Overview
- At a high-profile hometown event on Krvavec, Tadej Pogacar finished eighth in the Pogi Challenge while German amateur Frederik Nießen took the win.
- Pogacar and event organisers said a large traffic jam, a crash near the base of the climb and poor sleep after several days of celebrations contributed to his result.
- The Slovenian has now confirmed he will start the Vuelta in Monaco later this month, making a Vuelta campaign an explicit chance to add the one Grand Tour title missing from his record.
- Pogacar’s palmarès already includes five Tour de France victories and the 2024 Giro d’Italia, and a Vuelta win would place him among the few riders to claim all three Grand Tours.
- The Pogi Challenge is a 12 km, roughly 8% average gradient chase in which about 1,200 amateurs receive a seven-minute head start and Pogacar pursues them on a partly closed lane, a format that mixes spectacle with unusual race conditions that can affect performance.