2020 Tour de France champion Tadey Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates) gave his initial thoughts on next year's Tour route, which was announced Sunday evening in Paris. [It's an interesting route. It's a more classic Tour de France route than in the last few years.

"The first week in Brittany will be exciting, with crosswinds and possible bad weather. [Stage 11 will be the first time in the race's history that the "Giants of Provence" will be climbed twice before finishing in Marocaine.

"There will be a couple of very hard days with climbs over 4,500 meters," Pogachar admitted. The stages in the Pyrenees, which I experienced in last year's Vuelta a España, suit me."

Proving he can go toe-to-toe with the world's best climbers, Pogachar took the yellow jersey on this year's final stage, a time trial finishing on the climb to La Planche des Belles Fils, to win the overall. In his first Tour attempt, he became the second youngest rider in history to win La Grande Boucle.

"There are only three mountain finishes. Ideally, I'd like a couple more, but be that as it may, we can expect an exciting race, as always at the Tour."

The Slovenian finished the season with a third-place finish in Liège-Bastogne-Liège in early October, while his compatriot Primos Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) finished second behind Pogachar in Paris and won in Liège. He is now battling Ineos Grenadier's Richard Calapaz for the overall title of the Vuelta a España and is five days away from finishing in Madrid.