Tadej Pogacar: "I can already be happy with my Dauphiné but..."

June 8 ^th 2025 - 15:31

"I was not expecting to win. I was prepared to go to the bus after the finish, take a shower and enjoy the rest of the day… I don’t mind being here! I hadn’t won in the Dauphiné yet so it’s a nice feeling and I’m super happy to take the win in such a race, especially in that kind of way. It makes a special victory for everyone. I can already be happy with my Dauphiné but I want to see how the legs will be in the TT and on the mountains.

I followed the moves on the steep part of the climb and then Visma were really going for the stage win, trying to attack with everybody. Fortunately, I had good legs so I could follow. Jonas [Vingegaard] put the cherry on the top with his attack. It was a painful one. Then, I could recover on the downhill to the finish. And from 2 kilometres to go, I started thinking of the sprint. I knew Mathieu Van der Poel was the fastest but after such a finale you can’t discard anyone.

We have to see how we defend the jersey in the coming days. We’ll rapidly be at the ITT and we’ve seen how strong Remco [Evenepoel] and Jonas are. The main ambition is to have the jersey next Sunday."