The Slovenian Olympic Committee announced this on Monday. The 25-year-old Slovenian, who recently won the Tour de France for the third time and previously dominated the Giro d’Italia, will be replaced by his compatriot Domen Novak. Pogacar won bronze in the road race at the 2021 Summer Games in Tokyo.
“Unfortunately, Tadej Pogacar has cancelled his participation due to extreme fatigue,” Uros Murn, coach of the Slovenian Olympic team, was quoted as saying in a statement. The Slovenians will also have to do without Primoz Roglic, the 2023 Giro winner who dropped out of the Tour de France injured after a fall. Danish Tour runner-up Jonas Vingegaard had also cancelled his participation in the Olympics in June.
Angry about the non-nomination of his fiancée
Pogacar was also recently annoyed about the non-nomination of his fiancée Urska Zigart, Slovenian national champion in road races and individual time trials. It remains unclear whether his somewhat surprising withdrawal from the Olympics had anything to do with this.
This year, Pogacar would have been among the medal candidates in the road race on August 3 and in the individual time trial on July 27. However, the 275 km long course in the road race around the French capital should be more suitable for classic specialists such as world champion Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands), Mads Pedersen (Denmark) or Wout van Aert (Belgium).