Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar admits the Slovenia’s decision to not select his girlfriend Urska Zigart for the Olympics helped influence his own call to withdraw from the Games.
Pogacar won his third Tour de France title on Sunday but then pulled out of the competition in Paris at the start of thisweek citing ‘extreme fatigue’.
However, the 25-year-old subsequently travelled to the Netherlands to compete in a race on Tuesday.
Zigart, meanwhile, is Slovenia’s highest-ranked rider in the world but missed out on a spot at the Olympics.
In June, Zigart won the Slovenian national title by over 10 minutes but was left out of the women’s road race for the Olympics in favour of Eugenia Bujak and Urska Pintar.
Zigart’s agent, Alex Carera, said the coach who made the decision ‘has damaged cycling and the Olympic committee for personal interests’.
Speaking about Zigart’s omission from the Olympics, Pogacar told Dutch broadcaster NOS: ‘It’s not the main reason but for sure it didn’t help.
‘I think she deserves her spot. She’s the double national champion in road race and time trial.
‘[Zigart] is the only woman cyclist in Slovenia that ever achieved top 10 in week-long World Tour races.
‘She did great in the last two years winning points for Slovenia and, without her, they wouldn’t have two spots in the road race.’
Speaking about her omission from the Olympics, Zigart indicated that she had expected the decision.
‘Before the Tour of Switzerland, I received a text message from national coach Gorazd Penko explaining his decision and his reasons,’ she told Slovenian media.
‘He told me he had already decided last year.’
Pogacar was expected to represent Slovenia at the Olympics in the road race onAugust 3.
At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, he won bronze in the road race, finishing behind Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz, who won gold, and Belgium’s silver medallist Wout van Aert.
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