What happens when Pogacar gives you a head start?

Tadej Pogacar (in rainbow jersey) lined up with hundreds of amateurs last weekend

The invitation arrived three days before Tadej Pogacar successfully defended his title in the men's World Championship road race.

"You will have the chance to cycle alongside the four-time Tour de France winner and world's top cyclist!" it declared.

Naturally, there was a catch. Anyone who wanted to join Pogacar on the road would have to complete the ride from his home village, Komenda, to the nearby summit of one of Slovenia's most fearsome mountain climbs, Krvavec.

That would mean 15km of climbing, with an official average gradient of 7.6% - but multiple sections in excess of 20%.

All part of a day's work for a top professional cyclist. Not so much for the rest of us.

But who hasn't wondered how they would stack up against the very best if they were given the chance to try?

So I joined hundreds of amateurs last weekend who were given a loosely defined head start of "a few minutes" at the foot of the mountain to find out what it felt like to race against the four-time Tour de France champion.

'I hope I won't be last'

On a fresh Sunday morning in Komenda we gathered behind the start line alongside Pogacar himself, resplendent in his world champion's rainbow jersey.

A fellow Slovenia-based Briton, Dave Goddard, confirmed that his main goal was "to avoid humiliation". Local rider Anja Licen, who got her ticket to ride through a radio competition, echoed that sentiment, adding: "I hope that I won't be last."

Austrian friends Sandra Burtscher and Michael Mangeng certainly looked the part, with their matching, Pogi-endorsed white bikes. But Sandra said she was "nervous to be racing with so many people", while Michael admitted that, while it was "great to go up the same mountain at the same time as Pogacar", he was only expecting to see the champion "for a short time".

So it proved.

After giving us our head start, Pogacar began to do what he has spent all season doing to his professional opponents: pick us off with ruthless efficiency.

In my case, he cruised past within the first 2km.

For context, I am not a total stranger to cycling adventures, but more recently my usual riding is around town on an old Japanese "mamachari" shopping bike, or hitting Strava segments on the return leg of the school run.

But I had not ridden a road bike in several decades and had only had two weeks to prepare, with a friend of mine - former sporting director at a pro women's team Mark Koghee - saying my proposed endeavour "could be quite stupid".

He gave me some advice about how to prepare, telling me: "There's not much you can do. You can't improve your shape - the only thing you can do is prepare your body for the shock that is waiting. Try to climb as much as you can in that period, so that on the day of the event, the shock isn't that big."

Another friend, Marin Medak, kindly lent me his drop-bar bike so I could get used to riding one. I asked him if he thought I could make it up Krvavec on his wheels.

"Yes," he said. "If you put an electric engine in it."

That was not an option, so in the end I made it to the summit a mere 53 minutes after the great man.

Guy Delauney made it to the top but had been overtaken by Pogacar after 2km

'You can't win them all'

Pogacar, however, was not the first rider across the finish line.

That honour was taken by Andrew Feather, a 40-year-old lawyer from Bath who has won the British Hill Climbing Championship four times.

"I managed to get to the bottom of the climb close to front of the race," Feather told the BBC. "I set a high tempo, other riders dropped off and I soloed to the top."

It sounds so simple, but Feather is one of only a handful of riders to finish ahead of Pogacar in a race this year, and he acknowledged this might be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

"Pogi is up there as the best ever cyclist," he said. "That's why I did it - I can walk away saying I've shaken his hand and got the trophy from him."

After the on-stage presentation, the champion was in relaxed mode in the mountain-top party zone, chuckling as he conceded "you can't win them all".

But even at the end of a season in which he won a fourth Tour de France, the world and European titles and three of the five 'monument' one-day races, it was clear that the 27-year-old was still hungry for more than a bowl of the stew on offer to the racers.

"If you love what you do, motivation shouldn't be difficult, otherwise I wouldn't be doing it," he said. "I'm pretty open for everything."

Andrew Feather (left) led the climb to claim victory