Why five-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar stands apart from other cycling greats
- Written by: Weekend Times
Tadej Pogačar has joined cycling’s most exclusive club and solidified his position among the greatest cyclists of all time. The 27-year-old Slovenian won the 2026 Tour de France by six minutes and
26 seconds, collecting five stage victories and a fifth overall yellow jersey.
Only Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault, Miguel Indurain and Eddy Merckx have also won the Tour five times. Pogačar is a complete cyclist: he can win long mountain stages, time trials and explosive uphill finishes, while also beating specialists in one-day classic races.
So what makes Pogačar different from other riders who are already among the world’s best?
An exceptional engine
Tour contenders need enormous aerobic capacity, which comes from the ability of the heart, lungs, blood and muscles to deliver and use oxygen.
Cyclists also need to convert this oxygen into mechanical power efficiently and produce high power relative to their body mass.
Pogačar’s physiological data remain estimates rather than reported laboratory values. It’s been estimated he can sustain about 442 watts on the bike for more than 40 minutes. This equates to a maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max) two to three times higher than a normal healthy adult and exceeding most elite athletes.
Pogačar provided a glimpse into his physiology and training during an interview on Peter Attia’s The Drive podcast. He said he doesn’t rely heavily on VO2max or functional threshold power tests. Instead, he judges his efforts using heart rate, climbing speed and perceived exertion.
He described completing 20-40 minute Zone 2 climbs at 320-340 watts, with a heart rate around 150-155 beats per minute when fresh and 140-145 when fatigued. On longer, flat rides, he lowers his output to 290-300 watts because an intensity that begins in Zone 2 can become unsustainable after several hours.
Read more: What are heart rate zones, and how can you incorporate them into your exercise routine?
This insight highlights an important distinction. Pogačar isn’t just capable of producing extraordinary power – he’s also skilled at interpreting and regulating his efforts.
A huge engine alone doesn’t explain his dominance though.
Many elite cyclists have exceptional aerobic capacity. What matters is how efficiently they can use that capacity, how well they can sustain it and how their performance deteriorates after hours of racing.
Unmatched durability
Durability describes the ability to preserve performance as fatigue accumulates.
During the Tour, durability is key because stages are rarely decided when riders are fresh. The decisive attack often comes on the final climb, after several thousand kilojoules of work and hours spent managing heat, dehydration and dwindling carbohydrate stores.
UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s Head of Performance Jeroen Swart says Pogačar loses less than 1% of his fresh performance after expending around 4,500 kilojoules.
This may be one of his greatest strengths. Other riders produce comparable peak power when fresh but deteriorate more as a stage progresses, leaving them less capable of responding at decisive moments. Pogačar can attack when his rivals are approaching their limits, then sustain the effort alone.
Pogačar’s durability isn’t just aerobic. His training includes heavy strength exercises and low-cadence (slower pedalling), high-torque riding that preserves muscular force as fatigue accumulates. This helps him retain the explosive acceleration needed to attack late in a stage after hours of racing.
Versatility is another strength
Many Tour winners are exceptional climbers or time triallists. Pogačar adds rare abilities to accelerate, sprint and repeatedly surge – these qualities are more commonly associated with the greatest one-day classics riders.
This versatility gives Pogačar tactical freedom. He doesn’t need to wait for one ideal finishing scenario. He can attack from distance, win from a small group or gain time in a time trial.
His opponents must prepare for multiple threats, while Pogačar can choose the moment that best exposes their weaknesses.
Fuel, recovery and team
Riders consume 100-120 grams of carbohydrate per hour while racing. Tolerating this amount of fuel requires months of “gut training” (to help the digestive system adapt), alongside carefully planned combinations of drinks, gels and solid food.
Pogačar identified improved fuelling and nutrition as important changes after his Tour defeats in 2022 and 2023.
His team are leaders in performance nutrition and supplementation: food and fluid intake are tailored for each stage, while recovery strategies are designed to limit fatigue accumulation across three weeks of racing.
These strategies don’t create Pogačar’s dominance but they help protect it. The quality of Pogačar’s teammates provide another key advantage. They shelter him in the peloton, control breakaways, position him for decisive moments and set a pace that discourages attacks. Pogačar supplies the winning power, but his teammates ensure he expends energy only when it matters most.
Read more: Domestiques, sprinters and climbers: who’s who in the Tour de France peloton (and why it matters)
Dominance also becomes psychological. Rivals know an attack could come at any moment and can waste valuable energy anticipating it. Meanwhile, Pogačar races with confidence and remains willing to take risks even while leading.
He holds all the weapons
There’s no single explanation for Pogačar’s dominance. His advantage lies in the combination of aerobic capacity, durability, explosive power, fuelling, bike handling, team strength and tactical imagination.
At an elite level, each advantage is small. Pogačar’s greatness lies in possessing all of them at once.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
