Tadej Pogacar lives in Monaco. So does the start line of the Vuelta a España on Saturday, 22 August. If the five-time Tour de France winner wants a warm-up spin to the ramp, he can do it in a bathrobe.
The Slovenian was confirmed on his UAE Team Emirates XRG roster on 3 August, ending months of speculation about whether he would return to the race that hosted his Grand Tour debut in 2019.
“I’m excited to say I’m going back to La Vuelta. It was my first ever Grand Tour back in 2019 and an amazing experience,” Pogacar said in the team announcement.
An extra incentive at his front door
Vuelta director Javier Guillén has been almost cheerfully open about the geographic bribe.
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The 9.4-kilometre opening time trial rolls out of Place du Casino, sweeps past Port de Fontvieille and onto sections of the Formula 1 circuit, and finishes on Boulevard Albert I, the same tarmac where the Monaco Grand Prix is decided each May.
“We’ve created an extra incentive because we start practically from his home,” Guillén told Spanish media at the end of July, adding that “this is the best year for Tadej to come.”
The principality is Pogacar’s primary residence, where he lives with his partner Urska Zigart for most of the year and does the bulk of his training in the surrounding hills of the Côte d’Azur.
Stakes bigger than a home postcode
For all the novelty of the front-door start, Pogacar is riding into serious history.
Only three cyclists have won the Tour and the Vuelta in the same year, Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault and Chris Froome, and a win in Granada on 13 September would make him the fourth to complete that double.
The bigger prize is career, not calendar. Pogacar already has the 2024 Giro d’Italia and, after his fifth Tour de France win on 26 July, needs only the Vuelta to become the ninth rider ever to have won all three Grand Tours. Jonas Vingegaard joined that list earlier this year when he won the Giro in May.
Vingegaard will not be in Monaco to argue about it. The Dane, still riding out the season after that Giro victory, has left the Vuelta stage clear.
Roglic in pain, chasing his own record
The rider who might genuinely have troubled Pogacar on Spanish roads is arriving on the back foot.
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Primoz Roglic, tied with Roberto Heras on four Vuelta titles, is trying to become the outright record holder with a fifth, and he skipped the Tour de France to focus on it.
Then he was hit by a car on a training ride, forcing him to pull out of the Clasica San Sebastian and the Vuelta a Burgos.
“Not the best scenario, but it’s life,” the 36-year-old said.
“Now it’s all systems go towards La Vuelta.”
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Roglic will start in Monaco with severe bruising, no racing in his legs, and a hotel to check into. His compatriot will start with the same ambition and, for one afternoon at least, a home advantage no one else in the peloton can match.
The first rider is off at 4:17pm local time.
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