Tadej Pogacar told us in his press conference as the winner of the 2026 Tour de France that he was “not thinking about any clubbing”. He wasn’t talking about his plans for this balmy Paris night, which will surely extend well into Monday morning, but about the so-called ‘Club des Cinq’ – the club of five-time Tour winners, of which he is now a member.
In sealing his fifth yellow jersey on Sunday, Pogačar joined Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Miguel Indurain as the most successful riders in the history of the Grande Boucle, and by doing so at just 27 years of age he looks well set to strike out on his own before his career is all said and done.
But despite the place he has just taken in the pantheon of this sport, he does not seem remotely bothered with history or legacy.
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“Right now I just want to enjoy the moment of winning the Tour. If it’s my fifth, or my first, it doesn’t matter. It’s unbelievable to wear the yellow jersey in Paris and cross the line wearing it,” Pogačar said.
“I’m not thinking about any history, clubbing, or whatever. I just want to relax, come back home, and enjoy the small things in life.
“I’m really happy and proud to win a fifth Tour, but every single one has a different story, a different meaning, different emotions. Each one of them feels incredible and unbelievable for me.”
The response was classic Pogačar, the abnormally gifted champion athlete who also just wants to live a normal life. Not many manage it, but there again Pogačar seems to be breaking new ground.
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“I’m flying back home tomorrow, then I have some homework to do,” he said of his first moves as a five-time Tour winner.
While most yellow jerseys will cash in on their success on the lucrative post-Tour criterium scene, Pogačar seemingly has no interest in going through the motions for the sake of a bit of extra cash. He has only once accepted Tour organiser ASO’s invitation to their late-season exhibition criteriums in Asia, and that was in 2023 when he didn’t have the yellow jersey to parade.
Pogačar will be present at a criterium on Friday, but it will be his own event, in his home town of Komenda, Slovenia, kicking off a weekend that will culminate with the Pogi Challenge amateur ride on Sunday. The whole event will raise money for his own charity, the Tadej Pogačar Foundation.
“I have a crit race in my home town on Friday night, with some special guests, from the Tour as well – big riders, so thanks to them for coming. Then Pogi Challenge with kids and families and amateurs on Sunday. So it’s a big weekend for me.”
After that, it’s back to France.
“I hope I can see some stages of the Tour de France Femmes, to see Urška riding in the Tour,” he added, referring to his partner Urška Žigart, a fellow pro who rides for AG Insurance-Soudal.
The Pogačar that sat before us uttering these words was very different to the one sitting in the same Parisian leisure centre 12 months ago. Back then, he was exhausted – physically injured but rather mentally spent, having gone the last few days of the race going through the motions.
This time, he seemed almost as fresh as he did in Barcelona three weeks ago, cracking jokes and gently mocking his teammate Isaac del Toro to his left.
“I don’t say that last year I was burning out but I was well aware it can happen. I’m also aware now even,” he said.
“The burnout doesn’t mean you’re sad one day or don’t feel good one day on the bike. Burnout means chronic fatigue and you’re not happy on the bike, and everything feels like a job for you and it’s hard.
“I’m aware it can happen if you push so far. That’s also why I don’t say right now ‘I go to the Vuelta, I do this and that and all the races’. I also need to think about this and keep the feet on the ground.”
The question mark over the Vuelta a España, which begins in his adopted home town of Monaco on August 22, has been there all season. It remains the one Grand Tour – and one of the only major race stops – that Pogačar has yet to win.
Victory in Spain would further round out his palmares and cement his place in history, and the understanding is that he ideally wants to go for it this season, but as he has already pointed out, it’s not history at all costs for Tadej Pogačar.
“Right now, if the Vuelta starts tomorrow I say no,” he said when asked about the Spanish Grand Tour, “but in two weeks I can still decide.”
Right now, Pogacar’s only priority is what’s immediately in front of him.
“I want to get some sleep but for sure we have a nice dinner planned with the whole team. We’ll tell some nice stories and enjoy the moment.”
And so Tadej Pogačar wandered off into the Paris dusk, a changed man in the eyes of the world but very much the same inside.
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