Tadej Pogačar admitted the 2025 Tour de France is beginning to wear him down physically and mentally, joking that the relentless transfers have left him with no time to shave. But behind the humour was a hint of unease as he prepared for stage 10’s first real mountain showdown without João Almeida by his side.
“This Tour is growing me old,” Pogačar said with a grin, speaking ahead of the Bastille Day mountain test to Puy de Sancy. “There’s no time to shave, we have so many transfers. We had two hours before the start in the bus, three hours after the finish in the bus. Maybe I need to bring my whole bathroom kit to the bus for the next days.”
Yet with the loss of Almeida confirmed mid-stage on Sunday, there was no masking the strategic implications. The Portuguese climber, who finished fourth overall last year and won the Tour de Suisse in June, had been a key part of UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s plan for the decisive Alpine stages.
Almeida was caught in a mass crash on stage 7 into Mûr-de-Bretagne and battled through the pain of a fractured rib across two more days before calling it quits halfway through stage 9. Pogačar said he could hardly believe how his teammate had even made it that far.
“I was suffering today on the bike so I can’t imagine how much João was suffering,” he said. “Sadly he had to abandon today, it was too much to bear and I think everybody understands. We wish him all the best, and he will come back stronger.
“Now we’ll have to reassess but I think we’ll manage. We’ll keep fighting with seven riders and try to win this Tour also for João.”
Stage 10 brings the race into the Massif Central, with 165.3km and over 4000m of climbing. It’s not a summit finish on paper, but the profile includes eight categorised climbs and ends atop the Puy de Sancy after a day where early moves could be decisive. With Almeida gone, Pogačar hinted that he may have to play things differently.
Photo Credit: Getty“Now we don’t have João maybe we’ll follow,” he said, offering either an honest admission or a subtle prod at his rivals. “It’s a big day in France and we’ll see a lot of French riders on the front, so it’ll be hard to control.
“Tomorrow is a solid day, a proper climbing day. It doesn’t look so hurtful on the profile, but I think it’s going to be a really hard race. I think we are ready for it.”
The Slovenian remains in yellow with a 54-second advantage over Remco Evenepoel, with Kévin Vauquelin at 1:11 and Jonas Vingegaard just behind at 1:17 after losing time in the stage 7 time trial.
Pogačar made it through Sunday’s flat run to Châteauroux without incident but said the high temperatures and fast racing took a toll.
“The heat made it difficult and then Jonas Rickaert and Mathieu van der Poel made it even harder,” he said of the aggressive early moves. “It was a really, really hard day for a flat stage. It was fast and furious. The wind was blowing in the right direction to make it hard.”
UAE Team Emirates-XRG manager Mauro Gianetti acknowledged that Almeida’s exit will force them to adapt.
“Our tactics will change,” Gianetti told Cyclingnews. “All the team will back Tadej now and so that’s our only tactic. Of course we’re focused on the goal. We have the yellow jersey and lead by a minute. It’s not a huge lead but it’s significant. In modern cycling it’s a good chunk of time.
“It’ll be up to the others to attack and then we’ll defend the yellow jersey. On Monday we’ll see the real values of the GC contenders.”
