Tadej Pogacar arrives at Tour de France relaxed and ready to create more history

Tadej Pogacar may have the weight of cycling history on his slender shoulders, but the UAE Team Emirates leader could not have been more relaxed on the eve of the Tour de France.

“I don’t think about history that much, almost never,” the 23-year-old Slovenian said. “We have so many things going on, I just try to enjoy the moment, have fun on the bike, travel around the world, and see what that brings to me.”

Perhaps it's easy for Pogacar to ignore historical significance when he has become so accustomed to creating it. On his Tour de France debut in 2020, at the age of 21, Pogacar became the youngest rider since Henri Cornet in 1904 to win cycling's most prestigious road race – and in spectacular style too, snatching the yellow jersey on the penultimate stage with a time trial performance for the ages.

If his debut title had been a bit smash-and-grab, there was no mistaking his dominance last year, Pogacar proving head and shoulders above his rivals, no matter how hard they tried to gang up on him.

Just weeks after his victory procession along the Champs Elysees, Pogacar made more history as the first cyclist to win an Olympic road race medal the same year as winning the Tour de France.

The world's top-ranked cyclist for almost one year, Pogacar in April became the first road cyclist in history to surpass 6,000 points in the UCI World Rankings.

Now there are more major milestones in his sights: Pogacar is aiming to be just the sixth rider to win the Tour de France three years in a row, an achievement even the great Bernard Hinault was unable to accomplish.

If history has a habit of repeating itself, then Pogacar's rivals should be very wary indeed. Much like 12 months ago, he enters the Tour following titles at the