Pogacar was not selected for Slovenia’s road cycling team despite being favourite to win after storming to his third Yellow Jersey last week.
The Slovenian Federation cited ‘extreme fatigue’ for the 25-year-old’s absence, but it comes just a few weeks after his fiancée Zigart was not chosen for the women’s team, despite being the reigning national champion in both the time trial and road race.
“His girlfriend Urska won the national time trial with a four-minute gap to second, she won the road race with a 10-minute gap, and she is not selected,” two-time Tour stage winner Voigt, who is part of the commentary team for Discovery+, the only place you can watch every moment of the Olympic cycling.
“And to make it even more funny the national coach is the team boss of the two young women selected for the Olympics.
“So even for me as an outside observer, I go ‘I wonder what that is’, that’s just my speculation that it might have something to do with Tadej’s decision.”
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The women’s team is made up of Eugenia Bujak and Ursa Pintar, with the latter finishing second behind Zigart in the national road race championships while Bujak did not race.
Domen Novak has replaced Pogacar and is alongside Luka Mezgec, Matej Mohoric and Jan Tratnik.
For Voigt, Pogacar’s withdrawal, having been the first man to do the Giro d’Italia and Tour double in 26 years, opens the way for a new favourite.
He added: “I would have put him in an unbeatable decision for the road race.
“Plus, Slovenia, despite only having two million people living there, has five/six riders in the top 100, so you also have the right to have four starters possible which is the maximum so Tadej would have had a team around him.
“He would have been the favourite but has decided to focus on the World Championships and other races at the end of the season.”
World champion Mathieu van der Poel had a quiet Tour as the Dutch rider prioritised winning an Olympic medal.
That split in priorities between different riders is why Voigt believes the Olympic race should be contested by amateurs or Under-23 riders as has previously been the case.
“I think we should not go to the Olympics, I think it should go back to under-23 or strictly amateur racing,” he said.
“In professional cycling, we have the Tour de France, we have all the classics, we have the World Championships.
“We have so many important and traditional races that the Olympics are not as much of a highlight as they would be for say wrestling, so we should give it back to amateurs.”
