Youngest champion of the Tour de France: Who is Tadej Pogacar?

Pogacar is the first person to do so since Laurent Fignon, who won his first Tour de France in 1983.

At the age of 24, Pogacar became the second youngest cyclist to win the Tour de France, after 1904 champion Henri Cornet (19 years 355 days).

Pogacar, who won the yellow jersey (general classification) as well as the polka dot jersey (the king of the mountains) and the white jersey (the best young cyclist) in 2020, became the third person to finish the Tour de France leader in 3 different classifications. Eddy Merckx (1969, 1970, 1971, 1972) and Laurent Fignon (1983) have done this before.

Tadej Pogačar (born 21 September 1998) is a Slovenian professional cyclist who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam UAE Team Emirates. He won the 2020 and 2021 editions of the Tour de France, winning three different jerseys during each Tour, a feat unseen in nearly four decades. Comfortable in time-trialing, one-day classic riding and grand-tour climbing, he has been compared to legendary all-round cyclists such as Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Fausto Coppi.

Since Pogačar sees cycling as a game, he does not attach too much meaning to the races. When mental problems are an indispensable part of sports, not being overwhelmed by expectations is something very few athletes can achieve.

In the legendary race, there has been a Pogačar-Vingegaard rivalry for the last two years.

However, 24-year-old Slovenian star Tadej Pogacar attacked the Tour of France at the summit of the legendary Puy de Dome, which returned after 35 years and managed to reduce the gap between the defending champion Danish Jonas Vingegaard to 17 seconds on the eve of his first rest day. However, it didn't...

August 2021

After his second consecutive Tour de France victory, Pogačar extended his team UAE Team Emirates to a record salary contract.

The length of his contract, as well as the wages he earned, is a record for the bike. Tadej Pogačar will fight for his team until the end of the 2027 season.

Pogačar, who will turn 23 next month, will earn a total of 36 million Euros, excluding possible bonuses, according to the 6-year contract he signed. This fee makes him the world's highest-paid cyclist.

In addition, the new contract signed by Pogačar puts him ahead of his other high-income rivals, 4 Tour de France champion Chris Froome (Israel Start - Nation) and 3 world champion Peter Sagan, who recently signed with the TotalEnergie team for the 2022 and 2023 seasons.

In 2020, a report by L'Equipe stated that Froome earned 4.5 million euros a year, while Sagan was the highest-paid racer in the peloton with 5 million euros.

July 2022

History of sportsmanship!

When Danish Vingegaard saw that his most important rival fell to the ground in the Tour de France, he stopped and waited instead of making up for it. When Tadej Pogacar got up from the ground and approached him, he shook the hand of his exemplary colleague. 

Jonas Vingegaard, a yellow jersey, who had good speed during a corner on a mountainous descent, overtook his opponent. Pogacar, meanwhile, could not take the corner and fell to the ground. Seeing the Slovenian cyclist fall, Danish Vingegaard chose a different option instead of using the great opportunity he had to catch up with his most important rival on the tour.