Pogacar is already instilling fear in his rivals before the Tour: 'He passed us several times and was going very fast'

Less than a month before the start of the 2026 Tour de France, Tadej Pogacar is once again the center of attention. Not for a victory, nor for a performance in competition, but for the sensations he left during his altitude training in Sierra Nevada. There, he coincided with several riders from Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, and what they saw did not go unnoticed.

Pogacar's new physical appearance surprises his main rivals

The Slovenian from UAE Team Emirates-XRG spent a good part of May working at altitude to prepare for his assault on the Tour after an intense campaign of classics and winning the Tour de Romandie. During those weeks, he shared the roads of Granada with some of the men who, on paper, should try to challenge him for dominance in July.

One of them was Maxim Van Gils, who is competing in the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes after recovering from a pelvic fracture suffered in the Jaén Classic. The Belgian was part of the long altitude camp of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe alongside Remco Evenepoel, Florian Lipowitz, Primoz Roglic, Gianni Vermeersch, Tim van Dijke, and Jan Tratnik.

In statements to the Belgian newspaper HLN, Van Gils explained that they crossed paths with Pogacar several times during training and that the level shown by the world champion caught the attention even among riders used to being around the best climbers on the planet.

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“Tadej passed us several times and was going very fast,” Van Gils recounted. “We weren’t going slowly either, but he was climbing with a lot of strength. At first, we thought he was showing off a bit and had hidden a few curves ahead. But when we got to the top, we saw him again, so for him, it was just a normal climbing pace.”

Beyond the speed, there was another detail that surprised the Belgian rider: Pogacar's physical appearance.

“I thought he looked very thin,” Van Gils said, referring to the leader of UAE Team Emirates-XRG.

This observation is particularly striking because just a few weeks earlier, during the Tour de Romandie, Pogacar himself had acknowledged that he was a bit heavier than usual after spending more time on strength training.

“I weigh more than usual, but I feel good on the bike. That’s the most important thing. I let myself go a bit in the gym. I really enjoyed it and got hooked,” the Slovenian explained at that time.

Now, after several weeks of altitude training, the impressions of his rivals suggest that Pogacar has successfully completed the transition to his specific physical condition for the grand tours. A common process for many Tour contenders, but in his case, it seems to have been particularly noticeable.

While Pogacar was accumulating kilometers in Sierra Nevada, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe was developing a training camp that within the team they consider one of the most successful in recent years.

Van Gils described the camp as “the best of my career so far”, highlighting the combination of workload, recovery, and atmosphere within the group. According to him, the riders worked with a different structure than usual, alternating two days of training with a rest day to facilitate the assimilation of the load.

The Belgian also highlighted the camaraderie among the team leaders, especially between Remco Evenepoel and Florian Lipowitz, the two men expected to lead the German team's aspirations in the upcoming Tour de France.

However, although Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe arrives in July with significant arguments to fight for the podium, the impressions left by Pogacar during the training camp have served as a reminder of the enormous challenge it will be to try to defeat the reigning world champion.