VOLČJI POTOK — Tadej Pogačar has confirmed his three major objectives for 2027 — the World Championships, the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España — and clarified the cause of the high-speed crash that ended his 2026 season. Speaking at a charity golf event at the Arboretum in Volčji Potok, Slovenia, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider said he hit "a big rock" while leading the Vuelta a España on stage 8, an incident in which he suffered concussion and fractures to his collarbone and spine.
"It was a big rock, everything else is fake news," Pogačar said. The 2026 Tour de France winner, who has recently returned to training indoors and on the roads, added: "Last week I started the new season and now it's a slow build-up for the future. The desire for next year would of course be the World Championships combined with the Tour and the Vuelta. If the Vuelta somehow didn't work out this year... Even if I would rather go to the Giro, I will have to check off the Vuelta at some point. I think that will be the goal for next year." At the Tour he will be chasing a record sixth yellow jersey victory.
Pogačar said his recovery is now almost complete after five weeks off the bike. He had hoped to return for the European Championships in Slovenia despite the team stating his season was over in the days after the Vuelta crash, but the risk was deemed too high. "Because the injury was quite serious. It took me quite a while to get out on the bike. Five weeks," he told national broadcaster RTVSlo. "When my shoulder healed and I no longer had any consequences or dizziness, I pulled myself together, and we were also on vacation. I started training on the trainer and physiotherapy with the thought that I could go to the European Championships, which gave me additional motivation for rehabilitation. But still, a little over two weeks before the European Championships, the time came to realize that there was no point in racing. Because if I fell again, the consequences could be really serious and it wasn't worth the risk. I have now been training regularly for a week, which is a month earlier than in previous years."
His next outing on the bike in a "race" is expected to be the BeKing charity criterium in Monaco on 29 November, organised by fellow resident Matteo Trentin alongside his wife Claudia Morandini. After the golf event Pogačar is bound for Abu Dhabi for sponsorship obligations and the team's annual cycling festival, which will provide "an opportunity to sit down with the team management and discuss. Since I've already finished the break between seasons, we'll already be discussing specifically what we'll do next year." His provisional calendar for 2027 will be worked out there before being revealed at the team's December training camp and media day. There is also talk of a first return to the Tour Down Under in Australia, where he made his WorldTour debut with UAE back in 2019 and finished 13th overall, though confirmation will wait until December.
Pogačar closes out 2026 still as the top-ranked rider despite missing the Worlds, Euros and Il Lombardia. He won four of the five one-day races he started — Strade Bianche, Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders and Liège-Bastogne-Liège — missing out only at Paris-Roubaix to Wout van Aert, and won the Tour de Romandie, Tour de Suisse and Tour de France overall before crashing out of the Vuelta, which became his final race of the year.