Tadej Pogacar: The New Patron of the Tour de France

Published: 14 July 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online.

Riding the Tour de France in intense forty-degree heat remains difficult for every single rider. It becomes even harder when you must race against Tadej Pogacar every single day. As the massive peloton takes a breather, they lounge in the cool morning shade. They rehydrate carefully on the Tour’s first rest day during this long, grueling season. Most professional team managers are pondering what genuine opportunities they might still have today. They face Pogacar’s absolute domination and wonder how to try to achieve some success.

After he and his team faced harsh criticism for chasing down every small breakaway, questions arose. Even if those breakaways posed little or no threat to the overall standings, the intensity continued. L’Equipe recently asked their readers: Is the young champion Tadej Pogacar killing professional road cycling?

On the stage to Ussel on Sunday, UAE Team Emirates asked for help from others. They requested aid from other teams in pursuing the day’s early escapers, including Tom Pidcock. Pidcock’s former team Netcompany Ineos promptly obliged, although many observers found it hard to understand. We decided to contribute to the chase because we believed in Pippo Ganna, said the director.

Pogacar and his team would certainly deny it, but there is no doubt regarding his status. The four-time champion is clearly cycling’s new patron, echoing other great serial Tour winners. He resembles legends like Eddy Merckx and Lance Armstrong, who effectively controlled the race outcome. They often dictated the flow of most stages in the Tour, even those they ignored.

Pogacar is untouchable in the high mountains, and his detractors would say he is untouchable elsewhere. Few on this Tour have displayed much genuine scepticism towards the Slovenian rider this year. He recently shattered the record climbing time on the famous and difficult Col du Tourmalet. There is not the same open cynicism in France that was on show during the past. This differs significantly from the treatment towards Chris Froome, who won four Tours with Sky.

There is nonetheless growing incredulity at the roadside towards the sheer scale of Pogacar’s supremacy. Pogacar and his team have already won three stages and it seems inevitable they win more. With six mountain stages still to come, including a mountain time trial, he looks strong. He may be entirely out of sight by the time the Tour turns towards beautiful Paris.

He is also in absolute control elsewhere in the race, choosing his own successful future path. Already it feels as if he has personally chosen his own successor for the coming years. On the basis of what we have seen, it is more probable to be his teammate. He prefers the Mexican climber Isaac del Toro over the highly sought-after French prodigy Paul Seixas. That young Frenchman is currently subject to contract offers from most of the leading professional teams. While Seixas, a Tour debutant, is still an apprentice, Del Toro has already finished on podiums.

The UAE team are also one of the primary suitors for the young Frenchman Paul Seixas. Nino Seixas, his brother, was hosted at a winter training camp by the powerful team. Pogacar has also made a very specific point of praising the young Frenchman quite often lately. If his team were to sign Seixas, they would employ three of the world’s top ten.

Jonathan Vaughters, manager of EF Education EasyPost, recently shared his thoughts on the current power balance. In the World Tour, there are essentially five haves and there are thirteen have-nots, he explained. Your average budget now sits at thirty-two or thirty-three million, but five teams have much more. You can see with what UAE did last year that they are on track again today. The American has long been a vocal advocate of a strict, fair, and effective salary cap. Very few teams are able to win the major races now, he told the gathered media. Everyone else can be there and race for minor placings, but winning belongs to a few.

The issue of spiralling budgets for some teams, while others tread water, has been echoed elsewhere. In cycling, there are only a handful of potential Tour de France winners at any time. By the end of this season, Pogacar and UAE Team Emirates may be employing three of them.

A decade ago, according to Vaughters, there were not four or five huge mega-budget teams around. Those massive budgets were not pushing up the salaries as they are doing in the current era. Now you have got serious bidding wars between the richest teams to sign the best young talent. And what that has done is pushed up team budgets, creating a divide in the sport. It means you are dividing the professional landscape between the wealthy haves and the struggling have-nots.

For the French fans, the curtailing of the Seixas hype has been particularly tough to take. It is difficult in the face of UAE’s total control of the race for many years. Vaughters sympathises with those feeling the ennui of watching another Tour dominated by one lone rider. There is little chance of success for the lesser teams to challenge such a massive, well-oiled machine. The way the sport is currently set up, we are actively discouraging many sponsors and fans.

If you are not a fan of UAE in cycling, you might feel quite left out. If you are not interested in another Pogacar win, why are you watching the race right now? This question resonates deeply with those who love the unpredictability that defined the sport for many years. As the race continues toward the capital, the peloton will hope for a different tactical approach. For now, however, the yellow jersey remains firmly on the shoulders of the sport’s new patron.

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