In 2024, Pogačar was relatively late to the altitude party, heading to Sierra Nevada in Southern Spain after destroying the opposition at the Volta a Catalunya in March. This compared to his Tour de France rivals Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quickstep), who had already spent time up Teide in Tenerife.
After duly winning Liege–Bastogne–Liege and the Giro d’Italia, Pogačar then had some downtime at his home in Monaco before returning to altitude in the build-up to the Tour de France, this time at Isola 2000, where he’d later win a stage.
In fact, former pro rider-turned-analyst Serge Pauwels has suggested altitude training was one of the reasons why Pogačar beat Marco Pantani’s tarnished climbing record of the Plateau de Beille in 1998…
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Cycling Plus (Digital) - 1 Issue, November 2024