Tadej Pogačar has trodden heavily this Tour de France so far, winning three stages, giving one to a teammate, and generally stamping his team’s authority all over proceedings. But the world champion has also shown a deftness of touch that, in his dealings with the media, have kept the outside noise to a minimum.
Having already spent eight days in the yellow jersey, and with eight more very likely to follow, there’s a long line of questions to be answered as he goes about his media duties, in the mixed zones before and after each stage and also in his daily yellow jersey press conference.
More often than not, there will be plenty of relevant stage-related topics to go at, but on quieter days, that vacuum will be filled with questions that might generate other talking points.
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On Friday, Pogačar had to deal with a couple, and he sidestepped them with perfect poise.
The first was related to his possible appearance at the Vuelta a España later this year, which roared back up the agenda with the Prince of Monaco’s claims that Pogačar had informed him he would be at the start. This year’s Vuelta starts in Monaco, which is also Pogačar’s adopted residence, and Prince Albert told L’Equipe that "Tadej Pogačar said he would be at the start, so we'll see”.
When this was put to him, Pogačar responded: “If the Prince said it, there's a high chance."
The words were delivered with a smile and a sense of humor so even if the words themselves could be spun into a headline, the context in which he said them was totally non-committal.
Pogačar’s team boss Mauro Gianetti later told Cyclingnews that nothing had changed in terms of the Vuelta, which would make a debut for Pogačar and a chance to complete the Grand Tour set.
"It's a pleasure that he'd like Tadej to be there. But we've said it I don't know how many times, that we do not know yet. We will make that decision after the Tour."
Pogačar also refused to be drawn on questioning surrounding the Tour de France victories record, and in particular comments made by Lance Armstrong concerning the true nature of that record.
Armstrong, who won seven Tours from 1999 to 2005 before being stripped of them all due to doping, had looked to stoke the fire on his own podcast by claiming that Pogačar is aiming for seven Tour wins in his career, and not just the five that would give him a share of the official record.
Pogačar, winner of four Tours already, responded by claiming he has ‘no interest in records’. And while that seems a stretch to believe, given his notable push to win as many of the biggest races as possible, he also far more understandably has no interest in creating a needless controversy around himself.
If he’d agreed with Armstrong there’d obviously be a storm coming his way, and even if he hadn’t he’d have given oxygen to a debate involving perhaps the most toxic name in cycling. And so, wisely, he declined to engage at all.
“I got this question the same in the morning. I don't know, I can’t say anything,” Pogačar said.
“I don't go for records, I just want to finish the Tour with yellow in Paris and this is the main focus.”
Pogačar has been more forthcoming than usual with the media at this Tour de France, offering more insight and stronger lines than he has tended to in the past, but he’s experienced enough in this game now to know how to deal with the curveballs.
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