There isn\u2019t much left for Tadej Poga\u010dar to win on a bicycle.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s torn through cycling\u2019s record book, wins nearly every race he starts, and is bearing down on a fifth Tour de France title.<\/p>\n
So why isn\u2019t the world\u2019s best cyclist on the cover of a Wheaties box?<\/p>\n
According to his longtime agent Alex Carera, global brands are calling, but Poga\u010dar keeps putting the bike first.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur vision is pretty clear. The most important thing is the sport,\u201d Carera told Velo<\/em>. \u201cThe priority is training, recovery, but also mental recovery, and spending more time with the family.\u201d<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar is cycling\u2019s richest and most marketable rider, earning an estimated \u20ac8 million to \u20ac9 million a season from UAE Emirates-XRG, plus several million more through endorsements.<\/p>\n Yet his endorsement roster doesn\u2019t quite match his palmar\u00e8s.<\/em><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s no Nike, Adidas, or Red Bull.<\/p>\n Carera insists Poga\u010dar\u2019s profile already reaches well beyond cycling.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he won the first Tour, he was famous in cycling,\u201d Carera said. \u201cNow he\u2019s an ambassador of the sport also outside cycling.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s 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\u2019s really a global athlete now.\u201d<\/p>\n On the bike, Poga\u010dar is cycling\u2019s Lionel Messi. He\u2019s chasing down Eddy Merckx\u2019s most sacred records and is the sport\u2019s most prolific winner of the modern era.<\/p>\n But the four-time Tour winner hasn\u2019t broken out to become a commercial powerhouse on the scale of Roger Federer, Cristiano Ronaldo, or LeBron James.<\/p>\n 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, Poga\u010dar\u2019s Slovenian passport does not come with the vast built-in audience that attracts multinational brands.<\/p>\n Lance Armstrong, cycling\u2019s last true crossover superstar, landed A-list deals with Nike, Subaru, and Anheuser-Busch before his eventual downfall for doping.<\/p>\n As Carera sees it, the problem is that the Nike-level deals also demand time. That\u2019s one thing Poga\u010dar doesn\u2019t have a lot of.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are many differences between Lance [Armstrong] and Tadej,\u201d Carera said. \u201cBut 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Not everyone wants to become the next Michael Jordan. Poga\u010dar has repeatedly suggested that normal life matters more to him than fame.<\/p>\n \u201cI always think of myself as a normal person,\u201d Poga\u010dar told RSI Sport<\/em> earlier this year. \u201cThe most peace I find is when I\u2019m home with Ur\u0161ka in Monaco, where we can stay really relaxed and sometimes do nothing. It\u2019s really important to find these kinds of days.\u201d<\/p>\n Carera said they deliberately keep Poga\u010dar\u2019s commercial portfolio small, choosing to carve out whatever free time he has for family, his partner Urska \u017digart, and simply having some fun.<\/p>\n \u201cWe see many different proposals, but we want to have a maximum of five personal sponsors, not more,\u201d Carera said in a call with Velo<\/em> before the 2026 Tour started. \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Any deal has to fit around Poga\u010dar\u2019s racing calendar, not the other way around.<\/p>\n The mega-brand endorsements often require athletes to commit days, even weeks, to filming commercials, making appearances, and entertaining sponsors.<\/p>\n Carera said Poga\u010dar\u2019s camp has passed on high-profile offers because those commitments cut too deeply into his preparation.<\/p>\n One story from Sierra Nevada reveals how far sponsors must go.<\/p>\n \u201cDMT needed to take some images, so they came to Sierra Nevada because there was no other chance,\u201d Carera said. \u201cThe whole DMT staff, four videographers and three photographers came to Sierra Nevada.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Tadej and his coach decided he only had a two-hour ride, then they went with motorcycles, not cars, because the motorcycles don\u2019t disturb Tadej during training.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s different from a tennis player, basketball player, or football player because they live in one place and have more time,\u201d Carera said. \u201cFor cyclists, it\u2019s so difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s partly why Poga\u010dar\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThey wanted to have more relation directly with the champion, with Tadej,\u201d Carera said. \u201cFor the next three years he\u2019ll be an ambassador.\u201d<\/p>\n Richard Mille even made Poga\u010dar the face of its new $1 million watch launch, a sign of just how big his profile is growing.<\/p>\n \u201cBrand Poga\u010dar\u201d is starting to catch up with his racing r\u00e9sum\u00e9. The only thing holding it back is everything required to keep winning.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tour-de-france\/tadej-pogacar-too-busy-winning-global-brand\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2285044194.jpg”] Andrew Hood Updated July 16, 2026 12:26PM There isn\u2019t much left for Tadej Poga\u010dar to win on a bicycle. He\u2019s torn through cycling\u2019s record book, wins nearly every race he starts, and is bearing down on a fifth Tour de France title. So why isn\u2019t the world\u2019s best cyclist on the cover […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2048667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2048667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048667\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2048667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2048667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2048667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018The sponsors come to us\u2019<\/h2>\n
![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2187919733-720x480.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Fitting in racing and training calendars<\/h2>\n
![\"Tour](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2224126876-720x436.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")