Cycling – How Tadej Pogacar is chasing new records

The king held court in Benidorm. Actually, Tadej Pogacar was less of a king and more of a pharaoh. His racing team UAE Emirates, which also had a new sponsor UAE Emirates XRG in the new year, had moved into the Hotel Grand Luxor. Not only does this borrow the name of the pyramid site, the main building itself is tiered like a pyramid, with a few sphinx figures standing guard in front of it. At the back there is an artificial body of water with boats moored at the edge, which are very reminiscent of the old images of watercraft on the Nile. All that was missing was for Pogacar to apply a layer of gold to his skin himself.

The new aero bike, which supplier Colnago is making available to the team for the coming season, presented itself in the fresh, rainbow-colored shine of the world champion. “We developed it explicitly at the request of the drivers,” explained chief designer Torgny Fjeldskaar “nd” in the hotel lobby. A five-person team researched the new tool for three years. What catches the eye is the seat post, which is separated from the seat tube and directed upwards at an obtuse angle. This is intended to dampen vibrations and thus ensure better comfort for the drivers, who, it is hoped, will then tire less quickly. At the same time, the front area was tinkered with, and according to tests in the wind tunnel, the new model called Y1Rs is 20 watts faster than the previous model V4Rs under ideal conditions.

This could be a factor for further triumphs for what was already the most successful racing team last year with an impressive 81 wins this season. Pogacar, who has 25 wins alone, definitely has more plans. »You’re always striving for improvements. I don’t see myself as an old guy either. There is still room for development,” said the Slovenian cheerfully. He announced his explicit goals in the media round: “I would be really happy to be able to defend my titles on the Tour and at the World Cup. I’m also aiming for victory at Milan-Sanremo. This is the least predictable race on the calendar. I’m slowly getting closer and closer to first place there.”

The announcement must be taken seriously. However, it gives Pogacar’s coaching team pause. “Good question,” replied Jeroen Swart, coach at UAE Emirates for six years, when asked by “nd” where he sees room for improvement in his best protégé’s training. »He no longer has any deficits. There may still be a little room in the realm of physical strength,” he mused. That means even more sweating in the weight room.

Swart saw working on upper body stability as one of the three most important factors in Pogacar’s fantastic performance boost last season. More muscles in the upper body can help to hold uncomfortable but aerodynamically more favorable positions on the bike for longer and thus to apply maximum force to the pedals for longer. Swart cited higher intensities in interval training and changes in nutrition as the other two main aspects of performance improvements. But it seemed questionable to him whether there was more to be teased out of it. “It would be good if we maintained the standard,” he said.

However, he expects the use of artificial intelligence to be of great help in developing new training ideas in the future. »We already have one. We call her Anna and she was developed with our partners in the United Arab Emirates. “We incorporate all the data that we receive from the drivers via the various devices into this platform, from performance data to sleep data to personal assessments of well-being,” explained Swart “nd”. The challenge for him and the entire coaching team is now to ask Anna the right questions in order to gain new insights. Soon he wants to ask Anna how best to win Milan-Sanremo. “I won’t tell you the answer yet,” he said.

From now on, the team wants to avoid a fairly toxic procedure. “We are discontinuing measurements of hemoglobin mass using the carbon monoxide method,” Swart announced in Benidorm. The procedure came under criticism because measured inhalation of carbon monoxide can have the same effects as altitude training, i.e. stimulating the production of red blood cells for better oxygen transport in the blood. That would essentially be doping. The team has so far denied inhaling carbon monoxide, but the use of the measuring method was an understandable reason for accusations.

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