UAE Team Emirates rider Tadej Pogacar returns to action with eyes on triple crown

Slovenian has two races in Canada before he aims to become third male rider to achieve historic hat-trick

UAE Team Emirates rider Tadej Pogacar celebrates on the podium with the overall leader's yellow jersey after winning the 19th stage of the Tour de France on Friday, July 19, 2024. AFP

UAE Team Emirates' Slovenian rider Tadej Pogacar after winning the 19th stage of Tour de France. AFP

Tadej Pogacar celebrates his fourth stage win of the year. EPA

UAE Team Emirates rider Tadej Pogacar rides ahead of Soudal Quick-Step rider Remco Evenepoel during Stage 19. AFP

Tadej Pogacar crosses the finish line to win the 19th stage of the Tour de France. AFP

UAE Team Emirates' Tadej Pogacar celebrates after winning Stage 19. Reuters

Tadej Pogacar is on the brink of winning the Tour de France. AP

Cycling - Tour de France - Stage 19 - Embrun to Isola 2000 - Embrun, France - July 19, 2024 UAE Team Emirates' Tadej Pogacar celebrates winning stage 19 REUTERS / Stephane Mahe

Soudal Quick-Step rider Remco Evenepoel, centre, is flanked by Team Visma - Lease rider Jonas Vingegaard, left, and Tadej Pogacar. AFP

Riders during stage 19 of the Tour de France. EPA

Tadej Pogacar is back in the saddle for the first time since his Tour de France triumph as the cycling season begins building up towards the World Championships in Zurich.

The UAE Team Emirates rider decided to take a break instead of competing for Slovenia at the Paris Olympics after becoming the first man to complete the Giro d'Italia-Tour de France double since Marco Pantani in 1998.

Pogacar returns to action for Grand Prix races in Quebec and Montreal, which involve two races of circuits with 16 laps in Canada on Friday and Sunday, both with extremely demanding repetitive climbs.

The World Championships then take place from September 21 to 29, which could see Pogacar attempt become only the third man – after Eddy Merckx (1974) and Stephen Roche (1987) – to secure the triple crown of Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and world title wins. Annemiek van Vleuten completed the women's triple crown in 2022.

“I don't know how many Grand Tours Primoz Roglic and I have won now but a Slovenian has never won the world title. I hope to put that right,” Pogacar said in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport.

Before that, Pogacar heads to Canada where he will be favourite to succeed Belgian Arnaud De Lie and his British UAE Team Emirates teammate Adam Yates, winners in Quebec and Montreal respectively last year.

He will spearhead a strong squad alongside former Montreal winner Tim Wellens and Juan Ayuso as alternative leaders, with Igor Arrieta, Finn Fisher-Black and Rafal Majka completing the line-up.

Rivals include De Lie, who achieved his first World Tour success last year, Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe and Australian Michael Matthews. The only two World Tour races on the American continent will also be a rehearsal for the 2026 World Championships in Montreal.

“I’ve had a good break from racing and I'm eager to get back to it now starting in Canada,” Pogacar said. “It's a beautiful part of the world to ride a bike in and I have great memories here from two years ago.

“My condition is good and I’m focused on enjoying and doing well in this last part of the season. The level will be high there as always and we will need to be at our best. Whatever happens for the rest of the season, I can be happy with what I’ve achieved this year. Anything else will be a bonus.”

Already the youngest rider to win the yellow jersey three times, Pogacar is fast closing in on the all-time Tour record of five, jointly held by Jacques Anquetil, Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain.

Lance Armstrong won seven consecutive Tours but was given a lifetime ban from professional sport and stripped of his titles in 2012 for doping offences.

“When I was younger, I was never thinking that I can win a stage in the Tour de France,” Pogacar told CNN Sport this week. “After I won the first Tour de France – because that’s an ultimate goal in cycling – everything is more or less a bonus.

“I’m just racing to have fun, not to feel that it’s obligatory or anything, and go with a free mind to races.

“I don’t like to talk about what can be in the future, what records can be broken. But three now, three Tours de France and maybe 10 more years of my career if I’m well. So the odds are pretty good still to have five Tours de France, but that’s not the goal I want.”