Tadej Pogačar to ride 2026 Vuelta a España, aiming to complete Grand Tour triple
Five-time Tour de France winner returns to race for first time since 2019 for UAE Team Emirates-XRG
Tadej Pogačar will race the 2026 Vuelta a España, UAE Team Emirates-XRG confirmed on Monday morning, as he seeks to complete the Grand Tour triple.
The 27-year-old, who won his fifth Tour de France title last month, will be on the start line of the Spanish Grand Tour for the first time since 2019, when he finished third. Just three riders have won the Tour and Vuelta in the same year previously: Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault and Chris Froome.
In a post on social media UAE wrote: "It’s true - he’s coming back. Tadej Pogačar to La Vuelta, confirmed.
"The former podium finisher returns to the Vuelta for the first time in seven years, leading a stellar lineup for our final Grand Tour of the season."
The Slovenian will be joined by João Almeida, Domen Novak, Ivo Oliveira, Pavel Sivakov, Pablo Torres, Kevin Vermaerke and Jay Vine in Spain.
The race begins on Saturday 22 August in Monaco, before a three weeks which is mostly spent in the south of Spain in Andalusia, with a finale in Granada.
"I’m excited to say I’m going back to La Vuelta. It was my first ever Grand Tour back in 2019 and an amazing experience. Spain is a country I love to visit and race in and I think the time is right to go back," Pogačar said on the team's website.
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"The motivation is high to finish off the year in a good way and the Vuelta will be a big target. The team is strong and we hope to do good things."
More to follow...
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Adam is Cycling Weekly’s news editor – his greatest love is road racing but as long as he is cycling, he's happy. Before joining CW in 2021 he spent two years writing for Procycling. He's usually out and about on the roads of Bristol and its surrounds.
Before cycling took over his professional life, he covered ecclesiastical matters at the world’s largest Anglican newspaper and politics at Business Insider. Don't ask how that is related to riding bikes.
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