Another exceptional weekend is in the books for Tadej, in which he not only celebrated his fifth consecutive victory at Il Lombardia, but also, with his supporters and fans, took on Pogi’s challenge from Klanec to Krvavec for the first time.
The highlight of the two-day program – on Saturday, 330 children competed in Pogi’s challenge for the youngest at the hippodrome in Komenda, and then fans watched the broadcast of Il Lombardia on the big screen – was Sunday’s race to Krvavec. It was attended by 1189 cyclists from as many as 36 countries, who tried to complete the 14,95-kilometer climb with 1189 meters of elevation gain ahead of Tadej.
The world and European champion gave them about seven minutes of a head start, then began the chase, in which one of the participants got away from him – the 40-year-old British amateur cyclist Andrew Feather. He reached the finish with a time of 44:15, Tadej actually climbed faster (40:44), but he did not catch the winner of the inaugural Pogi Challenge. In the women’s field, the fastest was Pia Bedene Kralj (1;01:16).
»Any weather suits me. If the support is good, if the clothes are good, if you have enough water, then it’s all good. What we had today is the best. I’d just like a bit of sunshine, but on the bike it was good. There were loads of people along the road, it was phenomenal, I tried to catch everyone, but I didn’t manage. Hats off to the winner,« said Tadej at the Beach (Plaža) at Krvavec, where he recorded the Tour 202 podcast live in front of his fans.
»There is no event like this anywhere else. We have many recreational races, cyclists come to the start to pick up their numbers, there is a lot of chaos on the road, and after the finish everyone goes straight home. But here, a lot was already happening yesterday and then this morning. We went up the climb together, we all saw each other. I am truly happy that we decided to do this,« Tadej added. On this occasion he was also awarded the golden Rog wheel as the highest-ranked Slovenian cyclist on the UCI world ranking. In the women’s competition, the award was received by his fiancée, Urška Žigart, and the best young cyclist of the 2025 season was Jakob Omrzel.
The event, energized by a concert by the band Siddharta, also had a strong charitable focus. At the auction of Tadej’s personal items, they raised 42.741 euros, the bank Sparkasse, as one of the supporters of the event, contributed 45.000 euros, and 6.908,41 euros were collected through voluntary contributions from participants and visitors to the event. In total, 94.649,41 euros were gathered. The Tadej Pogačar Foundation will allocate this money primarily to school scholarships for young people who have overcome cancer or are in the process of recovery. In this effort, it also cooperates with the association Junaki 3. nadstropja, which for many years has provided support to children with cancer and their families.
In addition, 150.000 euros of the funds raised by the event, which was excellently organized by the agency Extrem under the leadership of Simon Rožnik, will be intended for the operation of Pogi and Pika teams, where Tadej’s and Urška’s successors are being forged.