Tadej Pogacar will bid to complete a clean sweep of the Grand Tours as he returns to the Vuelta a Espana for the first time in seven years.
Pogacar wrapped up a fifth Tour de France title in July and has now been confirmed as the leader of a strong UAE Team Emirates XRG unit for the Spanish race. The Slovenian last competed in the Vuelta in 2019, when he finished third.
A Vuelta triumph would make Pogacar the ninth male rider to win the general classification at all three of cycling's three-week races, following his Giro d'Italia victory in 2024.
“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. “Spain is a country I love to visit and race in and I think the time is right to go back.”
The Vuelta begins in Monaco, where Pogacar resides, on 22 August, and will cross France and Andorra before finishing in Granada on 13 September. Pogacar will have strong support from Joao Almeida, Jay Vine and Pavel Sivakov, with Pablo Torres set to make his Grand Tour debut. Primoz Roglic and Wout van Aert are among the other big names due to race.