With two Grand Tours already in the bag this year, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) could make history by heading to the Vuelta a España next month – but the winner of both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France has apparently decided against attempting to become the first rider in history win all three Grand Tours in a single season.
Former Tour de France champ Geraint Thomas revealed on his Watts Occurring podcast with Luke Rowe that Pogačar’s decision may have come down to internal dynamics at UAE Team Emirates.
“I asked him this, I was like, ‘Mate, you’ve got to go to the Vuelta, come on.’ He was like, ‘Yeah, but I need to keep some friends in the team,'” Thomas said. “Basically, that team’s full of hitters and they want their chance, and I’m guessing they’ve been told the Vuelta is that chance at the start of the year. If he turns around now and says, ‘I’m going there,’ there’s going to be a lot of disgruntled teammates that you need to keep on side.”
In other words, at least according to Thomas, Pogačar has chosen to ensure that teammates like João Almeida and Adam Yates remain content – and therefore more likely to keep throwing their full support behind him at the Tour – rather than trying to take a first ever Vuelta win.
Yates and Almeida are both expected to race the Vuelta, as are Juan Ayuso and Isaac del Toro. With that amount of firepower, UAE has a very real chance of winning the race, especially given the field. While Sepp Kuss plans to defend his 2023 Vuelta title, as Rowe noted his Visma-Lease a Bike teammate Jonas Vingegaard has decided not to return this year. And a vertebral fracture may keep Primož Roglič away as well.
Thomas also pointed out that racing all three Grand Tours in a single season might not be the best plan for Pogačar in the long term, citing the difficult season that Kuss has had after racing all three in 2023.
“Look at Sepp Kuss. Last year’s affected him,” Thomas said. “He’s been sick and stuff hasn’t he? But mate, I think three Grand Tours, when you’re racing at the highest end, it just takes so much out of you, even for Pog. But like you say, he could do it with just one leg anyway, but for the longevity of his career and just a more successful career in total, it wouldn’t make sense going.”
Instead of racing the Vuelta, Pogačar is set to head to Canada in September to race the Grands Prix of Québec and Montréal in the run-up to the World Championships – which are very much a target for him. The hilly course in Switzerland should suit his skillset, and although he would not be the first rider ever to win the Giro and the Tour and a world title, such an achievement would still put him in fine company.
The so-called “Triple Crown” has only been twice before, first by Eddy Merckx in 1974 and then by Stephen Roche in 1987.
What did you think of this story?