Tadej Pogačar isn’t giving Urška Žigart any racing advice
'I think she knows what she’s doing, she’s way smarter than me,' says Slovenian at the start of stage 2 of the Tour de France Femmes
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MEAUX, France (VN) — Yes, Tadej Pogačar won the first mountain-top finish of the 2022 Tour de France at the Super Planche des Belles Filles. And yes, he broke Geraint Thomas’ 2019 record on the climb by 19 seconds.
But he’s not going to tell his fiancé Urška Žigart how to ride it.
“I think she knows what she’s doing, she’s way smarter than me,” the Slovenian rider told VeloNews. “I think she can find her way to the top really quickly.”
Read also: Urška Žigart is Slovenia’s newest WorldTour superstar
Žigart, who rides for Team BikeExchange-Jayco, will summit the iconic climb on Sunday, the final day of the inaugural Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
Pogačar was at the start of stage 2 in the small town of Meaux on Monday morning to support Žigart despite only having fallen to sleep a few hours earlier after celebrating second place and best young rider at the men’s race.
Lack of sleep — and a yellow jersey — notwithstanding, Pogačar said that he wouldn’t have missed the opportunity to be at the long-awaited race and to support Žigart, the Slovenian time trial national champion.
“It’s important also for me,” he said. “I know how important it is for her. She always follows me in the races, no matter what she comes and supports me. I’m also happy to be here to support her at the first Tour de France.”
About his own race, Pogačar said that he needs a bit of time to let the experience sink in.
“I feel really good, I feel really, really tired because we were really giving it all on the Tour. I want to rest a little bit now and think about everything, but it has been a great Tour.”
After watching stage 2, Pogačar said that he’ll head home to Slovenia to take care of some real-life business.
“I need to do some telecom installation in my apartment,” he said. “I need to be home, I have some casual stuff to do, and then I’ll come back.”
Back to watch his smarter half.