There will be no Tadej Pogacar in this year’s Vuelta a España, which, following the Slovenian’s back-to-back domination of both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France, will afford his rivals a sigh of relief.
As the Vuelta gets under way in Lisbon on Saturday with an individual time trial, the UAE Team Emirates rider will be elsewhere, planning towards his next target, the World Road Race Championships in Zurich.