"Talking, walking... I had to learn everything all over again"
Good morning,
These are today's quotes and interviews worth your time.
Stood out to me today: "He said: I ate popcorn here yesterday and I had good legs, so I'd better make sure I eat popcorn again. So there he was again with his little tray eating popcorn. And the day after he won again after another solo."
¡Vamos!
🎤 INTERESTING INTERVIEWS
“He goes against the car of Visma - it was a crazy situation.”
Pogačar's agent on the knee injury that nearly ended his 2025 Tour de France
The story of Tadej Pogačar's knee problems in the final week of last year's Tour de France has been widely discussed. What has not been public until now is how it started. Speaking on the Domestique Hotseat podcast, Pogačar's agent Alex Carera revealed that the injury was triggered by a collision with a Visma-Lease a bike team car ahead of stage 18 to Courchevel.
"When he goes against the car of Visma, he's really unlucky because it's a crazy situation," Carera said, as reported by Cycling Weekly. "After that of course he's worried because he doesn't feel well." Keeping that information from rival teams became the immediate priority. "It was my job to protect him so this information didn't go out. If other teams knew he had an injury, the tactics could change and become more aggressive."
However, Pogačar's teammate Tim Wellens, speaking to L'Equipe in November, offered a different timeline, insisting that the knee problem was already there in stage 17. “It was so bad that he even went down to the race doctor. After that stage, he went to the hospital for a number of tests. That’s where they discovered the inflammation, but nobody knew! I was certain the news was going to leak out. Withdrawing was seriously considered. It was therefore a huge relief that Tadej didn’t give up in the mountains.”
“I think they found a way to push the right buttons to get it out of me at the races.”
Urška Žigart on the pressure of being Pogačar's partner and finding her own footing
At AG Insurance-Soudal's 2026 team presentation in Brussels, Urška Žigart was direct about something she had not addressed publicly before. The attention that comes with being Tadej Pogačar's partner has not made things easier for her career. It has made them harder.
"I don't know how open I've been about it before, but I've struggled with the attention in the past," she told Cyclingnews. "A lot of people thought that it's easier for me, but I would say it was even harder because... maybe nobody would care about me if I was just another rider, but because of being Tadej's girlfriend, they were maybe checking the results or, yeah, just putting a bit more pressure on me from that point."
Her read on it now is that having survived that scrutiny before the results arrived has made her more durable. "So I've lived through the scrutiny before actually being in the position to have to be under scrutiny, if that makes sense. Now it's just easier, I would say."
The relationship itself she describes as grounding rather than complicated. "He's one of the first people, and vice versa, that sees how hard we both work, at home, and training camps, trying to make this life work out. And as much as he's a jokester on the bike and everything, he's just a very mature person. I think I wouldn't be where I am without him; and he always says the same thing."
The best result of her 2025 season, a second overall at Tour de Romandie, came not just from physical improvement but from a shift in confidence she had not felt before. "It was just the first race where I really arrived and I was like, 'Oh, I think I can do really well here', it was like my first show of real confidence."
On extending at AG Insurance-Soudal through 2027, she was clear about what the move to a new team had unlocked. "I think the legs, the power, it's always been there. It's just, I think they found a way to push the right buttons to get it out of me at the races."
“In Tadej I see the same determination.”
Eddy Merckx on his seventh Milan-Sanremo, Pogačar's chances on Saturday, and what the race meant to his life
Fifty years ago , Eddy Merckx won Milan-Sanremo for the seventh time. Nobody has won it more, and nobody is likely to. Speaking to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Merckx was sharp about what Pogačar needs to do on Saturday.
"For Pogačar it can be the right time if... he attacks at the right moment. But the Van der Poel we saw at Tirreno Adriatico, won't be easy to beat. Quite the opposite. Tadej must drop him, because after 300 kilometers in Via Roma if they're still together... the favorite would be Mathieu. The long distance can be an ally for the Dutchman."
On where to attack, Merckx pointed to the Poggio, with a caveat. "Even if he can drop everyone on the Cipressa, last year only Van der Poel and Ganna were able to stay with him. He's capable of long breakaways, but at Sanremo the chance that they catch you increases. And if there's a strong headwind on the Cipressa, making a difference becomes very difficult. Even for Tadej Pogačar."
When the comparison to his pre-1969 self came up, Merckx acknowledged it and quickly contained it. "I don't see many differences. There were days when I won with a big margin over everyone, like Liège in 1969 or the Tre Cime di Lavaredo stage at the 1968 Giro. In Tadej I see the same determination. But let's stop there, because as you know I don't like comparisons, especially between different eras."
