Tadej Pogacar explains his step backward
Having won his fourth Tour de France after those won in 2020, 2021 and 2024, Tadej Pogacar has confirmed the need to take a break and, therefore, will not take part in the Vuelta that will start next August 23 from Italy, with the 183-kilometer stage from Venaria Reale to Novara.
“After such a challenging Tour, we made the decision to take a break – explained the world champion to official UAE Team Emirates channels.
The Vuelta is obviously a race that I would really like to come back to. I have great memories there, dating back to 2019, but now the body is telling me to rest”.
The season, however, is far from over: Pogacar is aiming for an encore at the World Championships, which for the 2025 edition will be hosted by Rwanda in late September, in what will be the first ever edition of the rainbow event to be held on the African continent. The Slovenian, in addition to gold in Zurich, also boasts a rainbow bronze in the road race, in Glasgow in 2023.
The Vuelta will therefore remain, even at the end of this season, the only one of the three major stage races that Pogacar has not yet won: in fact, his palmarès includes not only the four editions of the Tour de France brought home, but also a Giro d’Italia, won in 2024. Pogacar has participated only once in the Spanish stage race, in 2019, grabbing a third place behind compatriot Primoz Roglic and Alejandro Valverde.
