After closing out 2025 with a historic fifth consecutive triumph at the Giro di Lombardia, Tadej Pogačar revealed the most difficult moments of his season, experienced during the Tour de France.

The Slovenian champion dominated the Grande Boucle, taking his fourth victory with a 4:24 advantage over rival Jonas Vingegaard, winning four stages and the polka-dot jersey in the mountains classification for the third time.

"The Tour is truly something special: exhausting, long, stressful... sometimes I call it a necessary evil for every team," Pogačar confided. "This year was the fastest Tour in history. Every day was stressful, with an extremely demanding route in the first ten stages, full of pitfalls."

The most critical moment came after the Mont Ventoux stage, when a knee problem raised concerns about my retirement: "I started to have doubts about whether I could continue, especially in view of the queen stage. And then on La Plagne the weather was terrible. It was cold, and my body went on the defensive. I'd really had enough."

Despite the difficulties, Pogačar managed to manage the situation by taking a second and third place in the remaining mountain stages, securing yet another yellow jersey.

Capping off an extraordinary season with 20 victories, including the Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and the World Championships, Pogačar also organized the Pogi Challenge on the Slovenian climb of Krvavec, where he was beaten only by Britain's Andrew Feather, a four-time national hill-climbing champion.