Tadej Pogačar will return to the Vuelta a España for the first time since 2019, UAE Team Emirates-XRG confirmed this week, setting up a bid for the one Grand Tour still missing from the Slovenian's remarkable palmarès.
The Vuelta was Pogačar's Grand Tour debut back in 2019, when, riding for the same team as a 20-year-old, he finished third overall behind Primož Roglič and Alejandro Valverde while winning three stages to announce himself to the sport. He has not started the race since.
"I'm excited to say I'm going back to La Vuelta," Pogačar said in the team's announcement. "It was my first ever Grand Tour back in 2019 and an amazing experience."
In the years since, Pogačar has become the dominant rider of his generation, winning the Tour de France five times and adding the Giro d'Italia to his collection in 2024. Only the Vuelta has eluded him among the sport's three three-week races.
Should he win it, Pogačar would become the ninth rider in history to complete cycling's career triple crown of all three Grand Tours, following Jacques Anquetil, Felice Gimondi, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Alberto Contador, Vincenzo Nibali, Chris Froome and, most recently in 2026, Jonas Vingegaard.
The 2026 Vuelta a España opens on 22 August with an individual time trial in Monaco before three weeks of racing conclude in Granada on 13 September.
UAE Team Emirates-XRG have named an eight-rider squad built around Pogačar: João Almeida, Jay Vine, Pavel Sivakov, Pablo Torres, Domen Novak, Ivo Oliveira and Kevin Vermaerke complete the line-up.
The announcement ends weeks of speculation over whether Pogačar would target a Tour-Vuelta double in the same season, a feat managed by only three riders in history — Anquetil, Hinault and Froome.
