Is Tadej Pogačar set to ride the Vuelta a España after all? The signs are looking good

Tadej Pogačar will return to racing next week. The world champion of UAE Team Emirates-XRG has chosen the Tour de Suisse as the ideal preparation for the Tour de France, but what he will do after La Grande Boucle remains uncertain. A start in the Vuelta a España did not seem particularly likely for a long time, but the chances now appear to have increased.

Pogačar has already won the Tour de France four times, and in 2024 he was also the best rider in the Giro d’Italia. The Slovenian has never won the Vuelta, however, and has only taken part once. In 2020, he made his Grand Tour debut in Spain and immediately made an impact, taking three stage wins and finishing third overall behind eventual winner Primož Roglič and Alejandro Valverde. Since then, he has not returned.

His focus has often been on the Tour and the spring classics, which meant he really needed rest in the autumn. Even so, the Vuelta remains on his wish list: it is a race he has never won. On top of that, rival Jonas Vingegaard won the Giro d’Italia this year, thereby completing the so-called Triple Crown: winning the Giro, Tour and Vuelta.

That is still missing from Pogačar’s palmarès. Whether he has become extra motivated by Vingegaard’s Giro victory is impossible to know. The fact that the Vuelta starts in his home city of Monaco could also be an additional factor. What we do know is that he has been spotted in Spain. First, he was at a training camp in the Sierra Nevada, an altitude block ahead of the Tour de France. There, he is aiming for a fifth overall victory, which would put him level with the all-time record holders.

But it did not stop there, according to Spanish newspaper AS. Pogačar has spent the past few days in Andalusia, in southern Spain. Stage 20 of this year’s Vuelta will finish there: a brutal mountain stage featuring five climbs and more than 5,000 metres of elevation gain. Pogačar is said to have already reconnoitred the final climb, the Collado del Alguacil, as well as the Puerto de El Purche.

Whether that means Pogačar will actually ride the Vuelta is still unclear. The world champion hopes to defend his rainbow jersey at the World Championships in Montréal, Canada. As preparation, the Slovenian sees the GP Québec and GP Montréal as an ideal build-up, with those races taking place on September 11 and 13. That falls during stages 19 and 21 of the Vuelta, so combining both programmes would be impossible. Will Pogačar skip the perfect World Championships preparation in exchange for a shot at the red jersey? Who knows.

Author: David Bavin-Hobbs - [email protected]