Tadej Pogacar tested and passed. With nine days to go before the start of the Tour de France in Bilbao, the Slovenian cyclist reappeared after not having competed at all in two months. The UAE leader showed that he is fully recovered from the operation on his left wrist. His first race after the fall in Liège was triumphant as he was proclaimed champion of Slovenia in the time trial.
The winner of two Tours set a spectacular time and took more than 5 minutes from the second classified, although without Roglic (one time Slovenian champion against the clock), Tratnik (4 winners of the country) and Mohoric (three times second) in the fray, barely He had important rivals.
Pogacar has been competing in another league for a long time, against records while awaiting the duel with Vingegaard, whom he defeated in Paris-Nice in March. Furthermore, it was not the first time that the championship was held on the 15.7 km between Zgornje Gorje and Pokljuka. It is the same route that was used in 2020. Pogacar improved and reduced the time he needed in 2020 by more than a minute. Then it was 31m10s and this Thursday he stopped the clock at 29m43s.
It is the third time that he has won the championship of his country’s specialty, after 2019 in Ljubjana and the one mentioned in 2020, with the time trial to Pokljuka, with 7 km at 7.4%.
On April 23, Pogacar’s preparation to reconquer the Tour was blown up. A fall in the first kilometers of Liège-Bastogne-Liège made him give up and forced him to undergo surgery. It took him a couple of weeks to get back on the road.
But the Slovenian from the UAE, who even wears a protective splint when training to hold on to the handlebars, has done well in recent weeks in the Sierra Nevada, in the Alps watching the stages and in Italy training at altitude. S
