'I'm already counting the years until retirement' - Tadej Pogačar accepts he cannot win forever

Tadej Pogačar has confirmed his goals for the final part of the 2025 season and admitted that he is "already counting the years until retirement" but is also determined to "enjoy the moment" knowing that he will not dominate professional cycling forever.

Pogačar spoke for the first time since winning the Tour de France while at home in Komenda in Slovenia for a celebratory criterium organised by his home town and his youth cycling teams. He won the race, naturally, ahead of Luka Mezgec and Matteo Trentin, as thousands of people from his home town cheered him on.

"I'm happy to be home again, to see friends, neighbours and family," Pogačar said in a press conference, where he talked about his 2025 goals and beyond.

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Pogačar has a contract with UAE Team Emirates-XRG until 2030 but recently hinted to L'Equipe that he will start to think about retirement after the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.

He began racing at WorldTour level in 2019 when just 20 years old. He finished third on his Grand Tour debut at the Vuelta a España in 2019 and has since won the Tour four times and a hundred other races. Only the Vuelta, Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix remain as future targets before he ends his career.

"It may seem funny to most people that I'm already counting down to retirement, but the fact is that a sports career isn't very long," Pogačar told the Slovenian media before his criterium.

"I started winning quite early and everything has been going strong ever since. Every year we train harder and faster, so I look forward to my future with pleasure.

"On the one hand, I know that my sports career will not be long, but on the other hand, I am aware that I can enjoy the level I am at now for a few more years. However, I expect that this level will drop at some point and that there will be no more victories in the season than now and that there will be a bad year at some point.

"I am prepared for everything that is coming, so I am all the more aware that I have to enjoy the moment. I have to be prepared to stop, say thank you and say goodbye to racing at the highest level."

The final goals of 2025

Pogačar spent time at his home in Montecarlo after a successful but gruelling Tour de France, where a cold affected him in the final week and he occasionally seemed tired.

He avoided social media after the Tour but did a few relaxed rides, including a moment when he crossed paths with Tour de France Femmes winner Pauline Ferrand-Prévot.

"I managed to rest a little, I have a difficult Tour behind me and everyone can have a bad day," he said when asked if he was in a better mood now than he was in the last days of this year's Tour de France.

"Of course, we can't expect that I will be glowing with happiness for all 21 stages. There were also difficult days. The Tour was really difficult, one of the hardest I've ridden, which can be confirmed by everyone who fought for the overall classification.

"Now, two weeks after the end of the Tour, I have rested, reset myself, so we are now moving forward normally."

Pogačar indicated the Tour will again be a major goal in 2026 as he tries to equal the record of five Tour victories.

"I will probably return to the Tour, in principle it is the biggest race and I don't think the team will leave me at home…" Pogačar said.

While Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) will ride the Vuelta, Pogačar has opted for a different programme after an intense spring and summer of classics and the Tour. He will return to racing in Canada at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and ​​Montréal, then try to defend his world title in Rwanda. The hilly European championships a week later on October 5 in southern France is also a goal.

Pogačar could race just five or six major one-day races before ending his season.

"We know that Montréal suits me better but that doesn't mean that I won't try to win in Québec as well," Pogcar said.

"This year they changed the course a bit, it's even easier now, but the goal is harder, so we will try to win there as well. It's not necessarily me, we have a few other competitors who could suit this goal, especially Jhonathan Narvaez.

"According to the information we have, it'll be a European Championship for 'climbers' this year, so I will probably be there. It is similar to one of the spring races that Juan Ayuso won this year. But this European Championship probably means that I will not be able to go to any other Italian Classics except Lombardia."