"Brilliant idea"

“You die”: Sainz cycled with Pogacar

Carlos Sainz worked up a sweat on the road bike together with Tadej Pogacar.(Bild: GEPA pictures, instagram.com/carlossainz55)

"Cycling losers like me think they can go for a coffee ride with him, but you die if you try to follow him," said Formula 1 driver Carlos Sainz about a cycling trip with superstar Tadej Pogacar.

In retrospect, Carlos Sainz was able to laugh about his ordeal on the racing bike. The Formula 1 driver spoke of a "brilliant idea", but the Ferrari driver didn't really mean it when the 30-year-old Spaniard chatted about a joint bike ride with Tadej Pogacar on Thursday. The two had ridden together in Monaco at the beginning of the month to celebrate Pogacar's world championship triumph. He had suffered, Sainz reported at the press conference for the US Grand Prix in Austin. "That was the hardest bike ride I've ever done."

"You die if you try to follow him"
The two are neighbors in the Principality, Sainz told us that they often go for joyrides there. 30 or 40 kilometers to a café and back again. "Bike losers like me think they can go for a coffee ride with him, but you die if you try to follow him," said Sainz.

However, he added, Pogacar doesn't hang off you so you can have a conversation. "But that's not great with a pulse of 170 or 180 for you and 110 for him. You can't imagine how much the guy pushes on the bike," said Sainz about the 26-year-old Slovenian superstar, who won the Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia and the Road World Championships this year.