Tadej Pogacar will not ride the Vuelta a Espana this year after it had long been rumored that the Slovenian would combine the Tour de France with the Spanish race.
But after his second Tour victory in a row and his participation in the Olympics, UAE Team Emirates has decided not to take him to the Vuelta.
“I’m back on the bike after a few amazing weeks,” Pogacar said. “A little rest after Tokyo. With the team, we decided not to ride the Vuelta unfortunately. For sure I’ll be back pretty soon in Spain in the Vuelta.”
“It’s still going to be a pretty interesting season. It’s an important thing for some riders, and especially for riders like Tadej, guys that like to race, they need new goals,” head directeur sportif Allan Peiper said.
“As long as you keep that fun element in there, so then racing doesn’t become a chore. The strongest point in his arsenal is that he’s relaxed and he doesn’t let things get to him. We want to keep it like that.”
“Tadej’s said he’d like to ride the Giro – he finds it a lovely race and he will do it sometime soon,” Peiper said. “But he’s still young. There will come a time where he’ll probably do two Grand Tours in a year and we’ll have to taper his program so it’s not too loaded.
“Doing the Giro and Tour sees to be a thing of the past because they’re so close together and the races are so intense – so it would likely be the Giro and Vuelta.”
