DEFENDING CHAMPION
I WANT TO PROVE
Tadej Pogačar made a dream debut at the 2020 Tour de France . Just days before his 22nd birthday , on the 36km TT featuring La Planche des Belles Filles , he delivered a stunning performance to not only win the penultimate stage , but snatch overall victory from his fellow Slovenian Primož Roglič . He rode into Paris with the yellow , white and polka-dot jerseys , the youngest Tour winner since 1904 . Now the UAE Team Emirates leader is looking forward to the 2021 challenge . INTERVIEW BY QUENTIN FINNÉ
Flying the Slovenian flag from the top step of the Paris podium on his Tour debut , aged just 21 . our status
Y both within the peloton and with the general public has evidently altered since your victory in the 2020 Tour de France last September . How has your day-to-day life changed ? I obviously receive a lot more media requests now , and from time to time I get asked to pose for a photo in the street , but I wouldn ’ t say that my life has changed at all since I climbed onto the top step of the Tour podium on the Champs-Élysées in the yellow jersey . I still live in the same flat , not far from the harbour in Monaco , and I can ’ t see myself settling down in a luxurious villa just because I had the good fortune to win the Tour – that wouldn ’ t be like me at all . I haven ’ t switched to a life of glitter and glitz in the space of a few months . The main treat I ’ ve allowed myself is having the occasional dinner in a good restaurant with my girlfriend over the winter break .
Your status as the defending champion will put a completely different kind of pressure on your shoulders than you had going into last year ’ s race , when you were making your Tour debut . Does that scare you ? No , on the contrary . When you win a race as big as the Tour de France , it whets your appetite . You want to prove that you can do it again . However , I ’ m fully aware that the expectations that people will have of me will be quite different . I ’ ll be among the favourites and won ’ t be a dark horse . But I ’ m quite a laidback personality . I put more pressure on myself than anyone else does , because I always want to do the best I can . The challenge will be even greater this year , but that ’ s precisely what makes it so exciting . I know that I became the youngest winner since 1904 , but I don ’ t think
PHOTOGRAPHS : ASO / PAULINE BALLET
12 | TOUR DE FRANCE 2021