains, “Everybody was happy around and there was no tension, no stress, nothing, and we just rolled with it and then it was one of the best days I ever had.”

Do you remember what your average power was over that time trial? 

• On the flat, he had a power meter; but on the climb, he had nothing because he wanted to have a 6.8 kilogram bike (as light as possible by regulations)
• On the flat, he thinks he went 380-390 (nothing crazy)

What was your weight by that point in the Tour? Were you 60 kilos?

• Tadej thinks he was 66 even [145.5 lbs.]

Peter asks, “What did you weigh this year?”

• He came to the Tour with 64.5 and then 65, then 65.5, and was jumping around 65 throughout the tour [142-144 lbs.]

Learning from previous mistakes [8:45]

More recently in the Tour de France 

• Peter comments that ‘21 was another amazing year
• In ‘22 and ‘23 Tadej had a great race, but it goes wrong in a couple stages

{end of show notes preview}

Tadej Pogačar

Tadej Pogačar (nickname Pogi) is a professional cyclist from Slovenia who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam UAE Team Emirates. In 2019, at age 20, he became the youngest cyclist to win a UCI World Tour race at the Tour of California. He is a three-time winner of the Tour de France (‘24, ‘21, ‘20); in ‘24 he won six stages including the last three. He placed second in the tour in ‘22 and ‘23. He won Il Lombardia three times (‘23, ‘22, ‘21). He his a two-time winner of several races: Liège–Bastogne–Liège (‘24, ‘21), Tirreno–Adriatico (‘22, ‘21), UAE Tour (‘22, ‘21), Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal (‘24, ‘22), and Strade Bianche (‘24, ‘22). He won the Paris-Nice stage race in ‘23. He won six stages of the Giro d’Italia in ‘24 and finished as the overall winner. In ‘24 he became the first person to win both the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France in the same year since 1998. [PCS, Wikipedia]

• X: @TamauPogi
• Facebook: Tadej Pogačar
• Instagram: @tadejpogacar
• Website: tadejpogacar.com