If he had dodged the media and the interviews the day before at the arrival of his disappearing trial on the 4th stage of the Dauphiné criteriumexpressing his relative disappointment only through a press release published by his team UAE Team Emirates XRG, Tadej Pogacar found a smile and his good humor this Thursday morning, appearing in front of the microphones at the start of the 5th stage at Saint-Priest. As a reminder, the Slovenian was by far the great loser of this time among the three “fantastic”, conceding in 17.4 km 49 seconds on the winner of the day Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) and 28 “on Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | lease a bike), even ending 4th behind Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike). “I would have preferred not to waste so much time, but considering the overall situation of the Tour de France, I think there is no stress“started by saying the world champion.
Video – Tadej Pogacar reacted this Thursday from the 5th stage
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“No stress … Now I'm going to give everything this weekend”
“It was a good time trial, it was quite hot, and yes, a little disappointed to have lost so much time. But I think that in the end, I can draw a positive assessment of yesterday. There is still some progress to be made on the time trial bike. So, a rather solid day, I think. Due to the classic season, I focused more on altitude preparation and preparation for large mountains and large towers. So it was perhaps a little insufficient on the time trial. We analyzed rather well yesterday, where we lost time. So I think we can also improve this for the turn“Explained Pogacar Before returning to the performance of its two rivals.
“Remco Evenepoel is still so good in time trial, so I expected it to be so efficient, I am not surprised. I was impressed, especially on the first seven kilometers: I lost a lot of time on Remco and, above all, on Jonas, but then I was really good in the climb and also in the descent. I will see how I feel. After yesterday, just after arrival, I was disappointed. I said to myself: “Well, now I'm going to give everything for the weekend, but we'll see, I'm not in a hurry. Of course, I want to win the Dauphiné one day, but if it is not this time, I will not stress, because I really want to be in great shape for the turn“, He concluded.
