Pogacar Makes Winning Return In Slovenian Time Trial
Pogacar Makes Winning Return In Slovenian Time Trial
Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar made a winning return from injury on Thursday with a dominant time-trial victory at the Slovenian championships.
Two-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar made a winning return from injury on Thursday with a dominant time-trial victory at the Slovenian championships.
The UAE Team Emirates rider was back in action for the first time since suffering a wrist injury in a nasty crash in April.
Pogacar had no such problems in the 15.7km time trial near Lake Bled, beating second-placed Marko Pavlic by a massive five minutes and 14 seconds with a time of 29 minutes and 43 seconds.
"The national championship is good preparation for me and an ideal test before the Tour de France," he told siol.net ahead of the race.
The 24-year-old will also take part in the 156km road race on Sunday.
"My arm is better, it's not quite there yet, but I don't feel any more discomfort in training," Pogacar said.
"My injury bothers me a bit on technical aspects, but it doesn't bother my legs, and I was able to train well.
"I gave it my all and I think everything went according to plan. For now, I just have to make sure I don't fall or hit a bone."
Tadej Pogacar Returns Ahead Of Tour de France 2023
Pogacar had been in scintillating form this year before his accident during the Liege-Bastogne-Liege, winning the Paris-Nice stage race and the Tour of Flanders, Flèche Wallonne and Amstel Gold Race one-day classics.
He will be hoping to take back the Tour de France yellow jersey this year to add to his successes in 2020 and 2021, after losing to Dane Jonas Vingegaard 12 months ago.
The 2023 Tour de France begins on July 1 in Bilbao and runs for 21 days, with just two rest days, before coming to a stop in Paris on July 23.