UAE Team Emirates have confirmed that discussions with Tadej Pogačar over his possible participation in the Vuelta a España next year will be taking place soon to try and thrash out the last big question mark over his 2025 schedule.
The 2025 Vuelta route was revealed on Thursday, with elements such as the ascent of the emblematic Angliru, the almost equally challenging Bola del Mundo 24 hours before the finish in Madrid and ten summit finishes all widely thought to be appealing for the Slovenian.
Pogačar is thought very likely to return to the Vuelta a España after a six-year absence, and team manager Joxean Fernández Matxin confirmed to AS on Thursday that Pogačar is determined to take part again to try and add the only Grand Tour missing from his palmares.
Pogačar has yet to rule out going for a repeat of his successful 2024 Giro-Tour de France 'double' next summer. But although the delayed Giro presentation will not be until January 13, with so many details about the route already public knowledge, there are rumours that a definitive decision on his Giro-Vuelta dilemma could be taken much sooner.
"It's a race route with a genuine Vuelta feel," Matxin told AS after seeing the route. "Those ten summit finishes, five or six really mountainous stages, two time trials…. What does surprise me is that right after a transfer" - entailing a flight from Grenoble, France back to Girona in Catalonia after stage 4 – "the race will have a time trial."
Although some of the Vuelta route, like the ascent of the Angliru and the Farrapona the following day, was already in the public domain, the organisers had managed to keep the stage 20 ascent of the Bola del Mundo, the 2,200 metre-high monster climb just outside Madrid, a secret until the day of the presentation. But with the full route now published, UAE will move closer to a definitive verdict on the key missing element of Pogačar's race program for 2025
"I will talk with Tadej from my hotel and we'll decide. What we know for certain already is that any race he takes part in is guaranteed to be spectacular, and inside the team, we've more or less got a good idea [of what he will race]."
"The Vuelta is a race in which he will participate, sooner or later, because we want to try to be sure that he has the Vuelta in his palmares."
"We think he'll come," race director Javier Guillén told AS. But for now Pogačar's only Vuelta participation dates from 2019, when he claimed third overall and won three stages and the Best Young Rider's competition in his first ever Grand Tour.
On a personal level, 2025 Vuelta ascents like the Angliru, Farrapona and Bola del Mundo could have an added attraction for Pogačar as they are all climbs where one of his cycling heroes, Alberto Contador, has either taken stage wins or - in the case of the Bola del Mundo - sealed the deal on his second overall Vuelta a España victory in 2012. Ascents like the Alto del Pike Bidea and Alto del Vivero in Bilbao's stage 11 will likely spark memories of his early duel with Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike) on the same climbs on the opening day of the 2023 Tour de France.
On a more practical note, for a squad as powerful as UAE – who won the 2024 Vuelta's teams classification by a 33-minute margin – the inclusion of a 20-kilometre team time trial in the Vuelta's first week will be in their favour, with or without Pogačar. Furthermore, rather than the 20% 'goat-track' summit finishes that the Vuelta often likes to use, in 2025 almost all the final ascents, too, are much longer, more 'classic' climbs, of the kind where a mountain specialist like Pogačar can gain significant gaps on his rivals.
However, depending on his priorities, the fact the 2025 Vuelta is no less difficult than any previous editions might make Pogačar's opting for the Spanish Grand Tour less attractive than it initially looks on paper. As L'Équipe observed on Friday, the World Championships are another big goal for Pogačar in 2025, and on such a tough Vuelta course, there is a risk he might finish his second Grand Tour of the year too tired to put up a full fight for a second rainbow jersey.
What is certain is that with a summit finish as early as stage 2's cat.2 ascent to Limone Piemonte, along with two very tough stages in the Pyrenees and a fourth summit finish in Valderazcay all in the first week, the Slovenian will have to be ready to hit the ground running should he choose to take part in Vuelta. It's also true that while some Vuelta routes, most notably in 2022 when Remco Evenepoel won, were much easier in the third week, this time round the Vuelta's hardest challenges continue right up to the second last day, at La Bola del Mundo.
A definitive decision from Pogačar on his Vuelta-Giro dilemma is expected, in any case, after the Giro presentation on January 13 by the latest, and possibly much sooner.
