The scene was Soudal Quick-Step’s winter training base in Calpe roughly two years ago. Tadej Pogacar had cycled over to see his partner Urška Žigart, who was staying at the same Costa Blanca hotel, and the pair were heading for the sauna. Before he walked off, Pogacar asked the Belgian team’s mechanics if he could park his bike in their room. He left. Four mechanics stayed.
“As soon as Pogi was out of sight, our mechanics pounced on his bike,” Patrick Lefevere wrote in his weekly Het Nieuwsblad column.
“They weighed, measured and analysed everything.”
Lefevere, who stepped down as CEO of Soudal Quick-Step at the end of 2024 and handed the day-to-day to Jurgen Foré, framed the story as evidence of Pogacar’s guilelessness rather than any dark-arts operation.
Read also: Trump called it “terrible”, 10 years later, the NFL has made a striking choice
“It had never occurred to Pogacar for a second that he might be giving away possible ‘trade secrets’, but naturally, no mechanic with any professional pride is going to leave the Tour winner’s bike sitting untouched in the corner,” Lefevere wrote.
What the four mechanics actually found
The most tangible observation was small, and geometric rather than mechanical. Relative to the bottom bracket, Pogacar seemed to sit unusually far forward on the saddle, and the Quick-Step mechanics noted the setback. Beyond that, there was no smoking gun.
“We didn’t come to any great insights, let alone that we uncovered Pogacar’s secret,” Lefevere wrote in the Dutch original.
And then the joke Lefevere could not resist, aimed squarely at the motor-doping rumours that have shadowed Pogacar’s Colnago for years.
Read also: Gyokeres snub deepens as Arsenal star pushes for Barcelona move
“For anyone still wondering after 130 professional victories: our inspection showed there was no motor in the bike,” he wrote.
Why every rival wants a look at that Colnago
The obsession with Pogacar’s equipment is not idle curiosity. Colnago has built its flagship road bike around him, and Cyclingnews has documented the level of detail on the machine he races: an aero bottom bracket, titanium bolts and a €460 saddle among them. The 2026 iteration, the Y1Rs, is claimed by the Italian brand to save 19 to 20 watts at 50 km/h over the previous V4Rs.
Lefevere on a rival he has never met
Lefevere is honest that the anecdote is not born of any personal closeness. Pogacar rides for UAE Team Emirates-XRG, long a leading rival to Lefevere’s Quick-Step.
“I have never really spoken to Pogacar in my life. I can’t say that I know him,” Lefevere wrote.
Read also: JD Vance made one prediction about this WNBA star, weeks later, something remarkable happened
“Try as I might, even after 130 victories, I cannot find Pogacar unlikeable.”
Read also: Amorim asks Milan for a familiar defender: Leny Yoro on the deadline-day list
