After finishing on the podium in the elite men’s road race at the Glasgow World Championships, Tadej Pogačar said he enjoyed the fast and technical city centre circuit in the Scottish city with its sweeping corners and punchy climbs.
Speaking to the media post-race, the Slovenian explained that he had drawn on his experience of criterium racing when he was younger once the riders had entered the urban circuit.
“I really like city street racing,” he said. “When we were kids, younger, we raced a lot of criteriums so yeah, I really, really enjoy this kind of course with the corners in the city and lots of up and down with the climbs.
“It's not perfect for me but I enjoyed it just until I wasn't enjoying it anymore.”
“It was one of the hardest days I've had on the bike and one of the hardest races I’ve ever done,” he added. “I can definitely say that I'm really really happy that I finished on the podium next to these names."
The elite men took on ten laps of the relentless circuit which eventually took its toll. Multiple big name riders were forced out of contention due to the high pace including Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen.
A video shared on social media showed Pogačar joking with UCI president David Lappartient that the race had been “two laps too much”.
As the race reached its conclusion, Mathieu van der Poel launched a devastating attack and soloed to a resounding victory - made even more impressive after the Dutchman suffered a late crash which left him with a broken shoe.
Pogačar was left in a chase group containing Van Aert and Denmark’s Mads Pedersen. Eventually Van Aert pushed on to snatch silver leaving the Slovenian and Pedersen to battle it out for third. Surprisingly Pogačar edged the Dane in the sprint for the bronze medal which even he struggled to believe himself.
“I knew that I didn't have much of a chance [against Pedersen],” he explained. “On the last lap I tried a few times to attack on the last climb but they were all really strong and I wasn't stronger than Wout or Mads. I was dreaming about a medal, particularly about the gold medal, but Mathieu was strongest and stayed free.
“I was already seeing myself as the fourth because sprinting against Wout and Mads was almost mission impossible but after such a long and tough race anything can happen.
"Everybody in the group deserved a medal but yeah, I feel I have sympathy for Mads and wish for him that he could have a medal but of course there's only three."
Pogačar heaped praise on Van der Poel post-race and described his performance as “crazy”.
“It was incredible, nobody had any response to his attack and he just could go all the way,” he said. “It was amazing that he could go all the way, even with crashing, it was really well deserved.”
There were concerns for the Slovenian post-race in the mixed zone when he was swiftly ushered from the glare of the media cameras after appearing to be unwell.
Pogačar explained that the huge effort of the race had left him feeling dizzy afterwards and that he had an urgent call of nature as he was about to speak to the waiting journalists.
“I felt really sick and had to go to the toilet quite quickly,” he explained as he thanked journalists for their concern. “If I'm honest I felt really sick from the finish until about ten minutes ago. I was really feeling really, really bad and I just wanted to go lay in my bed and do nothing but now I'm much better.”
"Two laps, too much!" 🤣🤣🇸🇮 Pogacar's hilarious exchange with UCI president David Lappartient over the @CyclingWorlds road race course! 🌈🚲#CouchPeloton #GlasgowScotland2023 pic.twitter.com/s2GFqG7izKAugust 7, 2023
