Tour de France winner Pogacar withdraws from Paris Olympics

PARIS: Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar will not compete in the Paris Olympics after the Slovenian rider abandoned his bid for gold due to fatigue.

Slovenian news agency STA confirmed the news on Monday after Pogacar won his third Tour a day ago with a lead of more than six minutes over number two, Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard, Xinhua reports.

Pogacar won six stages and dominated the race. His triumph was even more impressive after he also won the Giro de Italia in May.

The manner of his victory and the form Pogacar showed in the early season one-day races, which are similar to the 273km Olympic road cycling race, made the 2020 Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist the favourite to add an Olympic gold medal to his already spectacular season.

However, his agent Alex Carera explained that the fatigue that the 25-year-old has built up over the past three months has led him to withdraw from the Games in Paris.

With Pogacar and Vingegaard both out of Paris, Belgian riders Remco Evenepoel, who finished third in the Tour de France, and Wout van Aert are the new favorites in Paris. Evenepoel will fight for gold in the road race and the 32-kilometer time trial.