Home > News

Tadej Pogačar teaching Mikkel Bjerg how to say croissant is absolutely hilarious

The Slovenian gave the Dane some pronunciation lessons before the stage

Tadej Pogacar and Mikkel Berg saying croissant Photo by: secondoelle
July 7, 2023
Share on SMS

Tadej Pogačar had a big day on Thursday, showing Jonas Vingegaard the race was far from over, but he also taught Mikkel Bjerg some French. Danish rider Bjerg, who comes from a country that has goodies with wild names like wienerbrød (similar to what we call a “Danish” in North America), hindbærsnitte (delicious, btw, these super-sweet raspberry pastries, pålægschokolade (basically slices of chocolate you put on bread), for some reason can’t say “croissant.”

Thankfully, Pog can. I mean, what can’t he do at this point? The two-time Tour de France champ took a bow–quite literally–after an incredible stage where he stunned the cycling world with an impressive attack that saw him finish 24 seconds of the new maillot jaune.

Pogačar strikes back, Vingegaard in yellow after Tour de France summit finish showdown

Pogačar the comeback kid

Stage 6 was quite different from a day earlier, when Vingegaard launched and put 1:04 into the UAE-Emirates rider. It was a stunning display of power from the Jumbo-Visma rider and it seemed that after just five stages, the Tour could already be over. Thankfully for the producers of the second season of the Netflix docuseries, Tour de France: Unchained, the race has just begun. Pog did say after the race, in a far more serious tone than many of his post-race interviews, that “All is not lost.” And dangit, looks like he called it.

Before the start of the race, @secondoelle posted on Twitter  of a clip of Pogačar, clad in his white jersey for best young rider, teaching Bjerg how to pronounce the famous French crescent-shaped bread. By the way, like is the case of so many food origins, croissants are not French at all, rather, of Austrian origin. The same can be said for the famous Danish pastry wienerbrød (literally, Viennese bread.) In 1850 there was a baker’s strike, so in Denmark many replacement workers were hired from abroad–including Austria.

The Austrian bakers started making pastries the way they did back home, such as the plundergebäck (try saying that five times fast), and the Danes loved ‘em. So much so that when the strikes ended, Danish bakers would replicate their methods and create what we refer to as “Danish pastries.”

Anyway, please take a moment to enjoy the Slovenian national champion teaching Berg how to say croissant.