Strength, heat, and strategy: Pogacar's master plan to continue improving in 2025

Improving on the perfect season that Tadej Pogacar had last year doesn't seem like an easy task. However, both the Slovenian and his coach since last year, Javier Sola, are already hard at work, making small adjustments to the preparation so that, at 26 years old, the Slovenian can continue to progress.

Pogacar facing the challenge of improving on a perfect season

"I can still improve. And my experience keeps growing," Tadej Pogacar stated during the month of December at the training camp with his team in Alicante. A clear statement of intent that shows that the Slovenian cyclist maintains his high ambition in search of new challenges.

An improvement that began last year with a change of coach. After his entire career under the guidance of Iñigo San Millán, who decided to focus on his research duties, leaving the Slovenian orphaned, the task of his preparation passed to another of the coaches of UAE Team Emirates, the also Spanish Javier Sola.

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Against a training regimen based mainly on volume work in zone 2, Sola increased the amount of intensity work, something they intend to continue focusing on this year, especially in the first part of the season clearly focused on the classics and in a year where Tadej Pogacar will not race any week-long stage races at the beginning of the season, except for the UAE Tour for contractual reasons, only one-day races.

This focus on the classics and the obsession with winning Milan-San Remo have led Sola to increase strength training in the Slovenian's gym with the intention of further refining his body composition. Both gaining muscle and, presumably, further adjusting his already minimal levels of fat.

In any case, his coaches at UAE Team Emirates-XRG point out that such a workload is only possible first due to the enormous recovery and assimilation capacity of a talent like Tadej Pogacar and, secondly, due to the tremendous professionalism of the Slovenian, whom they even have to hold back from training excessively. A capacity to assimilate workload that allows him to get in shape much faster, making him competitive from the first race.

Another novelty in Pogacar's preparation in 2025 is the importance that heat adaptation training has gained. No longer just seeking to better withstand the scorching days that usually accompany cyclists in July in France, but also trying to take advantage of the effects of increased resistance and blood hemoglobin that occur when the body is subjected to heat. In fact, in recent weeks, he has become a regular user of the CORE temperature sensor that allows him to monitor this value constantly.

A constant pursuit of caring for every detail has also led Tadej Pogacar to actively contribute to the development of the new Colnago Y1Rs or the new Pissei kits. No aspect that could affect performance is left to chance on Tadej Pogacar's path to perfection.