Tour de France 2023 - Tadej Pogacar : "I'm not surprised... "
Le Slovène Tadej Pogacar de chez UAE Team Emirates lors de la première journée de repos sur ce Tour de France à Clermont-Ferrand, au lendemain du Puy-de-Dôme... et avant de poursuivre sa "bataille" avec le Danois de la Jumbo-Visma, Jonas Vingegaard, pour la victoire sur ce 100e Tour de France.
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00:00 I have some sort of momentum but I don't know if over Jonas but I just feel good every day
00:12 and yeah today was a good rest day and I'm ready to go racing again tomorrow so yeah
00:21 I'm really happy so far with this tour and feeling day by day better so yeah.
00:26 I can just ask one more. There has been this idea that people have sort of thrown around
00:34 that you haven't got enough of a base and that you might suffer in the last week because
00:38 of that because you had to get ready so quickly for this tour. Are you worried about that
00:42 at all?
00:43 No, not at all. I think yeah the last week should be even better than the first week
00:50 I would say so. I had a base. I was racing really good in the spring so the base should
01:00 be good but I maybe lacked some racing before the tour so it's two different things so I
01:11 think yeah I hope that I'm going to be good in the third week but yeah it also can happen
01:18 that I'm going to be worse but I don't think so.
01:23 You know reading over what Jonas has been saying he says he's not worried about these
01:27 time losses over the last couple of Summit finishes that these Alpine stages to come
01:33 suit him so how do you think you'll stack up with him in those Alps stages? I mean when
01:41 he's saying that basically he's saying it suits him more than you. What do you have
01:45 to say about that?
01:46 I think we will see in Alps to who it suits better. I think yeah I like the Alps stages
01:54 also I did the recons. I did some of them already racing and yeah I think every year
02:04 I improve also in long climbs in the heat and yeah I think we need to wait and see the
02:12 last week I mean who is going to be who will like it more the Alps stages.
02:19 No I'm not surprised I was more surprised when I lost time on Marie Blanc but yeah I
02:29 knew that I was good coming here to the tour and yeah I shouldn't be surprised about my
02:38 performances because I know myself and yeah I think we have really nice rivalry here with
02:47 Jonas I think yeah already last year was one of the best tours ever and I think this year
02:56 already the first week gone by and it happened a lot so I think yeah it's a good time I mean
03:06 we dropped the bombs on each other each stage is one ahead and it's just yeah I think it's
03:16 really really good competition.
03:21 Before the tour in Andalusia and so many races you talk about the beauty of racing crazy,
03:30 crazy attacks, long attacks and here in the tour the two days with Dom Koterets you talk
03:38 more of racing smart, thinking, attacking, measuring your attacks. Why this change? Has
03:47 the race fall or can change your mind?
03:52 No I mean yeah I've been now I did three Tour de France and each tour gives you experience
04:00 and it's not it's the most important race of the year so yeah it's nice to win a race
04:06 with 50 kilometers solo but in Tour de France you need to know there's three weeks and each
04:13 day you can pay the price now for the effort to make one day before so yeah in three week
04:21 race you need to race really with the head and yeah you cannot just go crazy in one day
04:30 and yeah.
04:31 You are getting old because in 2022 you won with a crazy attack of 50 kilometers in Gran
04:41 Bernando.
04:42 Yeah I'm probably I'm getting old yeah it's my last year in white jersey so it's on the
04:48 limit.
04:49 The fact that Adam Yates is still on the top position in the general standings could be
04:58 an advantage for you or do you think that from tomorrow he will be only at your disposal?
05:05 Thank you.
05:06 No it can be a good advantage he's super shaped and I think he's just getting better and better
05:13 as well in this tour so I think yeah we can play really good in the upcoming stages.
05:23 I think he's a great teammate and to have him so close in the GC I really I can be a
05:31 bit more relaxed I would say.
05:33 Tadej you came into this tour saying you had nothing to lose.
05:37 A. Do you still feel that way and B. Is it more fun racing with nothing to lose versus
05:42 defending a yellow jersey or a title I should say?
05:46 Yeah now that we are more deep in the tour it doesn't feel so much that way you just
05:53 focus on racing but yeah for sure when I come to the tour there's less pressure and it's
06:02 a bit different feeling than when you defend the title for sure it's a big difference.
06:08 Tadej a question about yesterday at Puy de Dome Jan Bovisma did some calculating they
06:15 said it was your best 35 minutes ever climbing.
06:23 Who did say that?
06:24 Jan Bovisma.
06:25 I don't know they don't know all my trainings or all my race data so they don't know how
06:36 much I weigh they don't know a lot about me so they cannot really I mean they can assume
06:44 but I can tell you it was one of the good but couldn't be better.
06:50 Okay thank you.
06:53 Jurska Zygart had a bad crash during her Giro and your tour so how have you?
07:04 First is she better and second how have you dealt with that mid-race?
07:10 Yeah thank you she's much better now I mean she went on the bike today again and yeah
07:21 it's not a perfect condition but she still need a few more days to recover I think a
07:28 little bit from this crash it was really yeah when you lose the handlebar at such speed
07:33 it's one of the worst crashes I think more or less everybody in pro peloton experienced
07:40 one time crash like this and yeah it's not nice and but she's getting better and but
07:47 yeah it also affects me a little bit thinking on the descents or in when we are like for
07:55 example yesterday going 90k per hour in the group on this big descent before the climb
08:01 yeah you're like thinking anything can happen now and everything can go to to shit but yeah
08:08 it's our job and yeah we we tried we try to be respectful in the peloton and and take
08:17 it more easy but sometimes it's just a bit chaotic so you you got yourself thinking if
08:26 it's worth it.
08:31 you