After another predictable day of Tadej Pogačar domination at the Tour de France, the four-time yellow jersey winner called out some of the spectators who had booed him on stage 10 to Le Lioran, saying that they only gave him "more power."
"I enjoyed the day, and in the final I didn't know if I was gonna win until the last kilometre. Then I remembered this festive day [Bastille Day – Ed.] and tried to honour the yellow jersey," said Pogačar in his flash TV interview, unable to hold in his real thought on some of the "haters" along the road.
"Thanks to all the fans that came today to the road. It was an amazing atmosphere, even though [there was] some booing. To all the guys that were booing, they give us more power. Thank you, thank you."
Pogačar has long been a popular rider, but some of his shine has been taken off as his UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad continues to consume almost all the glory on offer. July 14 is typically a breakaway epic at the Tour, Bastille Day in France, when the roads are packed, and the home riders try to deliver a show for all to see along the 166.6km route through the Massif Central.
However, on Tuesday, the only thing they got to see was the latest episode of the UAE show. With no room for a breakaway to go in the early phases, the team kept the 31-rider group that did eventually get up the road on a tight leash until they reeled them in one by one, with their star-studded train working on the front to set up the obvious Pogačar attack.
It came with 15.5km to go, and unlike the 2024 race to the same finish location, he was never seen again, winning solo, just as everyone expected and extending his lead on GC to 3:36 over Jonas Vingegaard in second.
If the Tour wasn't already over after his destruction of the Col du Tourmalet on stage 6, it certainly seems to be now – barring incident.
It's clear, though, that as he approaches a fifth yellow jersey, Pogačar's stranglehold on the Tour de France is becoming boring for some of the fans who have long cheered for him. When he sat down for his press conference about an hour after the finish, his booing comment was unsurprisingly the first thing he was asked about.
"I mean, yeah, for sure, I have haters and haters are going to hate," said Pogačar. "It's always like this, even though in cycling it's not as much; for example, in tennis or football, there is much more booing and going against one team or one player because it's just intense, one against each other. "
The Slovenian then opened up about who he looks to when it comes to receiving hate, noting fellow Balkan Novak Djokovic, the all-time Serbian tennis legend with 24 Grand Slam titles to his name, as somewhat of a role model for how he handles it.
"It's 50-50 with the fans, so in this case, when someone is booing me, I mean, if they boo me actually on the road, they boo the whole bunch, you don't know who it is, because we all pass together," said the Slovenian, able to laugh about the situation.
"I always think about tennis, Novak Djokovic, and the great mentality he has. I think he had one of the toughest careers, getting a lot of boos and unnecessary hate because he is the greatest.
"I always look up when someone is going to him and think about him. It's like this, but I also need to say that in cycling, it's not actually so much booing. 99% of people are cheering for everybody, and I think also when you see the kids, you can see there is a family wearing different jerseys, one Visma, one Groupama, one UAE and you can see they have their favourites, but it's in the family and it's really nice to see."
In the end, Pogačar still has the large majority of fans on his side, admiring his greatness as perhaps the best anyone has seen since Eddy Merckx in the 60s and 70s, and while he stresses how the hate only fuels him and his teammate, that popularity may not last forever if he and UAE continue to dominate as they have in this 113th Tour de France.
"Cycling fans are the greatest between all the sports, so we should be happy and grateful for all fans," he said. "And to all the booers, I think they just give more boost to my teammate or they put wood on the fire."
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