Tadej Pogačar Is the World’s Best Cyclist. So Why Isn’t He a Global Superstar?

There isn’t much left for Tadej Pogačar to win on a bicycle.

He’s torn through cycling’s record book, wins nearly every race he starts, and is bearing down on a fifth Tour de France title.

So why isn’t the world’s best cyclist on the cover of a Wheaties box?

According to his longtime agent Alex Carera, global brands are calling, but Pogačar keeps putting the bike first.

“Our vision is pretty clear. The most important thing is the sport,” Carera told Velo. “The priority is training, recovery, but also mental recovery, and spending more time with the family.”

Pogačar is cycling’s richest and most marketable rider, earning an estimated €8 million to €9 million a season from UAE Emirates-XRG, plus several million more through endorsements.

Yet his endorsement roster doesn’t quite match his palmarès.

Current deals include cycling brands like DMT and Continental Tyres, plus a growing partnership with Richard Mille, the Swiss luxury watchmaker behind a recent $1 million timepiece.

But there’s no Nike, Adidas, or Red Bull.

Carera insists Pogačar’s profile already reaches well beyond cycling.

“When he won the first Tour, he was famous in cycling,” Carera said. “Now he’s an ambassador of the sport also outside cycling.

“He’s unique because he did not win only the Tour de France like some champions over the last 10 or 15 years. He also won classics and the world championship. He’s really a global athlete now.”

‘The sponsors come to us’

On the bike, Pogačar is cycling’s Lionel Messi. He’s chasing down Eddy Merckx’s most sacred records and is the sport’s most prolific winner of the modern era.

But the four-time Tour winner hasn’t broken out to become a commercial powerhouse on the scale of Roger Federer, Cristiano Ronaldo, or LeBron James.

Part of the answer is something that will never change: cycling remains a niche sport outside much of Europe. And unlike athletes from larger markets, Pogačar’s Slovenian passport does not come with the vast built-in audience that attracts multinational brands.

Lance Armstrong, cycling’s last true crossover superstar, landed A-list deals with Nike, Subaru, and Anheuser-Busch before his eventual downfall for doping.

As Carera sees it, the problem is that the Nike-level deals also demand time. That’s one thing Pogačar doesn’t have a lot of.

“There are many differences between Lance [Armstrong] and Tadej,” Carera said. “But the most important difference on the sporting side is that Armstrong rode only the Tour de France. Tadej rides from Sanremo to Lombardia. In the middle there is the Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix, the world championships.”

Not everyone wants to become the next Michael Jordan. Pogačar has repeatedly suggested that normal life matters more to him than fame.

“I always think of myself as a normal person,” Pogačar told RSI Sport earlier this year. “The most peace I find is when I’m home with Urška in Monaco, where we can stay really relaxed and sometimes do nothing. It’s really important to find these kinds of days.”

Carera said they deliberately keep Pogačar’s commercial portfolio small, choosing to carve out whatever free time he has for family, his partner Urska Žigart, and simply having some fun.

“We see many different proposals, but we want to have a maximum of five personal sponsors, not more,” Carera said in a call with Velo before the 2026 Tour started. “The sponsors come to us. I have no time to find sponsors or call people. They know exactly who is the agent and who is the agency.”

Fitting in racing and training calendars

Any deal has to fit around Pogačar’s racing calendar, not the other way around.

The mega-brand endorsements often require athletes to commit days, even weeks, to filming commercials, making appearances, and entertaining sponsors.

Carera said Pogačar’s camp has passed on high-profile offers because those commitments cut too deeply into his preparation.

One story from Sierra Nevada reveals how far sponsors must go.

“DMT needed to take some images, so they came to Sierra Nevada because there was no other chance,” Carera said. “The whole DMT staff, four videographers and three photographers came to Sierra Nevada.

“When Tadej and his coach decided he only had a two-hour ride, then they went with motorcycles, not cars, because the motorcycles don’t disturb Tadej during training.

“It’s different from a tennis player, basketball player, or football player because they live in one place and have more time,” Carera said. “For cyclists, it’s so difficult.”

That’s partly why Pogačar’s newest major endorsement was already linked to his UAE Emirates-XRG team. Richard Mille will remain a team sponsor through 2029, but a separate three-year deal ties the luxury watchmaker directly to the world No. 1.

“They wanted to have more relation directly with the champion, with Tadej,” Carera said. “For the next three years he’ll be an ambassador.”

Richard Mille even made Pogačar the face of its new $1 million watch launch, a sign of just how big his profile is growing.

“Brand Pogačar” is starting to catch up with his racing résumé. The only thing holding it back is everything required to keep winning.