Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) will be looking to regain his Tour de France crown from Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) next summer, but he also believes that Remco Evenepoel will be another contender for the maillot jaune in the years to come.
Speaking at a press conference in his team's training camp near Alicante, Pogačar was asked if he thought Evenepoel could win the Tour de France one day.
"He won the Vuelta already and the Tour is a little bit different," Pogačar answered. "But I think if you can win a Grand Tour and be a World Champion then for sure you can win the Tour de France."
Asked about Evenepoel's 2023 plans to opt for the Giro d'Italia first then head to the Tour after next season, Pogačar said "he is going along a really nice path as a cycling career."
"This year he had a phenomenal year, but next year could be even better. He's going in the right direction."
Pogačar also argued that while 2022 Tour winner Vingegaard remained one of the main rivals, he was "not the only one" and that there was no Project 'Beat Vingegaard' currently gestating amongst the UAE squad.
"No, there are also other riders coming now, even younger riders, maybe even stronger, you never know who's going to beat you next." Asked if Evenepoel could be one such rider, Pogačar answered, "Yes, for example."
As for Pogačar himself, and his aim for a third Tour de France win in four years, the 24-year-old said he would have a similar program to last season, but would "maybe not come to the early races in top shape", and perhaps skip a pre-season altitude camp. That way, he said, rather than being in great form in January and February, he could be more sure that he would be in "better shape for the bigger goals."
The 24-year-old has triumphed in his debut race of the season, the UAE Tour, both in 2021 and 2022.
But if his strategy in the early part of 2023 has yet to be confirmed, Pogačar revealed that the Tour of Flanders was going to be one of his targets next spring.
In 2022, Pogačar repeatedly attacked en route to the finale and only Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) could follow his moves. Even if in the finish he had to settle for fourth, the Slovenian star said Flanders was, together with his ride to victory at the GP Montréal, one of the "most fun days" he had all season in 2022,
"It was a really beautiful experience and this year Flanders is one of the goals," Pogačar, who may also repeat his ride in Dwars door Vlaanderen and another, as yet unspecified Belgian Classic, added.
"I think [Milan-]San Remo and Flanders are two of the hardest races to win for me, even though I was not so far off in both.
"But every year is different, I want to go there as well prepared as possible, and give it a shot. But I'm not expecting to win it [Flanders] on the second go. Maybe I'll have to go there for the rest of my career. But it's not so much about winning, it's just when you can race and be up here, that's a really nice feeling."
As for what made those two races so special, Pogačar answered, "Sanremo is a long boring race until the coast and then you have just one moment when you need to push the best power. It's one of the hardest to win, that's what makes it so beautiful.
"Flanders is one of the biggest races and has the biggest crowds and the best atmosphere, also the parcours is really special for me with the cobbled climbs. It's chaotic and stressful but I like it."
Yet another race that is on Pogacar's bucket list is the Giro d'Italia, which said was "one of my favourites since I was young because it's the closest race to Slovenia. But for now, the main focus is the Tour.
"We will see. Maybe after the [2023] Tour we can begin to see what I can still do in the next years, for sure there will be the Giro and again the Vuelta, maybe another Grand Tour in a year. You never know."
Rather than put a number on how many Tours he would like to win, his objective, he said, was "to win the next one. But then if I don't win, try and do it at least one more time."
"I would like to do the Giro this year, but the Tour is the priority for me and the team. So we stick to the plan."
A route with three time trials like the 2022 route in theory is more favourable but Pogacar said "For me, the course isn't so important. I would go anyway if it had three time trials or one."
"It's always nice to do a different race, the pink jersey is really nice and Italy has some of the best racing."
"If it had been my choice I would have done it two years ago, but," he again said with a smile "I'm not the smartest [when it comes to] making decisions."
He was cautious about the idea of one day going for the Giro and the Tour in the same year, saying "you can ride both, but that's really demanding on your body, even if you can win both." Maybe, he half-joked, "you'd feel so exhausted afterwards you'd finish your career right there."
