Latest news with #UAETeamEmirates-XRG
BBC News
20 hours ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Pogacar to skip Vuelta to focus on Worlds defence
Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar will not race in next month's Vuelta a Espana as he takes a break before focusing on the World won his fourth Tour de France last week to further establish himself as the dominant force in modern 26-year-old won road race gold at the World Championships last year with an epic attack from 100km out and is aiming to defend his crown in Rwanda in late UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider will return to racing at the Canadian one-day races in Quebec and Montreal in mid-September."I'm excited to go back to Canada; the races are tough but beautiful, and they fit my style well," Pogacar said."I'll be aiming to be back racing well again for that part of the season and for the World Championships especially."The Vuelta is the only one of the three Grand Tours Pogacar has not won, having finished third during his only appearance in 2025 World Championships will be the first to take place in Africa and will be held in the Rwandan capital Kigali from 21-28 September.
The Independent
a day ago
- Sport
- The Independent
Tadej Pogacar explains reason behind pulling out of Vuelta a Espana after Tour de France victory
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. So it is not a huge surprise that the 26-year-old has opted out of racing the Vuelta a Espana, which starts on 23 August in Torino, Italy. 'After such a demanding Tour, we decided it was best to take a break,' Pogacar said through his team on Tuesday. 'The Vuelta is, of course, a race I would dearly love to return to. I have fantastic memories there from 2019, but now the body is telling me to rest.' He added that his race calendar for the second half of the year will include the Grands Prix in Canada in September, and that a major target will be the World Championships, held at altitude in Kigali, Rwanda. 'I'm excited to go back to Canada; the races are tough but beautiful, and they fit my style well. I'll be aiming to be back racing well again for that part of the season and for the World Championships especially,' he said. Pogacar would have been a heavy favourite for the Vuelta, which he has not ridden since his breakout year in 2019, when he made his Grand Tour debut there. The Slovenian, then aged 20, won three stages and the best young rider classification en route to a third-place finish overall. In his absence two-time Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard, who finished second behind Pogacar in Paris, is the favourite to win the maillot rojo. His Visma-Lease a Bike squad have not confirmed their final lineup for the Vuelta. Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG team have named their eight-man squad for the race, which was won by Pogacar's compatriot Primoz Roglic of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe last year. Portuguese climber Joao Almeida, who crashed heavily early in the Tour and abandoned with a broken rib, is set to be a co-leader along with Spanish rider Juan Ayuso at his home race. Ivo Oliveira, Domen Novak, Mikkel Bjerg, Jay Vine, Marc Soler, and Felix Grossschartner complete the lineup.
LeMonde
2 days ago
- Climate
- LeMonde
Tadej Pogacar, a Tour de France champion weary of his own dominance
Tadej Pogacar ruled over the 2025 Tour de France unchallenged, to the point of letting boredom creep in. Supremacy, when it faces no opposition, quickly becomes routine. During the final stage of this 112 th edition, between Mantes-la-Ville and Paris on Sunday, July 27, one rival, Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), finally managed to crack this undisputed reign. The Slovenian could have ended these three weeks of racing with another victory. He could have become the first yellow jersey since Bernard Hinault in 1982 to raise his arms in triumph on the Champs-Elysées. But the 30-year-old Belgian took a solo win, pulling away on the steepest gradients of Rue Lepic, under pouring rain and on slippery cobblestones. "He was incredibly strong," acknowledged the leader of UAE Team Emirates-XRG, who ultimately finished fourth, 19 seconds behind the day's winner. Sunday made clear that a champion only truly fulfills himself when threatened. All it took was a day with little at stake – in which the general classification times were frozen 50.3 kilometers from the finish due to rain – for something resembling a battle to finally emerge, after a week in which Pogacar seemed to have lost his appetite for victory.
Dubai Eye
2 days ago
- Sport
- Dubai Eye
UAE Team Emirates-XRG: Pogačar clinches fourth Tour de France title
Tadej Pogačar won his fourth Tour de France title finishing fourth on the final stage into Paris, leading the UAE Team Emirates-XRG to its fourth Tour victory in six years. The Slovenian rider secured the overall win with a total time of 76:00:32, finishing 4 minutes 24 seconds ahead of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma–Lease a Bike) and 11 minutes ahead of Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe). From stages 1 through 20, Pogačar didn't lose a single second to any of the other top five riders in the general classification — a feat matched only once before, by Maurice Garin in 1903. He won four stages and also claimed the King of the Mountains classification for the third time in his career. UAE Team Emirates-XRG took five stage wins overall, with Tim Wellens adding a solo victory on Stage 15. The team supported Pogačar from the opening stage in Lille through the Alps and Pyrenees to Paris, despite losing a rider before the first rest day. Jonas Vingegaard, winner in 2022 and 2023, mounted a serious challenge, especially with an all-in attack on Stage 18, but couldn't close the gap. He finished second overall. Lipowitz completed the podium in third. This is Pogačar's fourth Tour win, putting him alongside Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Induráin, all of whom have five. At 26, Pogačar is on track to challenge that record.
Al Etihad
4 days ago
- Sport
- Al Etihad
Tadej Pogačar finishes third on final Tour de France mountain stage
PARIS (AGENCIES) On the final day in the mountains at this year's Tour de France, Tadej Pogačar did not flinch in his defence of the Yellow Jersey. Finishing third across the line at La Plagne, the Slovenian did not even come under attack on the last climb, such was the pace that he set at the front of the favourites' group. Unable to put the UAE Team Emirates-XRG man under pressure on the last summit finish of the race, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) sprinted around Pogačar for second at the line, with Ineos Grenadiers' Thymen Arensman taking a well-earned victory after his speculative attack from the GC group. The Dutch climber becomes the only rider to take a stage win in both the Pyrenees and the Alps at this year's Tour. Content to set a defensive tempo up the final climb to La Plagne, Pogačar did not chase down Arensman or follow his stage-winning attack. Instead, the 26-year-old sapped the morale of his opponents and crossed the line with his race lead remaining well more than four minutes. Only two stages stand between the world champion and a fourth Tour de France victory. As for Pogačar, the Yellow Jersey took third place on the day and will now turn his attention to the final two stages of this year's race. With an advantage of well over four minutes in the GC, Pogačar can be confident, but as he stated in his post-race interview, this is no time to become complacent. Pogačar said, 'We did a very good job until the last climb, and then some teams and riders think they can sprint the 19km of the climb. The pace was incredibly high at the start, and then I was thinking that maybe Jonas [Vingegaard] would want to win the stage also. But in the end, he was just holding on to my wheel.
