By Petra Ramšak, Katarina Ropret | Photos Courtesy of Družina
On July 26th, Slovenian cycling star Tadej Pogačar won the overall victory in the Tour de France for the fifth time in his career, thus becoming one of the greatest legends of the sport. With his fifth title, he tied with Eddy Merckx, Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain, who also won the world’s greatest cycling race five times.
The 27-year-old Pogačar did not hide his excitement after reaching the finish line in Paris. In a statement for the Tour de France organizers, he said: “It was a truly extraordinary day. I am speechless, there was a fantastic atmosphere. I am happy that it is over and that we have won for the fifth time.” He emphasized that the Tour, despite its apparent ease, is an extremely difficult test. “If you start the Tour, you have to prepare to suffer. You already have to endure a lot to even compete in the Tour. There you meet your biggest competitors, and everyone comes in great shape. Everyone here gives their all and you have to suffer as a result.”
From Krvavec, Slovenia, to the United Arab Emirates
Tadej Pogačar comes from Komenda in Gorenjska, Slovenia, where he grew up in a family of six. He followed the steps of his older brother Tilen and joined the Ljubljana cycling club at the age of nine. His first victory – the climb to Krvavec Mountain – already indicated that he would be a climbing specialist. His professional cycling journey began in 2019, when he signed a contract with the UAE Team Emirates club which is still his contracting team through 2030.
Despite his youth, Tadej Pogačar is already considered one of the best cyclists of all time. In his career, he has won 6 three-week races (in addition to the five Tour de France races, the 2024 Giro d’Italia), 7 major one-week races, 13 one-day monuments and 12 regular classics. He is the European champion (2025), two-time world champion (2024, 2025) and road race bronze medallist at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, as well as the national road race champion.
Exceptional talent, hard work and natural ability
Experts and cycling enthusiasts agree, the secret to Tadej Pogačar’s successes are a combination of exceptional talent, superb physical fitness, hard work and apparent ease of racing. Meanwhile, Tadej is breaking records one after another. For example, he is the first and only person in history to stand on the podium of the Tour de France for 6 consecutive years (between 2020 and 2025) in the final standings and one of 8 cyclists in history to win both the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France in the same calendar year. He has received numerous awards and nominations for the best cyclist or athlete of the year at home and abroad, including the World Sports Academy nomination for the best athlete in the world for the second year in a row.
Next in line: Olympic Games in Los Angeles
The cycling star currently lives in Monaco with his fiancée, cyclist Urška Žigart, to whom he got engaged in September 2021. In Slovenia, he has become a true national hero. In early August, in his hometown of Komenda, a charity cycling race, called the Pogi Challenge, was organzized to honor his victory at the Tour, which attracted more than 30,000 people over three days. Even ordinary cyclists were able to compete with Tadej Pogačar during these days.
Pogačar has no shortage of competitive goals: he is currently leading the Spanish Vuelta cycling race, and he has already said that he wants to win the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028!
UAE Team Emirates XRG’s Tadej Pogacar celebrates on the podium while wearing the yellow jersey after winning the Tour de France, alongside UAE Team Emirates XRG’s Isaac Del Toro wearing the white jersey and Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe’s Remco Evenepoel REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