His 1976 victory, which took him past Costante Girardengo's record of six wins, he recalled with an edge. "Many newspapers had written 'Merckx is finished, Merckx is no more'. I showed that I was not yet finished." He was certain of victory only at the very end. "I tried to do the impossible, to drop De Vlaeminck, Maertens, Sercu... because in a sprint I would have risked being beaten. And I was sure of winning only when I raised my arms on the Via Roma."
Asked which of the seven victories was the most beautiful, the answer was immediate. "The first, in 1966. I hadn't yet turned 21 and it was my first great success. Something exceptional, given the age I was. It started the series of victories in Italy. It made me popular in Italy, which then became a second home country." He closed with something simple. "Milan-Sanremo made me understand that cycling could become my life, as indeed it has."
“Talking, walking... I had to learn everything all over again.”
Ludovic Robeet on his stroke, his recovery, and the road back to racing
Cofidis rider Ludovic Robeet was two days from flying to Canada for racing when it happened. In the middle of the night, around three in the morning, he woke up knowing something was wrong. "I felt something was happening to me. My face felt strange. I had difficulty breathing. And one side of my body wasn't responding," he told Het Nieuwsblad.
His girlfriend, heavily pregnant and asleep in another part of the house, had her phone on silent. "I tried to call her, but her phone was on silent. Eventually I somehow managed to drag myself to her. But at that point I could no longer speak. I tried, but nothing came out."
At the hospital, doctors confirmed a stroke. Robeet, then 31, had just completed a solid Renewi Tour. Nothing had announced it. "Nobody knows why. There was nothing to predict it. On the contrary, I was feeling fine at the time. I had just ridden good races. And suddenly it happens. But, they told me at the hospital, it's not unique. There are other young people it happens to."
He spent two weeks in the Erasmus hospital in Anderlecht before moving to a rehabilitation centre. The path to recovery was brutal. "It was conflicting. On one hand you're afraid you can't race again. On the other hand you first want to simply recover. With a stroke, you never know for certain if that will happen. Talking, walking: I had to learn everything all over again."
The turning point came when he was allowed back on the bike. "I'm convinced that through my sport I've recovered much faster. The neurologists said the same. I had to challenge my body, stay active. Live as normally as possible again. That would help."
Robeet is honest about where he stands now. His face still sits slightly uneven, and the left side of his body has less strength. But the endurance training is back. The limit at the moment is a different kind. "My heart rate refuses to go above 150 for now. I have to be honest: you can't race like that. I wouldn't be able to follow. First I need to be able to breathe again at 100%." A short training camp in Spain went well. Small steps. For now, that's enough.
🏆 THE SERGE BAGUET AWARD
There was a popcorn machine in the lobby. And Evenepoel said: I ate popcorn here yesterday and I had good legs, so I'd better make sure I eat popcorn again. So there he was again with his little tray eating popcorn. And the day after he won again after another solo.
— Arne Marit on Remco Evenepoel, Vals Plat
Wonder what The Serge Baguet Award is all about? Check it out here.
💬 QUICK QUOTES
“I have information from inside the peloton that his current form is really scary. That he's better than ever.” — Johan Bruyneel in THEMOVE on Mathieu van der Poel.
“What Vingegaard did was not on the same level as Remco Evenepoel in Valencia, Isaac Del Toro in the UAE Tour, or of course Tadej Pogačar at Strade Bianche.” — Romain Bardet in Eurosport nuancing Vingegaard's supremacy in Paris-Nice.
“It's clearly a message sent to Pogačar, who has dominated, even crushed, the last two editions of the Tour de France, letting him know he'll be there in July.” — Christian Prudhomme, General Director of the Tour de France, in RMC on Vingegaard's display in Paris-Nice.
“There's one thing you can never take away from Lenny Martinez: he's a sniper. When he arrives to win, he almost never misses." — Former pro Jérôme Coppel in Cyclism'Actu TV on Lenny Martinez's final stage victory at Paris-Nice.
“I sometimes felt at Alpecin that he wasn't giving 100 percent for the team, that he was thinking a bit about himself too. I had that feeling occasionally, whether it's true or not I don't know. But now he really seems like a true domestique, genuinely good. And his 100 percent commitment — yeah, respect." — Former pro Ramon Sinkeldam in Beyond The KOM on Timo Kielich's role at Visma-Lease a Bike.
“I have to say, I was a bit starstruck when I arrived. If you look left, you see Primož Roglič. If you look right, you see Lipowitz. And if you look straight ahead, you suddenly see Remco Evenepoel.” — Arne Marit in the Vals Plat podcast on joining Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe.
That's it for today. See you tomorrow 👋
Jay