"He did not finish Giro fatigue" - Build-up at Isola in the final stage of the Tour de France 2000

General
"He did not finish Giro fatigue" - Build-up at Isola in the final stage of the Tour de France 2000

Tadej Pogañar had the finishing touch in preparing for the Tour de France at altitude in Isola2000, where he joined the bulk of the UAE team Emirates team that supported him in the race.

The Slovenian travelled to Isola in 2000-6-4 after spending 1 week at home in Monaco after winning the Giro d'Italia. He will stay there until Monday, according to plans outlined by his team at the start of the season.

No rider has won a Giro tour double since the late Marco Pantani in 1998, and few have attempted the feat since running out on May 7 after digging too deep in the reservoir at the Corsa Rosa. However, Matxin Joxean Fernandez, Emirates sports manager for the UAE team, claimed that Pogañar appeared relatively fresh from the Giro, where he dominated from start to finish.

"What I can say is that he did not come out of the giro where he was tired of his feet or tired of his heart," Matxin told BiciPro, but said that 1 week without formal training is still an integral element of his post-giro plans.

While Poganyar was training at Isola 2000, other members of his tour guard were racing elsewhere. Juan Ayuso was active at the Dauphine Criterium before being kicked out in the crash, while Adam Yates and Joao Almeida were 1st and 2nd in the Tour de Switzerland.

They travelled ahead to a camp in the United Arab Emirates, with Nils Politt – in action this week at the German Championships – their Tutu to miss the rest of their stay at altitude

"There was a pre-tour meeting when all the riders were there" and no one who accompanied Poganyal at the Giro 7 Following the plans outlined by Matxin to Cyclingnews during the Giro

, Pogañar will be supported by Yates, Almeida, Ayuso, Politt, Marc Soler, Tim Wellens and Pavel Sivakov on tour.

Isola2000 is a fit for training camp ahead of this year's tour, given that the ski station will serve as a summit finish at Stage 19, as the finish of this year's tour for the Olympics has shifted from Paris to Nice. The training camp allowed Poganyar to scout the last 4 stages of the race. Ineos and Soudal-QuickStep are also based in Isola2000 before the tour.

"We saw the last 4 stages, but most of the time we were able to do it by bike from the hotel," Matxin said. "In some cases, we did the whole stage, but in other cases, we didn't want to go back and forth too much in the car, so we only watched the finale.

In addition to working in the mountains, the training camp in Poganyar incorporates work on the clock. His fantastic time trial at the Giro highlighted the progress of discipline this winter, but the final stage of the 2024 tour offers another kind of test with the climb of La Truby and Col Deez on a 35km run from Monaco to Nice.

"We tested a few new things on the bike and did a time trial test, mainly in terms of weight reduction," Matxin said. "It's small, but it makes a difference. The bike is the same as the Giro, but I tried to make it a little lighter.

After 2 nights back in Monaco, Pogagnard will travel to Florence ahead of the Grande Part on Wednesday.

"I see him motivated and calm, and I think he's happy. I can't say anything negative because there's nothing negative," Matxin said. "And we have a team of rock stars, but they obviously believe in Tadeji as the leader of this team on the tour.

Get unlimited access to all of our coverage of the Tour de France- see more of our journalists on the ground from all stages of the race as it happens

Categories