Tadej Pogacar begins Tour de France preparation with National Time Trial victory

Tadej Pogacar marked his return from injury with a dominant time-trial victory at the Slovenian championships on Thursday as the UAE Team Emirates star began his belated preparations for next month's Tour de France.

Pogacar, who won the Tour de France back-to-back in 2020 and 2021, was back in action for the first time since suffering a wrist injury in a nasty crash in April.

The 24-year-old Slovenian had no such problems in the 15.7km time trial near Lake Bled, beating second-placed Marko Pavlic by a massive five minutes and 14 seconds with a time of 29 minutes and 43 seconds.

“It’s a nice confirmation that the condition is pretty good," Pogacar said. "We’ve been working really well over the past months with the team to build up to these important next few weeks so I’m glad it’s going in the right direction.The road race on Sunday will be another nice outing in the build up up to the Tour.”

It was the third National Time Trial title for Pogacar, who also won the race in 2019 and 2020. He will also take part in the 156km road race on Sunday aiming to win it for the first time, his previous best effort a runner-up finish in 2020 to Primoz Roglic, whom he famously beat at the Tour de France in dramatic style a few weeks later.

"My arm is better, it's not quite there yet, but I don't feel any more discomfort in training," Pogacar said. "My injury bothers me a bit on technical aspects, but it doesn't bother my legs, and I was able to train well.

"I gave it my all and I think everything went according to plan. For now, I just have to make sure I don't fall or hit a bone."

Pogacar had been in scintillating form this year before his accident during the Liege-Bastogne-Liege, winning the Paris-Nice stage race and the Tour of