{"id":336764,"date":"2025-08-11T21:51:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T21:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/336764\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T21:51:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T21:51:12","slug":"these-are-things-you-have-to-keep-overcoming-miguel-indurain-weighs-in-on-pogacars-retirement-talk-and-tour-de-france-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/336764\/","title":{"rendered":"“These are things you have to keep overcoming\u201d \u2013 Miguel Indurain weighs in on Pogacar\u2019s retirement talk and Tour de France record"},"content":{"rendered":"

Miguel Indurain<\/a>, the Spanish legend with five consecutive
\nTour de France<\/a> titles, has weighed in on whether Tadej Pogacar<\/a> will join him
\namong the race\u2019s most decorated champions. Pogacar claimed his fourth Tour
\nvictory last month, now just one win shy of matching Indurain\u2019s tally and
\nequaling the all-time record shared by Indurain, Jacques Anquetil, Bernard
\nHinault, and Eddy Merckx. Speaking to EFE, Indurain expressed confidence that
\nthe Slovenian will soon earn his place in the sport\u2019s \u201cOlympus,\u201d but he warned
\nthat psychological wear could be a bigger obstacle than physical limits.<\/p>\n

“Finishing the race sooner or later depends on how much
\nyou want to finish. But if he’s fit and eager, he’ll be the one who pushes
\nhimself to the limit,” said the Olympic time trial champion, pointing out
\nthat in elite sport, “you start very young.” Indurain explained that
\ncycling demands relentless discipline: “In our sport, you have to make a
\ngreat effort, train hard, and take care of yourself, which is a high-level
\nsport. But many suffer mental problems due to that tension, stress, and
\nresponsibility, as they play tricks on them.”<\/p>\n

When asked if he could relate to Pogacar\u2019s growing signs of
\nfatigue, as he has mentioned retirement on several occasions, Indurain was
\ncandid. “The travel, the stress of competition, and the constant risk of
\nfalls” weigh heavily on riders, he said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“These are things you have to keep overcoming, until
\nyou tire. Some endure more and others less.” He stressed that success at
\nthe highest level requires complete personal commitment: a cyclist “must
\nbe convinced of what he’s doing with enthusiasm and desire,” adding,
\n“He will determine what his sporting career will be like.”<\/p>\n

Indurain also reflected on the current racing landscape,
\nnoting that every rider tailors their own path. “Now we’re looking at
\nwho’s going to finish and how they’re going to finish. The Tour of Poland is
\nunderway, the Tour of Norway, the Vuelta a Burgos.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is doing their own kind of preparation.” He
\nobserved that riders often use late-season races strategically: “We
\nalready know that with the Vuelta coming at the end of the season, the ones who
\nhaven’t been to the Giro, the ones who had a bad Tour, tend to come… It’s a
\nmatter of who comes and how they come, and if they’ll take the start in Italy
\nat full speed.”<\/p>\n

Discussing the sport\u2019s evolution, Indurain acknowledged the
\nincreasing pace and intensity. “Sports are changing, becoming faster, more
\nintense, lighter… Everything is improving, from the speed to the roads, the
\nwheels, and the equipment. It’s about trying to push everything to the limit,
\nbut it doesn’t just happen in cycling, it happens in all sports.”<\/p>\n

Drawing on his own racing era, he recalled, “we
\nswitched to automatic pedals, time trial bottles, and helmets.” Today, he
\nsaid, “we have aerodynamics and electronics… It’s a continuous
\nimprovement, each one in its own sport.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Miguel Indurain, the Spanish legend with five consecutive Tour de France titles, has weighed in on whether Tadej…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-336764","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115012349775557437","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}