Cycling ace motivated

“Triple crown!” Pogacar wants to be crowned at the World Championships

Tadej Pogacar also wants to win the World Championship title this year.

(Bild: Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Tadej Pogacar's success in the one-day race in Montreal has boosted his confidence for the World Championships. The Slovenian professional cyclist, who recently won the Tour de France for the third time, won the World Tour race in Canada on Sunday by a clear margin. "The victory today has given me a lot of self-confidence and motivation," said Pogacar two weeks before the men's World Championship road race in Zurich.

"You can't really do much in terms of form in two weeks," said the 25-year-old. He will do some longer and some shorter training sessions. "The opportunity is always there," he said, talking about his chances of winning his first World Championship title. "I already had the chance last year and finished third on a course that doesn't suit me that well. This year it's much better and therefore my chances are better."

Nevertheless, a world championship is just a world championship. "If everything doesn't go perfectly, it's hard to win." Pogacar would like to write another piece of cycling history in the race in Switzerland on September 29. He would be only the third rider after the Belgian legend Eddy Merckx (1974) and the Irishman Stephen Roche (1987) to win the "Triple Crown", i.e. victory at the Giro d'Italia, the Tour and then World Championship gold in the same year.