Tadej Pogačar has begun training again for the first time since the crash that took him out of the Vuelta a España while leading the race last month.
The five-time Tour de France champion posted a series of pictures and videos on instagram, showing him in a variety of situations, including riding the indoor trainer at home, as well as eating out and sharing an ice cream with girlfriend Urška Žigart (AG Insurance-Soudal), whose season also came to a premature end after a crash at the Faun Tour Femmes at the weekend.
“First time back,” UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider says, as he is filmed riding the trainer. “Collarbone strong, head strong… super happy. Let’s go!”
Latest Videos FromCycling Weekly
In the Instagram post itself he wrote: “Not quite how we planned to spend September. At least we have good company. A big thank you to our teams, families, friends and all of you for the amazing support. We are very grateful.”
Pogacar rides indoors on UAE Team Emirates-XRG sponsor MyWhoosh, which timed his return to the saddle with a new series called Train with Tadej, which it says will give users an insight into Pogačar‘s build-up to the 2027 season. In a MyWhoosh statement, he talked further about what it was like to be back riding again.
“It’s just nice to be back on the bike. I’m taking it step by step at the moment and slowly building things back up towards next season. I’ve used MyWhoosh a lot over the years, especially for structured sessions indoors, so it’s good to be back riding on it now.”
The Slovenian crashed on stage eight of the Vuelta, while leading the race by nearly four minutes. An innocuous looking stone sent him sprawling into the pack, after he hit it while taking a drink. It’s the first time in his career that he has had to retire from a Grand Tour – let alone crashed out of one.
Movistar rider Enric Mas inherited his lead and went on to win the race, which he has previously finished second in three times.
Žigart’s crash at the Faun Tour saw her re-fracture her jaw – an injury originally sustained in a heavy crash at the Tour de Suisse in June. Her team announced on Monday that she would not race for the remainder of the year.
Explore More
