Believe it or not, even Tour de France dominator Tadej Poga\u010dar gets tired sometimes.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Sportal<\/em> this weekend, cycling\u2019s KOM-crushing, history-bothering superstar revealed the devastating decompression he experiences in the aftermath of a three-week race.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes I\u2019d lock myself in a room and not want to see anyone, and other times I really enjoy socializing,\u201d Poga\u010dar told the Slovenian outlet. \u201cThese fluctuations are especially common in the first week, but then things slowly pick up again.<\/p>\n \u201cOther cyclists who return from the Tour say the same thing,\u201d Poga\u010dar said Saturday.<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar spoke to Sportal<\/em> on the eve of the \u201cPogi Challenge\u201d cycling festival he hosts in his home town, Komenda.<\/p>\n It was just days after the 27-year-old put an exclamation point on his record-equaling fifth Tour de France title with a thriller 2-up attack through Paris with Mathieu van der Poel.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first few days after a Tour go by very quickly, especially if you have the Pogi Challenge waiting for you at the end of the first week,\u201d Poga\u010dar said.<\/p>\n \u201cUr\u0161ka [\u017digart, partner] went to the Women\u2019s Tour, and the obligatory dinner in Paris dragged on, also,\u201d he continued. \u201cThe first few days you\u2019re quite tired, your energy fluctuates.\u201d<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar celebrated his fifth Tour win late Sunday night with a luxury Parisian dinner, accompanied by his UAE Emirates-XRG teammates and members of the Emirati royal family.<\/p>\n But when the obligations were done, so was Pogi.<\/p>\n He has said after the Tour de France he was desperate to unplug.<\/p>\n Obliterating the fastest Tour de France on record and spending 17 days bogged down in the media obligations that come with the maillot jaune<\/em> come at a cost.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t wait to get home,\u201d he said from Paris after stage 21 of the Tour.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m flying back home tomorrow, then I have some house work to do,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Maybe it\u2019s just as well for the state of Chez Pogi<\/em> that Poga\u010dar \u2013 maybe intentionally \u2013 priced himself out of the post-Tour de France criterium circuit.<\/p>\n He reportedly demanded a \u20ac100k appearance fee for the lucrative exhibition races that sweep through Belgium and France in the wake of the Tour.<\/p>\n That\u2019s thought to be twice what Remco Evenepoel charges.<\/p>\n Evenepoel earned two juicy pay packets and two \u201cwins\u201d last week at the VIP races in Aalst and Roeselare. The Belgian star backed those up with a \u201creal\u201d victory Saturday at the Clasica San Sebasti\u00e1n.\u00a0<\/p>\n Contrastingly, Poga\u010dar, a rider who\u2019s known not to chase the spotlight unless necessary, just wanted to head home.<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t resurface from his post-Tour hibernation until he rolled up to the Pogi Challenge.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think too much about training or nutrition,\u201d Poga\u010dar told Sportal<\/em> of the post-grand tour comedown. \u201cAfter the Tour, you have to disconnect and reset. You need at least a week to get back to real life.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re in France for a month, you\u2019re going full speed every day, and before that you\u2019ve been preparing for a month or more,\u201d he said. \u201cSo when you get home, it\u2019s a bit of a shock.\u201d<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar was the exemplary host of his Pogi Challenge this weekend. \u00a0He \u201cwon\u201d the marquee race of the event and pulled unicycle stunts in front of thousands of his adoring fans.<\/p>\n So does that mean Poga\u010dar isn\u2019t too tired to race the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a later this month?<\/p>\n The rumor mill is spinning with chatter over whether the 27-year-old will finally make his return to the Spanish race where his grand tour legacy began.<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar suggested Saturday the Vuelta speculation might be over pretty soon.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe. We\u2019ll see. We\u2019ll see on Monday,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/pogacar-opens-up-on-tour-de-france-comedown\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2285185591-1.jpg”] Jim Cotton Updated August 2, 2026 07:13AM Believe it or not, even Tour de France dominator Tadej Poga\u010dar gets tired sometimes. Speaking to Sportal this weekend, cycling\u2019s KOM-crushing, history-bothering superstar revealed the devastating decompression he experiences in the aftermath of a three-week race. \u201cSometimes I\u2019d lock myself in a room and not […]<\/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-2075324","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\/2075324","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=2075324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2075324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2075324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2075324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2075324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Poga\u010dar wants six figures to show up<\/h2>\n
![\"Poga\u010dar](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2287785608.jpg?width=2048&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a decision on Monday?<\/h2>\n
![\"Tour](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Z8C_6413-2-1200x755.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")