This may be the info from the rest day on the Tour de France. In Morzine, the yellow jersey Tadej Pogacar will go to the hairdresser. We may no longer see his locks of hair coming out of his helmet. But we will probably still see him at the front of the race, especially on the legendary stages this week in the Alps.
What is your program on this rest day?
TADEJ POGACAR. I slept a little, had breakfast, took a leisurely 1h30 bike ride. It’s nice, there’s the sun. Then lunch, a little haircut, dinner and bed.
We saw you attacking, winning two stages during this first week. Some compare you to Cannibal Eddy Merckx…
I don’t feel like a cannibal. But who doesn’t want to win it all? Sunday, we left the breakaway in front, I just sprinted and only Jonas Vingegaard followed me. I took three seconds, I was not going to deprive myself. The team likes to defend the yellow jersey, we want to keep it. That’s why we drove on Sunday. I have already said it, the yellow jersey cannot be refused.
Big passes arrive, especially Wednesday and Thursday with Alpe d’Huez. Are you more worried about Jonas Vingegaard (2nd at 39 seconds) on these long climbs?
We’ll see who is the strongest on these big passes, at Granon and Alpe d’Huez. But I like these climbs too, I feel very confident. Alpe d’Huez is legendary, it’s a legendary stage, with this public. It will be very interesting.
They also say you don’t like the heat, could that be a threat?
Wait and see… Nobody likes to drive 5 hours under 40 degrees. But I’m not that bad in hot weather. I trained before in these conditions, it was very hot in Slovenia and during my internship in Livigno in Italy, it was 37 degrees. It’s going to be a very difficult week with these heat, we will have to manage to cool off, but it will be the same for everyone.