On a fresh Sunday morning in Komenda we gathered behind the start line alongside Pogacar himself, resplendent in his world champion’s rainbow jersey.
A fellow Slovenia-based Briton, Dave Goddard, confirmed that his main goal was “to avoid humiliation”. Local rider Anja Licen, who got her ticket to ride through a radio competition, echoed that sentiment, adding: “I hope that I won’t be last.”
Austrian friends Sandra Burtscher and Michael Mangeng certainly looked the part, with their matching, Pogi-endorsed white bikes. But Sandra said she was “nervous to be racing with so many people”, while Michael admitted that, while it was “great to go up the same mountain at the same time as Pogacar”, he was only expecting to see the champion “for a short time”.
So it proved.
After giving us our head start, Pogacar began to do what he has spent all season doing to his professional opponents: pick us off with ruthless efficiency.
In my case, he cruised past within the first 2km.
For context, I am not a total stranger to cycling adventures, but more recently my usual riding is around town on an old Japanese “mamachari” shopping bike, or hitting Strava segments on the return leg of the school run.
But I had not ridden a road bike in several decades and had only had two weeks to prepare, with a friend of mine – former sporting director at a pro women’s team Mark Koghee – saying my proposed endeavour “could be quite stupid”.
He gave me some advice about how to prepare, telling me: “There’s not much you can do. You can’t improve your shape – the only thing you can do is prepare your body for the shock that is waiting. Try to climb as much as you can in that period, so that on the day of the event, the shock isn’t that big.”
Another friend, Marin Medak, kindly lent me his drop-bar bike so I could get used to riding one. I asked him if he thought I could make it up Krvavec on his wheels.
“Yes,” he said. “If you put an electric engine in it.”
That was not an option, so in the end I made it to the summit a mere 53 minutes after the great man.
