Aug 3 (Reuters) – Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar will compete in this month’s Vuelta a Espana, his team UAE Team Emirates-XRG said on Monday.
The Vuelta remains the only Grand Tour still not won by 27-year-old Pogacar, who has claimed the Tour de France five times and clinched the Giro d’Italia title in 2024.
Pogacar has competed in the Vuelta only once, when he made his Grand Tour debut in 2019.
The Slovenian will be joined by Joao Almeida, Jay Vine, Pavel Sivakov, Pablo Torres, Kevin Vermaerke, Domen Novak and Ivo Oliveira in the UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad, the team said in a statement.
“I’m excited to say I’m going back to La Vuelta … Spain is a country I love to visit and race in and I think the time is right to go back,” Pogacar said.
“The motivation is high to finish off the year in a good way and the Vuelta will be a big target. The team is strong and we hope to do good things.”
The Vuelta, won by Jonas Vingegaard last year when he became the eighth man to win all three Grand Tours, begins on August 22 in Monaco.
(Reporting by Chiranjit Ojha in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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