Sometimes, a mother knows, and the same applies even if you're Tadej Pogačar. Despite the victories that have seemed to go on and on this season – or perhaps because of it – the all-conquering Slovenian's mum Marjeta recognises with clear eyes exactly how exhausted he is.
"This year, I saw that he was really, really tired. Exhausted, perhaps," she said in an interview with French outlet Le Parisien. "And I said to myself: now, I can understand if he stops cycling."
She went as far as to say that she would not be surprised if he did so, entirely: "Completely, yes. Or at least for a year."
"There were too many things surrounding the race, before and after, that were really difficult to bear," she added, looking back on the Tour de France.
It wasn't just the mental pressure and the physical effort, she explained – sometimes it was the roadside crowds.
"You might think it feels good to have so many people by the side of the road. But sometimes, it's not always very nice, very kind from some people," she said. "You can see people hitting him, pinning things on him, sometimes yelling at him... Because he wins too much, because he doesn't sign autographs... Sometimes, it's very difficult."
At the end of the Tour, Pogačar said: "I'm at this point in my career that if I do burnout I would be happy with what I achieved. To be serious, burnouts happen in sport, in a lot of sport, mental and physical burnout. We do train a lot, I think cyclists are a bit too obsessed with training, and we always try our hardest. Everyone wants to train more and more.
"You see some riders have fatigue too early in the season, and the team needs you to race, race, race, and you keep going in this circle and you never recover. Then you get to October and finally a break, then in December you do it all again. Burnouts happen all the time, and it could happen to me as well."
He also was battling with knee pain during the second half of the Tour, he revealed recently.
Her son rarely opens up to her entirely about such things, Marjeta Pogačar said – "he never complains, he's not like that", she says. But sometimes, she says, she almost feels his pain for him.
"This year, when he fell [on stage 11 of the Tour], we called each other in the evening. He told me: 'No, it doesn't hurt my shoulder, just a little in my hip, but it's not serious'.
"And me, on the other hand, my shoulder hurt a lot, as if I'd fallen… Maybe he wasn't in pain because I took his pain. That's what mothers feel for their children."
It's mid-October now, and in theory Pogačar should be looking forward to putting his feet up and taking a well-earned rest. But commercial commitments will make that difficult, his mother says.
"After the season, it's the sponsors, [and] other obligations that force him to stay active. He really doesn't get much rest," she said.
