In a quiet room in Monaco, just a few weeks after his season ended in pain, Tadej Pogačar sat down for a rare and honest interview. The five-time Tour de France winner looked tired but calm. He spoke slowly, choosing every word with care. For the first time, he talked openly about the darkest days of 2026 — and about the one thing that stopped him from giving up.
“I almost gave up,” Tadej said, looking down at his hands. “Not just on the season. On everything for a moment.”
It was the end of August. He was leading the Vuelta a España when he crashed hard. The doctors told him he had a concussion, a broken collarbone, and a fracture in his neck. The season was over. The World Championships in Canada were gone. The European Championships on home roads in Slovenia were gone too. For a man who lives to race, the silence felt heavy.
“I lay in bed those first nights and thought, ‘Is this it for this year? Maybe longer?’ The pain was bad, but the emptiness was worse,” he admitted. “I felt useless. I could not train. I could not help my team. I could not even hold my fiancée properly because of the injuries.”
That is when Urška Žigart stepped in with something simple that changed everything.
“She came into the room one morning, sat on the edge of the bed, and just held my good hand,” Tadej recalled, his voice soft. “She did not say ‘You will be fine’ or ‘You are the strongest.’ She looked at me and said, ‘We will do this together. One day at a time. I am here. I am not going anywhere.’ Then she smiled and added, ‘And when you are ready, we will ride side by side again — even if it is only on the trainer.’”
That small moment, he says, was the secret that saved him.
“It sounds so ordinary,” Tadej continued, “but it was everything. She was also hurt. She had broken her jaw twice this year. She was in pain too. She had her own dreams for the Worlds and the home Europeans. Yet she put all of that aside and chose to be strong for both of us. That is when I stopped feeling alone.”
In the weeks that followed, the couple recovered together. Tadej started spinning gently on the indoor trainer. Urška watched carefully, making sure he did not push too hard. They cooked simple meals. They watched old race videos and laughed at their own mistakes. When the European Championships came to Slovenia, they went not as racers but as fans. They rode a few quiet laps of the course together, smiling at the crowds who cheered them anyway.
“People see the wins and the yellow jerseys,” Tadej said. “They do not always see the nights when you doubt yourself. Urška sees those nights. She does not try to fix me with big words. She just stays. That is her secret power. And that is what saved me this year.”
He paused, then added with a small smile: “She says I earn millions and she earns ‘peanuts.’ But the truth is, what she gives me every day is worth more than any prize money. She makes me better — not just as a rider, but as a man.”
Now both are looking ahead to 2027. Tadej is healing well. Urška has signed a new contract until 2029. The road will still be hard, but they will face it the same way they faced this season — side by side.
“I almost gave up,” Tadej repeated at the end of the interview. “Until she did that simple thing. She stayed. She believed. She loved me through the silence. That is the real story of this year. Not the crashes. Not the broken bones. The love that refused to break.”
As he stood up to leave, the room felt lighter. Outside, the sun was setting over Monaco. Somewhere nearby, Urška was waiting. And for Tadej Pogačar, that was enough.