Tadej Pogačar Back on Trainer 2 Weeks After Season-Ending Vuelta Crash

A little over two weeks after a horrific crash in the Vuelta a España shut down Tadej Pogačar’s season, he’s back on the trainer, surely putting out far more watts in zone 2 than any of us could fathom.

“First time back,” he said in a video posted to his Instagram account on Tuesday. “Collarbone strong. Head strong. Heart rate high. Super happy. Let’s go.”

In the Instagram post, Pogacar also showed off a scar across his shoulder from his surgery, accompanied by other images from his recovery process, including shots in the hospital, getting ice cream post hospital release, and a Whoop recovery score of 28% that frankly seems high given the circumstances.

Though the world champion is back on the bike indoors, he will not be defending his title in Montréal later this month, having shut down the rest of his racing calendar after the gruesome fall on stage 8 of the Vuelta on August 29 that saw him fracture his clavicle and a vertebra, and receive a concussion.

“It’s just nice to be back on the bike,” Pogačar said in a press release through his team’s indoor training sponsor MyWhoosh. “I’m taking it step by step at the moment and slowly building things back up towards next season.”

With Pogačar being perhaps the greatest cyclist of all time, and having recently signed on to ride through at least 2032, UAE Team Emirates-XRG is taking no chances with rushing the star’s recovery.

“The most important thing right now is to let Tadej return to the bike in a controlled and progressive way, with no unnecessary pressure on the process,” UAE Team Emirates-XRG team principal Mauro Gianetti said in a press release. “We have a very experienced performance team, and every part of his riding is considered carefully as we look towards the new season.”