Taddei Pogachar finished the Tour de France with a series of attacks on the Champs-Elysées and a new power threshold, but chose to leave the race to recover from a three-week battle with Jonas Vingegaard.

Pogachar abandoned the Aalst criterium on Monday evening and headed home. His UAE Team Emirates team has decided that he will miss the Championnats d'Europe des Grimpeurs (European Climber Time Trial Championships), which will be held on Sunday on a 12.5km climb in Tremola St Gotthard, Switzerland. Felix Großschartner will replace Pogachar.

Pogachar will not compete in Saturday's Clasica San Sebastián or any other race; UAE Team Emirates will not change his 2023 race program and he will compete in the Vuelta a España with Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic, Geraint Thomas and Lemko Evenpole confirmed that they will challenge him.

Pogachal's next race is expected to be the UCI Road World Championships in Glasgow. However, he and the Slovenian national team have yet to confirm his participation, and he plans to run one-day races in the last few months of 2023, finishing the season at Il Lombardia, where he won in 2021 and 2022.

"After the Tour, I decided it would be better to take some rest, so unfortunately I will not be able to participate this time," Pogachar said of the European Climber's Championships.

"After a little rest I will think about where my next race will be, but right now I am focused on rest. I think Felix will be a big contender for the title after his performance in the Tour de France. I will be rooting for him."

The Coupe de Europa de Grimpur is a time trial and will be filmed on drones, e-bikes, and electric bikes.

The event starts in Tremola and finishes at the top of the St. Gotthard pass; the 12.5km course climbs 900m in elevation with an average gradient of 7%. [The winners of the Junior, Under-23, Elite, and Master categories will receive the UEC European Champion jersey. The organizers have promised equal prize money for men and women.

Großschartner impressed as Pogachar's mountain domestique in the Tour de France.

"I am very excited about this event, which gives me the chance to bring home the European title.

"It's going to be an explosive effort in a short time, but if I'm in good shape I think I can do well. I'm definitely a little tired from the Tour de France, but once I recover for a few days I should be fine."