What Can Taiwanese Riders Learn from Pogačar? The Transferable Parts of an Attacking Riding Style and the Parts That Simply Can't Be Learned

After the 2026 Tour de France concluded, Tadej Pogačar secured his fifth overall title, joining Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault, and Indurain in the record books with five career wins. The most common phrase among Taiwanese cyclists on social media is: “The way he rides is just insane.” It truly is, but if we stop at mere admiration, we waste an excellent learning opportunity.

This article has a simple goal: to pick out the parts of Pogačar’s riding that can genuinely be transferred to amateur cyclists, while honestly flagging what we cannot replicate—and what could even cause injury if we force it.

First, Let’s Be Clear: His “Attacks” Aren’t Random Charges

Most people’s impression of Pogačar is that he “attacks all the time,” but when you lay out several races from the 2026 season, you’ll notice his attack points are strikingly consistent—he always chooses the section where the terrain amplifies the gap the most.

The common thread is: attacks happen where the gradient, road surface, or wind magnifies fitness differences to the maximum, not by mashing hard on flat roads based on feel.

This is entirely transferable for amateur cyclists. If you want to “stay with the group ahead today,” spending your energy on the steep sections in the latter half of Fengguizui, or accelerating out of the consecutive corners on the Beiyi Highway, will yield far greater results than grinding on a straight flat road. Choosing the right terrain is the easiest free performance gain for amateurs.

Three Things You Can Learn

1. Handling Adversity Is More Useful Than Explosive Power

At the 2026 Paris-Roubaix, he suffered a puncture with 120 km remaining, changed bikes twice, and chased for over twenty kilometers before rejoining the main group; he changed bikes again later, yet still rode into the velodrome to contest the finish (losing the sprint to Wout van Aert, finishing second). That same year at Milan-San Remo, he crashed before the Cipressa, was shepherded back to the group by teammates, and still took his first career win in that race.

Amateur cyclists are far more likely to encounter punctures, dropped chains, getting lost, or long queues at feed stations in a year than to experience “feeling amazing today.” Making “how to regain your rhythm after something goes wrong” a habit will do more to improve your Wuling finish time than adding 10 watts to your FTP. Concrete suggestions:

• Practice changing inner tubes and using tire levers without getting off the bike, until you no longer need to watch tutorial videos
• Deliberately schedule one “unplanned stop” during each long ride; stop for 5 minutes, then restart and observe how long it takes your heart rate and legs to recover
• Decide in advance “what pace to use to chase back when behind, and when to give up,” to avoid blowing up emotionally

2. Teammates Can Be Designed

At San Remo, it was Florian Vermeersch and Felix Großschartner who escorted him back to the group after his crash; at Liège, only Paul Seixas could follow his attack. Pro team tactics are complex, but the underlying logic applies to amateurs too: group riding isn’t just about taking turns at the front—it’s about agreeing in advance who is responsible for what on which section.

For a typical group of amateur riders, you can start with a minimal division of roles: who brings everyone to the base of the climb, who rides alongside anyone who gets dropped, who watches the time and calls the turnaround. This costs nothing but has a huge impact on the group’s completion rate.

3. Attacks Are Built on a Massive Aerobic Base

Pogačar has accumulated approximately 127 career wins and 26 Tour de France stage victories, and in both 2020 and 2021 he simultaneously took the overall title, the mountains classification, and the best young rider jersey. This ability to “accelerate at any moment” is built on a foundation of base endurance that most people never see.

Amateurs should mimic the order in reverse: build long, steady output first, then talk about attacking. A relatively safe progression is to first accumulate several months of riding comfortably for 3 to 4 hours with your heart rate in the aerobic zone, then add high-intensity intervals. Individual differences are large; if you have a history of cardiovascular disease, have been inactive for a long time, or are older, please get a health assessment first and adjust under the guidance of a professional coach or medical professional.

What You Can’t Learn (Be Honest With Yourself)

• Training volume and recovery environment: A pro’s daily routine is train, eat, sleep, massage, then train again. The time structure a working professional can squeeze out during the week is completely different; forcing a pro schedule usually results in overtraining and injury.
• Closed roads and professional support: Pro races are on closed roads with lead cars and medical support. Taiwan’s mountain roads are open roads, where you’ll encounter oncoming traffic, gravel, leaves, falling rocks, and tourist traffic.
• Talent and age window: At age 20 in 2019, he won the overall title at the Tour of California, becoming the youngest UCI WorldTour overall winner in history. This is a physiological condition possessed by an extremely small minority, not a benchmark that hard work can replicate.
• Team resources: He can change bikes immediately after a puncture because there’s an entire support car behind him. You only have one spare tube.

The Most Important Section: Safety

This must be stated very clearly—public roads are not racecourses, and no form of racing should ever happen on Taiwan’s ordinary mountain roads.

• On descents, follow the principle of “be able to stop within the distance you can see,” especially on roads like Beiyi and Yangjin, which have many corners and heavy oncoming truck traffic
• Do not cut corners across double yellow lines, and do not cross into oncoming lanes to find the apex
• When group riding on roads with traffic, ride single file and leave room for vehicles behind to pass
• On high mountain sections (such as Provincial Highway 14A toward Wuling), temperatures change dramatically; hypothermia on descents is a real risk—bring a windbreaker, gloves, and a neck gaiter
• A Strava segment record is not worth your collarbone

Summary

What’s worth learning from Pogačar isn’t “that he attacks,” but that he executes his plan at the right place, on the right foundation, even after things go wrong. These three things, amateur cyclists can all train. As for the parts that only exist within the professional system, just enjoy them when watching races.

Leave the attacks for the races, leave the patience for Provincial Highway 14A, and leave your attention for the road conditions—that’s probably the most practical way to pay tribute.

Related Reading

• The Timing of Pogačar’s Attacks: The Same Logic Behind 78 km, 55 km, 24.2 km, and 7.2 km
• 26 Tour de France Stage Wins: Pogačar’s Harvest Route from 2020 to 2026
• Breaking Down Pogačar’s Five Wins at the 2026 Tour: Five Stages, Four Mountain Ranges, One Way of Winning?
• From the Pogačar Craze to the Promotion of Road Cycling in Taiwan: What Star Power Can Bring, and What We’re Missing