Tadej Pogacar completed his preparations for the Tour de France by winning the Slovenian National Road Race Championships for the first time in his career on Sunday.
Pogacar, 24, has had limited races in the build-up to the Tour de France after sustaining a broken wrist during the Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic at the end of April.
However, the UAE Team Emirates star, who will begin his bid for a third Tour title on Saturday, has made the most of his time at home in Slovenia, following up his dominant National Time Trial victory with his first win in the National Road Race.
Pogacar made his first significant move of the race when he attacked in the first hour of the 157-kilometre course, with only Jayco-AIUIa rider Luka Mezgec joining him for company. The pair continued to extend their lead, building a four-minute advantage over the field going into the final 15km.
Pogacar then shook off Mezgec on the final climb to claim the victory by 38 seconds. Bahrain-Victorious rider Matej Mohoric took bronze almost five minutes behind Pogacar.
“The team and I decided to make a selection at the very beginning of the race to reduce the bunch a bit," Pogacar said after his 14th win of the season and 60th of his career.
"It became quite selective and the World Tour riders came to the front. When I attacked it was still a long way to go. Every kilometre Luka [Mezgec] and I asked ourselves if this was wise just the two of us but we collaborated well. In the end we succeeded and I am very happy for this victory. It’s a nice boost ahead of the Tour next week.”
Pogacar will now make his way to Bilbao, where the Tour de France will start from on Saturday. Pogacar, the world's top-ranked road cyclist and winner in 2020 and 2021, and defending champion Jonas Vingegard are the clear favourites for the race.
UAE Team Emirates saw two more of their riders win their national championships on Sunday, with Ivo Oliveira taking the honours in Portugal ahead of brother and teammate Rui Oliveira, and Marc Hirschi winning in Switzerland.
“It was a really hard race and we were marked really closely," Oliveira said. "The decisive move was at 70km to go when Rui attacked and then when they pulled him back I went full gas on the climb. It was super special to win here and to have the jersey for a year. Massive thanks to my teammates Rui and Joao and all my team for believing in me.”
