In the last Tour de France, Jonas Vingegaard surpassed him, also thanks to the collective strength of Jumbo-Visma, but Tadej Pogačar remains a special cyclist, of course. This is also evident from the statement of his coach.
On the Rouleur website, Spanish coach Iñigo San Milan released a book some time ago about the unique physiological properties that Tadej Pogačar possesses. This isn’t in the frequently mentioned VO2max of the Slovenian. With a VO2max of 89, it’s comparable to, for example, Egan Bernal, and slightly lower than the estimated value of Jonas Vingegaard.
“But what we see with Tadej is that he continues to burn fat when cycling at high intensity. Other cyclists will have to use their glycogen stores up to that point. His body operates extremely efficiently.”
San Milan explains, “Professional cyclists store around 500 grams of glycogen, which they need for really intense efforts. Tadej can therefore save them for the moments when he really needs them because he can continue to tap into the ‘slow-twitch muscle fibers’ due to the efficiency of his body.”