Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) will not defend his Giro d'Italia crown in 2025 but could still be in line for a Tour-Vuelta double, according to his sports director Mauro Gianetti.
The UAE Team Emirates-XRG DS confirmed his star rider would miss the Giro this year, speaking after Pogačar picked up his first victory of the season.
The world champion won Stage 3 of the team's home race, the UAE Tour, on Wednesday, picking up the leader's jersey in the process.
"Yes, it's certain," Gianetti said, according to L'Équipe.
"Now we're going to plan everything to know if he will line up for the Tour and the Vuelta or just the Tour. He could only do the Tour.
"Depending on the start of the season, we will decide in the coming weeks."
Pogačar famously became the third man to claim cycling's Triple Crown last year, obliterating the rest of the field on his debut at the Giro d'Italia before winning his third Tour de France and his first World Championships title. The trifecta of cycling's biggest titles hadn't been won in the same year since Stephen Roche achieved the feat in 1987.
The Slovenian has not raced the Vuelta since 2019, when he made his Grand Tour debut. He finished third - behind compatriot Primož Roglič and Movistar's Alejandro Valverde - and won three stages and the white jersey.
His performance then prompted the team to fast-track him to the Tour de France, which he won on his first attempt the following year.
Chris Froome was the last man to win both the Tour and Vuelta in the same calendar year, in 2017, and the only man to do so since the Vuelta moved to its current spot in the season in 1995.
