The favourite for this year’s Tour will again take a home route towards his big target of the 2022 season on home roads in Slovenia.
In the search for a hattrick of Tour de France wins, Tadej Pogačar will race through his home town of Komenda.
“This Tour of Slovenia is an especially nice race for me,” said Pogačar. “Stage 4 passes through my home town of Komenda. I obviously know the roads and climbs quite well, and I look forward to see friends and family who will be out cheering the race.
“The parcours is tough and there will be strong rivals but hopefully we can pull off some good results along the way and enjoy a nice week of racing.”
The five days of racing at a 2.Pro-UCI rated race doesn’t have the toughest quality field of recent events like the Criterium du Dauphine and Tour de Suisse, but is a race growing in prestige in the past few years. Pogačar won the 2021 edition, the first time claiming overall victory at the race where he made his first impression on the professional peloton racing as a young amateur.
“It’s been a while since I last pinned on a race number so I’m eager and excited to get back into it,” Pogačar said. “We’ve been training at altitude in Livigno and the atmosphere has been great in the team. I’ve been feeling pretty good in training, but it’s always hard to know exactly how you’re going until you’re in the race.”
The rest of the squad looks to be the bulk of the team that will head to the Tour to protect Pogačar, with Vegard Stake Laengen, Rafal Majka and Mikkel Bjerg all veterans of last year’s victory, with Jan Polanc present for the 2020 win.
UAE Team Emirates squad: Pascal Ackermann, Mikkel Bjerg, Vegard Stake Laengen, Rafal Majka, Rui Oliveira, Tadej Pogačar, Jan Polanc.
