Tadej Pogačar is trying to put his disappointing performance in the World Championships time trial behind him with his final training sessions in Rwanda, riding alongside his teammate and compatriot Urška Žigart.

On Monday, Pogačar shared a video on social media of himself riding with Urška and several Rwandan national team riders, capturing the moment a local cyclist caught up with them and overtook them on a climb. On Tuesday, the pair took a longer ride.

The Slovenian champion is expected to complete a final block of intense training before starting to taper ahead of Sunday's road race, where he will have to cover 267.5 km.

His performance in the time trial, where he was caught and dropped by Remco Evenepoel, finishing 2:37 behind the Belgian and missing the podium by just one second, sparked widespread debate about a recent illness, the lack of an altitude training camp, and possible signs of fatigue after a busy 2025 season.

Last year, Pogačar dominated the World Championships in Zurich with a 100km solo attack, but a similar strategy seems unlikely on Sunday, considering the presence of in-form rivals such as Tom Pidcock, Juan Ayuso, Isaac del Toro and especially Evenepoel.

"Of course, I'm disappointed to have been caught by Remco, but it's incredible how strong he is in this discipline. Hats off to him for his performance," Pogačar commented after the time trial. "It was hard to digest, but he's Remco and he's incredibly strong in the time trial. I hope he gave 100% here and that he'll be at 99% on Sunday."