I cycled with the reigning Tour de France champion, Tadej Pogacar, and all I had to do was walk up to my local gym
It’s still relatively early on a Saturday morning when I trundle into the gym, immediately attracting a few confused looks. I can understand why. It’s not every day someone walks through the doors wearing skin-tight cycling shorts and an oversized T-shirt.
Then again, it’s not every day you get the chance to ride alongside one of the greatest cyclists of all time. But that was the rather surreal situation I’d somehow found myself in.
OK, my local gym hadn’t been my first choice. Instead, I’d originally planned to drive to my parents’ house and stealthily use my dad’s indoor bike.
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But with Halloween plans looming – and a Spider-Man costume waiting to be worn – that idea quickly went out the window.
And so, with a couple of fellow gym-goers warming up for their workouts, I pitched up a static bike, connected my phone and loaded up MyWhoosh for their Ride with Tadej event.
MyWhoosh is a virtual platform that allows cycling fanatics to race or train around virtual worlds from the comfort of their own home – but on Saturday, they had something very special lined up.
As a sponsor of UAE Team Emirates-XRG, the platform had secured the services of five-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar, who was joining the social ride and taking questions from fans.
It was a surreal sight. There, in the corner of my phone screen, was Pogacar, beaming in from the comfort of his Monaco home. “Thank you, everybody, that came. It’s so many people!” he exclaimed.
I had dressed for the occasion – not in real life, of course, in the game. In the build-up to the community ride, MyWhoosh had hosted a series of challenges allowing players to unlock Pogacar’s Tour-winning bike in its iconic yellow colour scheme.
So me and many others set our avatars to his team jersey and selected his bike. I will never own the Colnago Y1RS (at its cheapest, it will set me back over £11,000), but in this virtual world, I can.
And that’s the beauty of events like these. It gives cycling fans the chance to get closer to their heroes in a way that simply wouldn’t be possible for most. I’ve been fortunate enough to ride alongside Pogacar in real life, but not everyone gets that opportunity.
For many, it was their first glimpse of Pogacar since he was left bloodied and bruised in a freak crash that forced him out of the Vuelta a España.
Speaking to fans, the Slovenian opened up about the accident that cost him the chance to claim a second Grand Tour victory of the season and move closer to completing the set of all three.
It also robbed him of the opportunity to race on home roads at the European Championships in Slovenia, as well as defend his world title at the World Championships in Montreal – where team-mate Brandon McNulty eventually took the rainbow stripes.
“Brandon really deserved this victory,” he said with a smile. “He worked so hard through his career. And, obviously, he worked hard also for my goals in the past.”
I’m not quite sure how Pogacar was able to answer questions from the chat, which was spinning at a rate I’ve never really seen. But the Slovenian superstar covered plenty of ground, discussing everything from his favourite places to train to if he’d try his hand at gravel.
And with what felt like as soon as it had started, it was done. Pogacar waved goodbye, joking he was off to “finish his breakfast”, before taking a tongue-in-cheek swipe at what I can only presume was me.
“I cannot wait for the next one that can answer some real questions, not like questions that journalist asks. No offence to any journalist in the room, but it’s just more fun talking with the community. See you, guys.”