(Ljubljana) Slovenian cyclist Tadej Pogacar, who has just won his third Tour de France, has withdrawn from the Paris Games, citing “fatigue”, the Slovenian Olympic Committee announced on Monday.
“Unfortunately Tadej Pogacar has cancelled his participation due to extreme fatigue,” Olympic team coach Uros Murn said in a statement.
The 25-year-old rider has also not digested the non-selection of his fiancée Urska Zigart by the Slovenian Federation. He said he was “angry” and “speechless” in a message published on social networks.
Asked about the Olympics on Sunday, he remained very evasive, preferring to mention his “dream” of one day wearing the rainbow jersey of world champion.
In September in Zurich, on a mountainous course which is particularly favourable to him, he is aiming for a Giro-Tour-World Championship triple crown held only by two men, Stephen Roche and Eddy Merckx.
Seeking revenge after two frustrating editions, Tadej Pogacar won his third Tour de France on Sunday in Nice by crushing the competition.
He won six stage victories with sometimes insolent ease, including the final time trial between Monaco and Nice, to achieve a Giro-Tour de France double unseen since Marco Pantani in 1998.
With this third victory after those of 2020 and 2021, the UAE rider got his own back on his great rival Jonas Vingegaard who had made him crack with similar gaps in the two previous editions.
His compatriot Primoz Roglic, reigning Olympic time trial champion and forced to abandon the Tour after yet another fall, was not included in the Slovenian selection announced at the beginning of July.