Tour de France champion Tadej Pogačar has said that Slovenia’s decision not to select his fiancée, Urška Zigart, for the Paris Olympic Games was one of the reasons behind his own decision to pull out of competing.
Pogačar withdrew from selection in the road race on August 3, with the Slovenia Olympic Team confirming the news earlier this week. Tiredness has been given as the reason for his withdrawal.
Speaking before the Dutch post-Tour de France criterium, the Profronde Surhuisterveen, on Wednesday, Pogačar revealed that the decision to leave out Zigart also played a part in his withdrawal.
“It’s not the main reason, but for sure it didn’t help,” he said. “I think she deserves her spot. She’s the double national champion in the road race and time trial.
“She’s the only woman cyclist in Slovenia that ever achieved a top 10 in a week-long WorldTour race,” he added, referring to her ninth place at the Tour de Suisse Women in June.
“She did great in the last two years winning points for Slovenia and, without her, they wouldn’t have two spots in the road race.”
Zigart, who won the Slovenian time trial title by 4:34 and the road race by 10:47, was left out of the national team when selectors announced the squad earlier this month.
35-year-old Eugenia Bujak and 38-year-old Urška Pintar, who took second in the Slovenian road race, were selected for both the road race and time trial in her place.
Pogačar, who was recently lauded in Slovenia as part of homecoming celebrations following his Tour de France win, reacted to the news by writing in a social media post, “I am disgusted by the fact that Urška Zigart, a two-time national champion and the best Slovenian cyclist in the WorldTour, has not been selected for the Olympic Games.”
Zigart – who said that she had been informed of the decision before the Tour de Suisse – also noted that she disagreed with the decision.
“Didn’t expect this to reach the highs it did. I have come to terms with the decision a long while ago,” she wrote on social media. “It is not my intention to force participation at all. Especially, because I don’t think I want to race somewhere where they don’t appreciate me and to be with people who only put me down.
“But I am allowed to express my disagreement with being left out of the selection and to point out the inexistence of actual objective criteria in the selection process.”
