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Yellow is the national color in Slovenia these days. You can see them in streets and squares, in gas stations, shops and offices. Universities also conquered this color, which distinguishes the absolute winner of the Tour de France. “We are preparing yellow jerseys for all the members of our faculty, about 200 pieces. We think Monday will be a crazy day,” Radoje Milic told DW by phone. Milic is director of the performance diagnostic laboratory at the Institute of Sports Sciences at the University of Lubljana. He is also a kind of godfather of Slovenian cycling. In 1988 he started performance testing, developed training plans, trained youth coaches.
What you saw now on the streets of France, first the dominating performance of Primoz Roglic and then the incredible overtaking maneuver of Tadej Pogacar, who is not even 22 years old, is the culmination of more than 30 years of development work for Milic. “In 1990 we won the first bronze medal in a World Junior Championship with Bogdan Fink. Fink is now sports director of Adria Mobil. I was a mom and dad to them back then,” Milic recalls with a laugh.
After Fink there were more medals for young Slovenian cyclists. Janez Brajkovic was the under-23 world champion in individual time trial in 2004, Matej Mohoric was the under-23 world champion in road races in 2013. The year before, Mohoric had the same blow a lower class in the juniors. Simon Spilak was also the medal winner at the 2004 Youth World Cup, a remarkable record for a country with just two million inhabitants.
Too good for his age group
Another Slovenian was too good for the junior world championships: Tadej Pogacar. Last fall, when he had just turned 21, he skipped the U-23 World Cup and started in the men’s race. He was 18. A week earlier, when he was still 20 years old, he was third overall in the Tour of Spain.
“He’s a child prodigy,” said his youth coach Miha Koncilija when called by DW during the Tour time trial. Koncilija still believed that his protégé would come in second behind fellow senior Roglic. On the 36.2 kilometer time trial ride to the Planche des Belles Filles, Pogacar also exceeded the expectations of those who have known him for a long time.
Completely exhausted but in the (temporary) destination of dreams: Tadej Pogacar after the penultimate leg of the tour.
Koncilija, however, is able to recognize continuities. He has trained Pogacar since he was ten years old. “At that time he was four to eight inches shorter. The lack of weight was especially noticeable when he was running against the wind. Tadej had to fight. But I think that helped him always have to prevail against the biggest,” he says Koncilija.
Milic: “Everything was clean there”
He says Pogacar has developed steadily, improving year after year. For him, the development of his protégé is logical. “We didn’t know that he was going to achieve something like we are now in France. But we knew he was a great talent. And we saw that he was working hard on himself.”
Performance diagnostician Milic takes a similar stance: “We have a lot of data from Pogacar, starting at age 14. Every year there were various tests because he was recognized as a talent at a young age,” Milic told DW. You have the confidence to know if someone is doping based on performance data development. In Pogacar he says: “Everything was clean there.” He attributes his development to talent and hard work. And also about intelligence on the bike. “We had athletes with similar values to his. But he takes it to the road. He knows how to position himself well and recognizes his possibilities. He has a very high cycling IQ.” The performance at the Planche des Belles Filles also surprised Milic. “I gave him ten percent that he could still beat Roglic,” he says. Many others did not even give the young Slovenian this chance.
Scouting and youth work network
The fact that two Slovenians are likely to take the podium in Paris on Sunday night has to do with a dense racing network and the comprehensive support provided by the Ljubljana sports institute. “We have an agreement with the cycling association to test young cyclists as well. We work with them two, three sometimes four times a year, depending on certain programs. We take care of them until the sub23 level. After that, they are either amateur cyclists from very high level. ” Level or become professionals, ”says Milic.
When DW visited him last year, there was a performance test at his institute. Dozens of boys and girls waited in the hallways of the institute. At the time, however, they were ski jumpers, so young in the sport that Primoz Roglic, probably second on the tour, once stood out as a young man. Milic tested Roglic in 2013, when he turned his back on ski jumping due to a prolonged fall injury.
Former ski jumper Primoz Roglic rode in the yellow jersey for a long time on this year’s tour.
Cycled as regeneration. And when he was training in earnest, he beat a couple of ex-pros in one of many amateur races. That led him to Milic. And he put Roglic with his first protégé, Bogdan Fink. “At first my sports directors were skeptical. Primoz also fell a lot at the beginning. He first had to learn to ride in the peloton. But the fascinating thing about him is that he does not make two mistakes,” said Fink, describing the beginnings. Losing another Tour de France in the time trial, that happened to him for the first time on Saturday.
Doubt but no evidence
Neither Fink nor Milic are surprised that doubts about the cleanliness of the toilets arise due to the success of the two Slovenians. But they keep their hands on fire for their burdens. And the “Aderlass” operation, the doping investigation around Erfurt doctor Mark Schmidt, whose clients also include the two Slovenian professional cyclists Borut Bozic and Kristijan Koren and the trainer Milan Erzen, are for Fink a matter of an old generation. of cyclists. After all, Erzen was Adria Mobil’s sporting director for a time. “He was already gone when Primoz came to us,” says Fink.
And when asked if he or anyone else on the racing team had contact with Mark Schmidt, Fink laughs sarcastically and says, “I only heard about Dr. Schmidt from the media, and I think Primoz did too.” So far, there are no known direct connections from Roglic or Pogacar to the Erfurt doping doctor.
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