Pogacar overwhelming favourite as Vuelta a España starts in Monaco on Saturday
Tadej Pogacar is the overwhelming favourite as the Vuelta a España rolls away from Monaco on Saturday, with the Slovenian targeting victory in the final Grand Tour of the 2026 season. A win would be his seventh Grand Tour triumph and would make him the ninth rider to complete victories in all three of Europe’s major stage races.
The 27-year-old is making his first appearance in the Spanish race since 2019 and arrives off the back of last month’s Tour de France, which he won by almost six and a half minutes. Pogacar has not been beaten in a Grand Tour since 2023 and is aiming to become the first rider to complete a Tour-Vuelta double since Chris Froome in 2017.
The absence of Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel is expected to bolster Pogacar’s chances. Vingegaard crashed out of the Tour “on the afternoon after his 2am doping test,” is still recovering from a collarbone fracture and has “thrown in the towel on his 2026 season,” the article reported, while the Tour runner-up Evenepoel is not in the field.
Mattias Skjelmose told a Danish podcast that Vingegaard has become disheartened by Pogacar’s dominance, saying: “Jonas says: ‘I can’t do any more. What am I supposed to do? I produce the best I’ve ever done and he just rides away from me,’” and the piece noted that the revelation after the Tour that Vingegaard had seemingly given up on challenging Pogacar had widened the sense of the Slovenian’s superiority.
Pogacar is also believed to have secured a new contract that will keep him with the UAE Emirates XRG team until 2031 or possibly even 2032, a development the article said rivals such as Vingegaard, Evenepoel and younger riders like Paul Seixas “did not want to hear.” The 27-year-old will start the race from his home in Monaco, “rolling down the hill” for the Vuelta’s opening weekend in the principality and is, according to the report, expecting a coronation.
The route features an opening time trial followed by a long transfer through Provence and across the Pyrenees via Andorra into Spain, covering more than 3,275km. Organisers have scheduled seven summit finishes, warned of extreme weather and included the “rough and remote roads” associated with the Spanish race; many decisive stages are pencilled in for the south of Spain, where hot conditions are expected, and a mountain finish to Font Romeu in the Pyrenees arrives as early as stage three, which could place Pogacar in the leader’s position very soon.
Several notable names will contest the race despite the dominant favourite. Primoz Roglic, a four-time Vuelta winner now 36, said: “Winning it four times is something I could never have imagined. That’s why I don’t want to put any extra pressure on myself.” Netcompany Ineos will return to Grand Tour racing while grieving the loss of Josh Tarling’s brother Finlay Tarling, who was killed during last week’s Volta a Portugal; a tribute to the Tarling family is expected. The British team will be led by Oscar Onley, the 23-year-old who finished fourth in the 2025 Tour de France but missed this year’s race through injury and was reported to be in winning form at the recent Tour of Burgos, prompting director of racing Geraint Thomas to say: “This is Oscar’s first Grand Tour riding for us and he is ambitious, excited and wants to get racing.” Richard Carapaz, who won two stages in this year’s Tour de France including Alpe d’Huez, and who has finished on the podium of both the Tour and the Vuelta in the past, is among those regarded as likelier to challenge Pogacar than most.
The Vuelta concludes in Granada on 13 September, and Pogacar is widely viewed as the rider expected to take the top spot on the podium there; the report added that “he is not immune to misfortune, of course, but he is expected to win at a canter.”