New Pogačar Documentary 'POG1': Before the Yellow Jerseys Came the Socks

Long before he was dominating the Tour de France, Tadej Pogačar was spending his birthday money on socks and sunglasses.

That’s according to POG1: The Making of a Legend, a new documentary that drops this week from Colnago Cultura.

The latest in a flurry of fresh Pogačar content, the documentary follows the Slovenian’s evolution from an unknown kid to a global phenomenon.

The director uses interviews with his parents, his partner Urška Žigart, longtime mentor Andrej Hauptman, teammates and ex-pros to tell the story of his rise to Tour de France dominance.

Where to watch POG1: The Making of a Legend

The documentary premieres Friday on Colnago’s YouTube channel and it’s free in every country.

Pogačar’s parents and mentor tell the origin story

Velo has only seen a few snippets, but this documentary dives into Pogačar’s origin story with new details and anecdotes.

Pogačar’s father recounts how his son followed his older brother into football and then cycling. Once the bike took over, it was clear to his parents that Little Pogi was obsessed.

“As soon as he started it became the only thing in the world that he was interested in. Cycling, cycling,” he said. “All the money he got for a birthday or something he would spend on socks or sunglasses. Nothing else interested him anymore.”

Pogačar has since emerged as the most dominant male rider of this century, and even Eddy Merckx has admitted the Slovenian could end up the best ever to race a bike.

The documentary traces his backstory and highlights a telling moment from one of Pogačar’s earliest races.

Hauptman, now a sports director at UAE Emirates-XRG, recalls arriving midway through a youth race in Ljubljana in 2012 and spotting a small rider apparently struggling several hundred meters behind the group.

“I came in the middle of the race, and one of our riders was really a few hundred meters behind the group. I spoke with the organizer, and said, ‘Why don’t we help this small guy to catch the group?’” Hauptman said. “He said, ‘Who? You mean this one? No, no, he will win. He overlapped the whole peloton.’”

Pogačar shares a few tidbits as well.

“When you’re a kid, you just have fun. You don’t think too much about the future. I realized maybe the second year of juniors and U23 that I could go into the WorldTour and race the biggest races,” Pogačar said. “The first race I started, I finished last. I didn’t care. I just had such a good time.”

UAE signed him before he won the 2018 Tour de l’Avenir, and the trophies have been piling up ever since.

POG1 vs. “Anatomy of a GOAT”: How the two Pogačar documentaries differ

POG1 arrives a week after another documentary from Eurosport/TNT called Anatomy of a GOAT.

That film focused more on the physiology behind Pogačar’s success, revealing some interesting numbers on his heart rate, sleep scores, and heart rate variability from Whoop data.

Velo has seen only selected preview clips of the Colnago film, but it appears to focus more on his family, childhood, and personality, and traces the foundation of how Pogačar became the world No. 1.

Both documentaries come as the 28-year-old recovers from his devastating crash that ended his Vuelta a España and kept him out of the road worlds and Il Lombardia.

He’s already back to training and is set to reveal his 2027 racing calendar at UAE’s team camp in Spain next month.