"Sofa and do nothing": Pogacar's keys to improving your recovery

In modern cycling, recovery has almost become a parallel discipline to training. Elite riders combine sessions of pressotherapy, massages, ice baths, hypoxia chambers, specific supplementation, red light therapy, and all kinds of protocols designed to accelerate physical regeneration. However, on the eve of the 2026 Tour de France, Tadej Pogačar has defended a much simpler idea: to truly rest.

While everyone seeks the perfect recovery, Pogačar bets on something much simpler: to stop

The Slovenian, a strong favorite to win his fifth Tour, spoke about this issue in the days leading up to the race's start in Barcelona and surprised with a reflection that contrasts with the growing sophistication of high-level athlete preparation.

“The best recovery can be staying on the couch and doing nothing,” Pogačar assured during a meeting with the media before the start of the French round.

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The evolution of performance in professional cycling has led riders to accumulate more and more stimuli. It is no longer just about training on the bike. Today's cyclists work on strength in the gym, undergo heat training, spend long periods at altitude, train their digestive systems to assimilate large amounts of carbohydrates during competition, and constantly monitor a multitude of physiological parameters.

Paradoxically, this constant search for improvements has also increased the mental and physical load on riders.

Pogačar believes that the real challenge is not to add more tools, but to know when to stop. “They say recovery is the most important thing, but athletes are being asked for more and more, which means that the time to recover is less. In reality, the most important thing is balance,” he explained.

“It’s about finding a balance between all the new things that are coming up and knowing where your limit is,” he added.

Too many solutions for too little time

The leader of UAE Team Emirates-XRG acknowledges that the possibilities to try to improve performance are practically infinite. Precisely for this reason, he believes that riders must be selective.

“There are so many things you can do to improve your performance,” he pointed out.

As he explained in those statements before the Tour, he constantly receives advice and recommendations from different areas of sports performance. “Many people come up to me, and everyone has different opinions. But if you try to do everything, you don’t have enough time in the day,” he stated.

Far from rejecting science or innovation, Pogačar is one of the riders who benefits the most from the technological and scientific resources of his team. UAE Team Emirates-XRG works with huge amounts of data and uses advanced tools to optimize training and detect possible signs of fatigue or overtraining.

However, the world champion believes that there comes a time when continuing to incorporate new things stops providing real advantages. “The biggest advantage for any athlete is knowing when enough is enough, stopping the exploration of new things, and sticking with what works best for oneself.”

“You have to find the balance between doing too much and doing too little,” he concluded.

On the brink of another attempt to conquer the Tour de France, Pogačar's message is striking in an era obsessed with optimizing every detail. While many seek the perfect recovery through complex protocols, the Slovenian reminds us that sometimes the most effective tool remains the most basic: disconnect, rest, and let the body do its job.