Tadej Pogacar: Tour de France champion out of Olympics
The Tour de France winner was one of the favourites ahead of the Olympic road race but has not been selected by Slovenia due to fatigue
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Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar has been ruled out of the Paris 2024 Olympics after an exhausting three-week stage race, the Slovenian Olympic Committee said on Monday.
Pogacar, who won his third Tour on Sunday, was not selected because of fatigue, the committee said in a statement.
Pogacar was one of the favourites, alongside Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel, for the Olympic road race on Aug. 3.
“The national coach of the men’s cycling team revealed the names of the riders who will compete in this year’s Olympic Games in Paris. Tadej Pogacar, ... being too tired, will not be among them,” the Slovenian Olympic Committee said.
“He will be replaced by his national team colleague Domen Novak.
“We congratulate the winner of the race across France for another victory in the most prestigious cycling race in the world, and we hope that he will represent the colours of Slovenia at the upcoming Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.”
Pogacar on Sunday became the first rider to achieve the Giro d’Italia/Tour de France double since 1998.
No rider has ever won all three Grand Tours in one year, and Pogacar has no intention of tackling Vuelta a Espana this year, something he had previously said during the Giro and which he reiterated after his success in France.
“For sure it crossed my mind to do the Vuelta, people tell you to go do this or that, so of course it was there,” Pogacar said. “But I’m trying to let it go in one ear and out the other.”
Instead, Pogacar is aiming for the Triple Crown of cycling - adding the world road race championship, where he finished third last year as Mathieu van der Poel took gold, to his two grand tours.
That triple has only been achieved twice in men’s cycling, by Belgium’s Eddy Merckx in 1974 and Irishman Stephen Roche in 1987, and Pogacar has now given himself more time to recover after pulling out of the Olympics.
Reuters
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