After being announced this Sunday Tadej Pogacar your participation in the next Italy is spinningthe Slovenian cyclist announced this Monday at a press conference in La Nucía, where his Team UAE team is preparing for the season, that he will seek victory in the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France in 2024, a double achievement of only seven champions in the entire history of cycling, the last being the unlucky Pantani in 1998.
“It has always been a dream to race the Giro. Now I am older, I think I will be able to face two Grand Tours, I am ready for a new challenge,” emphasized the 25-year-old Slovenian.
Aiming for victory in both the Giro (May 4-28) and the Tour de France (June 29-July 21) in 2024 has become an almost impossible challenge, as the sequence of these two Three-week races is extremely demanding. in organisms. In fact, only seven cyclists in the entire history of cycling have won the pink jersey and the yellow jersey in the same year: Fausto Coppi (1949 and 1952), Jaques Anquetil (1964), Eddy Merckx (1970, 1972 and 1974). ), Bernard Hinault (1982 and 1985), Stephen Roche (1987), Miguel Indurain (1992 and 1993) and Marco Pantani (1998).
“Tadej is 25 years old, he needs a new challenge and he is ready to accept it. He is ambitious but if anyone can do it it is him. He is the best runner I have seen in my whole career. He is special, ” he insisted. Joxean Fernández Matxinsports director of Team UAE.
To achieve this, they disrupt the program of a runner who normally enjoys the glow from February to March and everywhere in between.
“We scaled back our schedule at the beginning of the season,” Matxin said. So no Tour of the United Arab Emirates, Paris-Nice or Tirreno-Adriatico for him, or the Tour of Flanders, brilliantly won this year. Pogacar is expected to start its season in Street Bianche Italian on March 2, before continuing to Milan-San Remo, for the first time the Volta a Catalunya and perhaps Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
“Next year there will be a lot of pasta and pizza on the menu,” joked the Slovenian, who will spend a lot of time in Italy, also doing reconnaissance for the Giro. There, “he clearly aims for success,” according to Motherbefore taking a month to train at altitude and prepare for the Tour de France, which remains inevitable.
“It was never planned that I would skip the Tour, I know how important this race is for me and my team. But one day I plan to skip it because not everyone goes around the Tour,” explained ‘Pogi’ that the goal is to cover the Big Three. Vuelta on his record at the end of his career: he finished third in the Vuelta during his only participation in 2019.
The Slovenian will seek revenge in the Grande Boucle, which starts in Florence. To do this, his team, somewhat similar to the former Jumbo-Visma of the two-time champion Jonas Vingegaard -now Visma-Lease a Bike-, will create a real dream team and will announce on Monday that it aims have big names like Adam Yates, Juan Ayuso, Joao Almeida, Pavel Sivakov, Tim Wellens and Nils Politt as lieutenants. “In the Tour I want to regain the number 1 position,” insisted Pogacar.
Pogacar’s choice in 2024 to attempt the Giro-Tour double is a bigger challenge as the Slovenian also wants to fight for the gold medal at the Paris Olympic Games on August 4, although he believes the route is not the route he. suits him better.
He also has the Zurich World Cup on September 29, another of the great professional goals of the “little cannibal” who, if it’s up to him, will compete in “three great Tours in the same year.”
Source: La Verdad

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