{"id":111122,"date":"2025-09-26T13:02:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T13:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/pogacar-ready-to-defend-road-race-world-title"},"modified":"2025-09-26T14:24:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T14:24:53","slug":"pogacar-ready-to-defend-road-race-world-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/pogacar-ready-to-defend-road-race-world-title","title":{"rendered":"Poga\u010dar Ready to Defend Road Race World Title"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>Sunday, September 28<\/p>\n<p>Men Elite Road Race: 267.5 km<\/p>\n<p>After missing the podium at Sunday\u2019s Men Elite Individual Time Trial, Tadej Pogac\u030car has said he will be ready to defend his title in the men elite road race which will close UCI World Championships in Kigali on Sunday, September 28.<\/p>\n<p>The Slovenian star was humbled by Remco Evenepoel when, despite starting 2.30 minutes later, he surpassed him at Co\u0302te de Kimihurura climb en route to winning his third straight Men Elite ITT world title at Kigali Convention Centre (KCC).<\/p>\n<p>Pogac\u030car admitted that being overtaken by Remco was a \u201chard one to swallow\u201d, but a long four days have passed, and he&#8217;s now raring to put the \u201cbad feeling\u201d behind him, and keep his rainbow jersey in men elite road race.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking during a press conference on Thursday, the Tour de France winner said he had several mid-week training sessions which have helped him get back to his form enough to be ready for the tough conditions in Kigali ahead of the decisive race.<\/p>\n<p>From the recent training session, he spoke about the challenging conditions in Kigali, noting the altitude, heat, and hilly terrain.<\/p>\n<p>Despite all these, he knows he will be the overwhelming favourite for the road race world title.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Obviously, I am here in general for the road race, so the expectations are high; I expect a lot from my legs, and we should aim for the best result. I think we have one of the strongest teams here, so we should be considered as top contenders,\u201d Pogac\u030car told the press on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There\u2019s going to be a lot of guys who will be eager from far away, and then there will be guys who just look at me&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>He mentioned that the race in Rwanda is demanding, up-and-down nature and he expects the road race to be a tough and hilly event.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s a little bit different to last Sunday to this Sunday that is coming up,&#8221; said Pogac\u030car,<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We will see. We shouldn&#8217;t care too much about the opponents but focus on our race, because it&#8217;s so long and so difficult, and you need to save your energy throughout the whole race and be smart in every way.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Riders in the Men&#8217;s Elite UCI World Road Race will have to show resilience and great resistance to the grueling 267.5 km course awaiting them.<\/p>\n<p>Pogac\u030car holds the title he won in Zurich in 2024.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Rwanda<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. Sunday, September 28 Men Elite Road Race: 267.5 km After missing the podium at Sunday\u2019s Men Elite Individual Time Trial, Tadej Pogac\u030car has said he will be ready to defend his title in the men elite road race which will close UCI World Championships in Kigali on Sunday, September 28. The Slovenian [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":111121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[8059,7942,758,7552],"class_list":["post-111122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-2025-uci-road-world-championships","tag-kigali-2025","tag-rwanda","tag-tadej-pogacar"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Poga\u010dar Ready to Defend Road Race World Title - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sunday, September 28 Men Elite Road Race: 267.5 km After missing the podium at Sunday\u2019s Men Elite Individual Time Tria ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/pogacar-ready-to-defend-road-race-world-title\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Poga\u010dar Ready to Defend Road Race World Title\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sunday, September 28 Men Elite Road Race: 267.5 km After missing the podium at Sunday\u2019s Men Elite Individual Time Tria ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/pogacar-ready-to-defend-road-race-world-title\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-26T13:02:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-26T14:24:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2025\/09\/sm_1758884061.704768.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/pogacar-ready-to-defend-road-race-world-title#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/pogacar-ready-to-defend-road-race-world-title\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Poga\u010dar Ready to Defend Road Race World Title\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-26T13:02:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-26T14:24:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/pogacar-ready-to-defend-road-race-world-title\"},\"wordCount\":436,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/pogacar-ready-to-defend-road-race-world-title#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2025\/09\/sm_1758884061.704768.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"2025 UCI Road World Championships\",\"KIGALI 2025\",\"Rwanda\",\"Tadej Pogacar\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/pogacar-ready-to-defend-road-race-world-title#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/pogacar-ready-to-defend-road-race-world-title\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/pogacar-ready-to-defend-road-race-world-title\",\"name\":\"Poga\u010dar Ready to Defend Road Race World Title - 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