Four-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar is set to skip the Vuelta a Espana, leaving the year’s final Grand Tour as one of the few races he still has yet to win.
Pogacar, who equalled Chris Froome’s four titles in Paris on Sunday, has cut a more downbeat figure than usual at points during this Tour de France, saying “I can’t wait for the Tour to be over” during the tough final week in the Alps, and admitting afterwards that it was the hardest edition of the race he has contested. This year’s route featured five hors-categorie summit finishes and a punchy, Classics-style opening week before gruelling stints in the Pyrenees and Alps, and a full-throttle finish taking in several steep climbs up Montmartre in Paris.
