The Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar says the Slovenian federation’s choice to not choose his girlfriend Urska Zigart for the Olympics was one of many causes behind his Eleventh-hour choice to withdraw from the Paris Video games.
On Monday the Slovenian Olympic Committee stated in a press release that Pogacar had not been chosen due to fatigue, lower than 24 hours after he had gained his third Tour title in Good. Nonetheless, Pogacar flew to the Netherlands to compete in a criterium race on Tuesday night.
Talking earlier than that race, the 25-year-old stated of Zigart’s non-selection: “It’s not the primary cause, however for positive it didn’t assist. I feel she deserves her spot. She’s the double nationwide champion in street race and time trial.”
Zigart is her nation’s highest-ranked rider and Pogacar has lengthy been a extremely seen presence in assist of her profession within the ladies’s peloton. “She’s the one lady bicycle owner in Slovenia that ever achieved high 10 in week-long World Tour races,” he advised the Dutch broadcaster NOS. “She did nice within the final two years successful factors for Slovenia and, with out her, they wouldn’t have two spots within the [Olympic] street race.
After the Slovenian Olympic group was introduced earlier this month, Pogacar posted on-line: “I’m disgusted by the truth that Urška Zigart, a two-time nationwide champion and the most effective Slovenian bicycle owner on the World Tour, has not been chosen for the Olympic Video games,” including that he was “speechless”.
Zigart had been seen as an inevitable choice for the Olympics following a sequence of spectacular outcomes. “Earlier than the Tour of Switzerland, I obtained a textual content message from nationwide coach Gorazd Penko explaining his choice and his causes,” Zigart advised Slovenian media. “He advised me he had already determined final yr.”
Penko has chosen Urksa Pintar, who completed second at this yr’s Slovenian nationwide championship, 11 minutes behind Zigart. “It’s what it’s, and now we are able to go on trip collectively,” Pogacar stated of the pair’s Olympic absence.
The Giro d’Italia-Tour double winner Pogacar was one among a number of high riders from this yr’s Tour competing in Tuesday’s Surhuisterveen criterium. Requested if he felt like racing in Holland after six weeks competing in Grand Excursions, Pogacar stated: “A part of me, sure, a part of me, no.”
Pogacar was chosen to trip within the males’s Olympic street race on 3 August, hoping to enhance on his bronze medal on the Tokyo Olympics, however is now anticipated to hunt a uncommon triple crown by including the world street race title in Zurich on 29 September, to his Giro and Tour titles.
“For me, placing a cherry on high of this season can be to have a very nice August, to chill out a bit, to arrange properly for the world championships after which give it my all there,” Pogacar stated.
The Slovenian nationwide federation didn’t reply to a request for remark.
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