Tadej Pogačar has laid out his 2027 schedule, with his choices being influenced both by events this year, and congestion in the 2028 cycling calendar, with the Olympics looming.
Unsurprisingly, the UAE Team Emirates XRG star has his sights set firmly on a victory at the Vuelta a España, with a win at the Spanish race being the only Grand Tour still missing from his impressive palmarès.
Pogačar also used the media event at a charity golf event in Volčji Potok, in Slovenia, to answer some questions about his crash during stage eight of this year's Vuelta, which left him with multiple serious injuries, including a fractured collarbone, a vertebra injury and concussion, and around which several florid conspiracy stories have evolved, mainly around errant TV recording equipment.
"It was a big stone," he confirmed to Slovenian national broadcaster RTVSlo . "Everything else is fake news."
Also, very predictably, Pogačar is also intent on securing another win at the Tour, which gets underway in Britain on Friday 2 July 2027. If the Slovenian topped the General Classification for a sixth time, that would give him one more Tour title than Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain, all of who achieved five victories in their incredible careers, making him the most successful rider in the history of the Tour. (Lance Armstrong won seven consecutive Tours, between 1999–2005, but his titles have stripped from the record because of his doping.)
The other main focus for Pogačar next year is UCI Road World Championships, which he missed this year because of injuries sustained during his calamitous crash in Spain. In 2027, the Worlds will take place in Haute-Savoie Mont-Blanc, France, starting on 24 August, leaving Pogačar just a couple days of recovery before the beginning of the Vuelta a España, which gets underway in Galicia on 4 September 2027.
“The hope for next year are of course the world championships, combined with the Tour and the Vuelta,” Pogačar told reporters. “Even if I would rather go to the Giro, I will have to check off the Vuelta at some point. So I think that will be the goal for next year”
The decision to prioritise the Vuelta next year, at the expense of the Giro d'Italia, was made more likely by the fact that the LA Olympic Games (which kick off on 14 July 2028) will be taking place hot on the heels of the 2028 Tour de France, scheduled to start in Reims on Saturday 24 June, which would make a successful stab at the 2028 Vuelta a stretch, even for someone with Pogačar's capabilities.