'December, February, April, all year round, the numbers are quite good' – Tadej Pogačar primed for Dauphiné duel with Vingegaard and Evenepoel
World champion speaks ahead of return to stage racing,ಞ with form in a good plac🦹e ahead of final Tour de France warm-up

168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) is relishing the chance to race key 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tour de France rivals Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) for the first time since last year's Tour at the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Critérium du Dauphiné, admitting he's hoping "we can battle it out."
The world champion was as relaxed as ever as he spoke to international media over a video call on Saturday, with his cap turned backwards 🌼and his typically laid-back personality shining through in his answers, but he did offer somewhat of an ominous warning when the question of his numbers came up.
Pogačar spoke of his lack of a real peak or trough throughout the majority of the road season, nonchalantly reeling off all the months when his numbers are at a high level.
His best is what his rivals will be expecting at the Dauphiné, and despite being out of th🎐e stage racing arena since F💛ebruary's UAE Tour, it sounds like the rainbow bands will be in full flight throughout the eight days of the pre-Tour de France form marker.
"At the moment, the numbers and training for me are good. In December, in February, April, all year round, they are quite good. Maybe in November, they're not the best, but yeah, I'm pretty happy with the numbers," said Pogačar, after confirming he was roughly on the plan that was scheduled two years ago before he broke his wrist in Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
"More or less, this year is similar t♔o 2023, but then I broke my hand and could not train like I wanted. So it's the first time for me coming out of a proper Classics season and restarting different training.
"I was in Sierra Nevada quite early, doing really quality training. So f🌳ar, I think the lead-in training to the Dauphine was good. Now we'll get some speed in the legs, and then we'll see what we can improve. "I think I'm on the right track, and we will see quite soon if the numbers and the legs are good."
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to you🐽r inbo⭕x!
168🎃澳洲5最新开奖结果:Vingegaar🐬d crashed out of Paris-Nice in March and hasn't raced since, with his last duel with Pogačar being 11 months in the past now. The Dauphiné brings them back in direct competition, with a battle in the high mountains on next Saturday's stage 7 expected to be the highlight.
The 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Dane said last week, "If I were racing without Tadej, it wouldn't be the 𒁃same, and hopefully, he feels the same the other way around," speaking to . "I actuall🥂y enjoy having a rival like him."
Pogačar concurred on Saturday as he was asked by Danish media about his Tour rival.
"I'm really looking forward to racing him. He looks in good shape, from what I saw. So I th𓃲ink, yeah, we can expect that he will be at a super good lev♒el," said the world champion. "
"I'm really looking forward to seeing that because he had a tough spring. I hope we can battle it out, but I also cannot forget ab𓂃out the others. It's not just focused on Jonas, Remco, fo𒀰r example. We'll see how it goes.
"It's going to be fun to watch on the TV, a🐭nd I hope also fun to race if there are good legs."
Pogačar, surprisingly, has only raced the Dauphiné once before in his career – in 2020, before his first, dramatic Tour de France triumph. On that occasion, he finished fourth overall, so he knows the result won't be the be-all and end-all for the Tour.
He's t🐈rying to take some of the pressure off, as the expected favourite, but everyone knows he will be there to win and lay a marker down ahead of the Tour's Grand Départ in Lille on July 5.
"Of course, the competition here is amazing, almost the same as the Tour de France for the GC. There are some hard stages and a time trial, but I have to remind myself that I'm coming from a big training block and that, yeah, we are tapering more for the Tour," said Pogačar.
"If something goes wrong so that I don't win this race, I need to let go of this pressure; that is all on me. I have to try to enjoy the race, see how the legs are turning, and try, of course, 𝄹to 🐭be as good as possible and win.
"But a lot of times we saw that Dauphine is not always the true indicator of where you will finish at through💃 T🥃our de France, so let's, let's kick it off tomorrow with a good start, hope everything goes smoothly.
"I hope we have some great battles on the climbs and in the time trial, but yeah, with not to๊o much stress, and not too mu🥀ch pressure."

James Moultrie is a gold-standard NCTJ journalist who joined Cyclingnews as a News Writer in 2023 after originally contributing as a freelancer for eight months, during which time he also wrote for Eurosport, Rouleur and Cycling Weekly. Prior to joining the team he reported on races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia Donne 💛for Eurosport and has interviewed some of the sport’s top riders in Chloé Dygert, Lizzie Deignan and Wout van Aert. Outside of cycling, he spends the majority of his time watching other sports – rugby, football, cricket, and American Football to name a few.
You must confirm your public display ✤name before commenting
Please l🎶ogout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.