Pogacar Chases Grand Tour Treble With Vuelta Entry

Pogacar Backs Up Tour Win With Vuelta Commitment

Tadej Pogacar will start this month's Vuelta a España, aiming to complete a Grand Tour treble that no male rider has achieved in a single calendar year. The announcement lands weeks after the Slovenian secured his fifth Tour de France title.

Pogacar has already banked the Giro d'Italia in May and the Tour in July. The Vuelta, starting August 26, is the final leg of a project that demands sustained peak condition across roughly four months of racing.

Grand Tours are spaced to allow recovery, not to encourage stacking. Most GC leaders target one, perhaps two, and treat the third as preparation for the following season. Pogacar, backed by a UAE Team Emirates squad built around his ambitions, is rejecting that model.

Winning all three in a single season would place Pogacar in unprecedented territory for male professional cycling. Eddy Merckx won all three across the 1970s but never within the same calendar year. Bernard Hinault and Stephen Roche each claimed the Giro-Tour double, but neither added the Vuelta in the same season.

The Vuelta's late-summer slot is both the opportunity and the obstacle. Riders arriving from the Tour carry residual fatigue that often surfaces in the third week. Pogacar's team will need to manage his exertion across 21 stages while fielding a squad capable of controlling breakaways and protecting his position on the climbs.

Pogacar at 26 is already in the conversation as the most complete stage racer of his generation. His recent dominance has come through explosive climbing, improved time-trialling, and aggressive stage tactics. He leads from the front rather than nursing a lead through conservative racing. The Vuelta's parcours, typically heavy on summit finishes and selective mountain stages, plays into that approach.

A Vuelta start confirms Pogacar's intent to chase outright historic landmarks rather than manage his legacy conservatively. UAE's commitment to the project, from staffing to equipment logistics, reflects a full-season investment in a single rider's calendar.

For the Vuelta itself, Pogacar's presence elevates the race's profile. Organisers now have the sport's biggest star targeting their event with a concrete historic purpose. Rivals who might have viewed the Vuelta as an open opportunity now face a rider operating at peak form with a specific goal.

If Pogacar succeeds, he widens the gap between himself and the current field to a degree that reshapes how the peloton approaches Grand Tour planning. The standard he is setting is dominance across the entire season, compressed into the most demanding format the sport offers.