Tadej Pogačar makes his 2023 season debut at the Clásica Jaén Paraíso Interior one-day race on Monday, kicking off his fifth season at WorldTour level in the Spanish road and gravel race as he looks to calibrate his early-season form.
A bout of gastroenteritis disrupted Pogačar's training in January, leading to a change to his race programme. He will not defend his 2022 victory at the UAE Tour later this month, instead opting for a less intense season debut in Spain away from the pressure and expectation to win in the home of his team sponsors.
After the Clásica Jaén Paraíso Interior, Pogačar will ride the Vuelta Ciclista Andalucia - Ruta del Sol between February 15-19. His performances in Spain will indicate his form and build-up to the spring Classics.
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"I'm a bit nervous like always because it's the first race for a while. And especially with this kind of parcours, it's going to be really interesting and hectic, so I'm looking forward to it," Pogačar said on Sunday afternoon after completing a recon ride of the gravel sections through the olive trees of Clásica Jaén Paraíso Interior with his UAE Team Emirates teammates.
In an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport, Pogačar confirmed that Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders and Liege-Bastogne-Liege would be the key goals of his Spring, though L'Equipe reported on Monday that the Slovenian is also in line to make his Paris-Roubaix debut.
According to the French newspaper, Pogačar will defend his Strade Bianche title on Saturday, March 4 before flying to France to start Paris-Nice the next day. He has raced - and won - Tirreno-Adriatico for the past two years.
For now, Pogačar's mind is on gravel racing in Spain, and he appeared in an Instagram reel that Simon Geschke (Cofidis) made on one of the gravel sections during his reconnaissance on Sunday. "Got video bombed by some Slovenian fella that will probably make us look like amateurs tomorrow," Geschke wrote.
The clip showed one of seven gravel sectors in the 178 kilometre race. The Clásica Jaén Paraíso Interior has 55km of spectacular but demanding dirt roads plus 2300 metres of climbing. In comparison, Strade Bianche includes 63 km of dirt roads spread across 11 different sectors.
Alexey Lutsenko won the inaugural edition in 2022 ahead of Pogcar's new teammate Tim Wellens. The UAE Team Emirates line-up also includes Matteo Trentin, Alessandro Covi and Marc Hirschi.
Their rivals include Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Pavel Sivakov and Connor Swift (Ineos Grenadiers) and Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech).
Pogačar last raced in October, when he finished second at the Giro dell'Emilia and then won Tre Valli Varesine and a second consecutive Il Lombardia. He was second at the Tour de France behind Jonas Vingegaard but ended the season as the world's number one ranked rider and with the determination to return to the Tour and win again.
He was cautious about whether he can immediately win on his season debut.
"The goal is to find good sensations in the race," he said.
"We've got a really strong team here, with many different possibilities to do a good result. So I hope I'll feel like old myself, feel good on the bike and enjoy racing like normally. Then I'll go with the flow."
"I had a fun winter, even if in January I had some setbacks with illness. It wasn't really serious though and I trained again at the end of January and now I'm ready for my first race."
Pogačar was on fire at the start of 2022, winning a second consecutive UAE Tour to the delight of his team management and sponsors. He then dominated Strade Bianche with a long solo attack, won Tirreno-Adriatico and was fifth at Milan-San Remo and fourth at the Tour of Flanders.
His return to the Tuscan gravel roads in 2023 has still to be confirmed and he will ride either Paris-Nice or Tirreno-Adriatico before Milan-San Remo and an expected trip to Belgium for Dwars door Vlaanderen and the Tour of Flanders. The Ardennes Classics should again be a final spring goal before a break and his build-up to the Tour de France.
UAE Team Emirates have signed Adam Yates and Jay Vine to share team leadership with Pogačar, Joao Almeida, Juan Ayuso and Brandon McNulty.
"We thought we'd mix things up a little bit," Pogačar said of his decision to debut in Spain.
"Jaén and Andalucia are really interesting and really hard, harder than the UAE Tour, so maybe that's better for my preparation because I started more tranquillo. Maybe it's better to go step by step towards the new season."
"It's still a long time to the Tour but I know it's also going to be pretty short," he added when speaking to Velon.
"We've started with the training and the planning and I'm sure everything will fall into place before the Tour. I hope that everything will be 100%."
