The Rog Cycling Club, where Tadej began his cycling journey, is celebrating 75 years of operation these days. At a ceremony at the Grand Plaza Hotel in Ljubljana, the Golden Rog Wheel was also awarded and Tadej won it for the fourth consecutive time it as the highest-ranked Slovenian cyclist at the end of the season on the UCI ranking. He has been number one in the rankings for 164 consecutive weeks. He celebrated the award together with his fiancée Urška Žigart, who received the golden wheel in the women’s competition. Among cyclists under 23, it was awarded to Gal Glivar, who raced in the UAE Gen Z development team this season.
»There are many events happening for cyclists at this time, I like to attend all of them, but I can’t make it to all. Where I can, I love to come, but serious work for the next season has already begun,« Tadej said in Ljubljana after spending a short vacation in the Seychelles with Urška.
»The week after Il Lombardia was free, I spent it at home and took care of some non-cycling matters. Then we already had a team camp with UAE Team Emirates in the United Arab Emirates, which took a week, and then Urška and I went on vacation for eight days. The older I get, the faster the break passes. We tried to enjoy as much as possible, but now we are returning to serious matters. I don’t miss racing yet, maybe it’s still too early for that, but I assume that by December my legs will start itching,« continued Tadej. He celebrated 25 victories in 2024, winning the pink jersey at the Giro and the yellow at the Tour, and the rainbow at the World Championship in Zürich.
He couldn’t reveal his race calendar for the next season yet, but he listed some big challenges for 2025. »I can’t say much about the program, we will discuss it in December or even later. As every year, we are quite flexible with my program. Perhaps the UAE Tour, our team’s home event, is suitable for the start of the season. We’ll see how we decide in December at the team preparations in Alicante. Otherwise, the challenges at the start of the season will be races I haven’t won yet, like Milan–Sanremo, and other races that don’t suit me best, like the Tour of Flanders. The Tour de France is the Tour de France, every year it’s a new challenge. There’s no number at which I’d say you’ve raced or won the Tour too many times. It never ends. Of course, I will defend the rainbow jersey in Rwanda,« Tadej added.
Foto Alen Milavec