CARCASSONNE, France (Velo) — Tadej Pogačar sick?
No, cycling’s superhero only has a case of the sniffles.
And with the way he’s dominating the race for yellow, it’s ice packs and air conditioning that are giving him the biggest problems with a week left to go.
“No, I’m just becoming less sick now, so thanks for taking care of me,” Pogačar joked.
“I think like half of the bunch is dealing with sore throats, coughing, and blowing the nose, but I think I’m more at the end of it.”
Ah, there was something. Perhaps that’s why Pogačar didn’t blow the legs off everyone Saturday at Superbagnères.
Even with the sniffles, he covered all the moves and still got time on Jonas Vingegaard to close out the Pyrénéan slam on Saturday.
Ice and air conditioning are the culprits for his runny nose and raspy voice.
“I think it’s just we eat so much ice and we put ice everywhere. I think it’s not the best for the throat,” he said.
“And all the AC and just doing all the extra work and podium stuff after, I think it resulted in my little bit of a runny nose and, yeah, a little bit of coughing.”
Just to set the record straight, Pogačar added:
“It’s nothing serious. I’m not really sick,” he said. “It’s just a bit of a pain in the ass.”
Pogačar takes matters into own hands
It was back to the French broiler Sunday and Pogačar was riding in the bunch — once things calmed down — and could kick back and watch UAE teammate Tim Wellens win the stage out of a break.
The lumpy run out of the Pyrénées and into Carcassonne was crazy from the start, with podium contenders Jonas Vingegaard and Florian Lipowitz both crashing early.
UAE had its antenna up. Even when Pogačar tried to slow the bunch when Vingegaard crashed, the attacks kept coming as everyone was trying to ride into the break.
That’s why Pogačar marked a move from Matteo Jorgenson — who is more than 30 minutes behind — early in the stage that was mired in chaos.
Tactics can be complicated in this early-stage pandemonium. Pogačar broke it down:
“There was the whole situation at the start. The race was full gas for the breakaway, like we expected. There was a crash — Jonas was involved, Lipowitz was involved, I don’t know who else was involved, but there was a split in the group.
“Me and Tim were in the front. We were trying to talk to the bunch to calm things down and wait for the guys in the back,” Pogačar said.
Tadej is a class act
Tadej Pogačar played his part in making sure Florian Lipowitz and Jonas Vingegaard returned to the peloton after being caught up in a large early crash on Stage 15 of the Tour de France.
Sprint Cycling
_____________
#TDF2025 pic.twitter.com/Ng6IoWi0aT— Velon CC (@VelonCC) July 20, 2025
“Then, yeah, this didn’t work, but what was bothering me in the end was that there were three Visma guys, and they were all trying to go in the break again.
“One of them goes in the break, and then maybe two. I was always following the third rider, and that was Matteo. He was trying to go into the break, always when there was already Wout or Victor in the front. So I was like, yeah, you cannot let the Visma guys in the break, because you never know what happens.”
Pogačar isn’t about to lose the Tour over some rogue breakaway that might leave him isolated, so he shut it down himself.
“Maybe they attack us then in the last moment on the climb, and I was trying to control the race. That was just a weird situation,” Pogačar said. “We tried to control it with the team. In the end it resulted in a victory, so very good.”