There\u2019s no better way to brush off the hangover of the Tour de France than to start mulling who\u2019s racing the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a.<\/p>\n
And now\u2019s a good time to do it.<\/p>\n
The evidence pointing toward Tadej Poga\u010dar returning to the Spanish tour is mounting by the day.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, Wout van Aert is blasting stage wins at the Tour of Denmark ahead of a near-guaranteed Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a participation.<\/p>\n
Tour de France stars Mads Pedersen and Mattias Skjelmose just confirmed they\u2019re doubling their grand tour summer with three weeks in Spain.<\/p>\n
Sepp Kuss, Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d, and Jo\u00e3o Almeida are other headliners in a crop of toppers expected to be at the start of the Spanish tour on August 22.<\/p>\n
Reigning maillot rojo<\/em> Jonas Vingegaard has not outlined his plans for the summer after he crashed out of the Tour de France.<\/p>\n However at this point, a Vuelta title defense seems unlikely for the Danish star.<\/p>\n If the question over whether Poga\u010dar will race the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a feels familiar, that\u2019s because it is.<\/p>\n The Slovenian\u2019s return to the race where it all started with his sensational grand tour debut in 2019 has been a discussion ever since he won the Giro d\u2019Italia in 2024.<\/p>\n For Poga\u010dar, victory at the Vuelta would complete the grand tour grand slam, and is a key part of his quest to complete the cycling calendar.<\/p>\n And it seemed highly likely through the start of last year \u2013 until a knee injury and deep fatigue from the Tour de France thwarted the plan.<\/p>\n The rumor mill began spinning again just months later.<\/p>\n Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a organizers reignited the debate last autumn when they confirmed further details of the race\u2019s 2026 G<\/em>ran Sa<\/em>lida <\/i>from Monaco \u2013 Pogi\u2019s adopted home.<\/p>\n The rumor mill got a fresh acceleration during the recent Tour de France. Both Prince Albert of Monaco and King Poga\u010dar of the peloton dropped mischievous hints it would happen.<\/p>\n Any attempts by Poga\u010dar to backtrack and slow the speculation didn\u2019t last long.<\/p>\n Speaking after his spectacular two-up attack with Mathieu van der Poel in Paris on stage 21 of the Tour, Poga\u010dar said he was too cooked to think too far forward.<\/p>\n The Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a is not yet a done deal.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the moment, I don\u2019t feel fresh enough to ride the Vuelta if it were to start tomorrow. I can still decide in two weeks,\u201d Poga\u010dar said last weekend.<\/p>\n Two days later, a hint-bomb landed into social media.<\/p>\n The Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a media crew posted a reel Tuesday of Poga\u010dar\u2019s debut appearance at the race as a baby-faced wunderkind with the caption \u201csummer is getting interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar\u2019s agent Alex Carrera told Sky Sports<\/em> this week that UAE Emirates-XRG is finalizing the GOAT\u2019s program leading to his world title defense in September.<\/p>\n Further details are expected to be confirmed later next week.<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar\u2019s Slovenian frenemy Rogli\u010d and his GC-caliber teammate Almeida will be among those praying that \u201cThe Pog Program\u201d doesn\u2019t include a line for the Vuelta.<\/p>\n Here are the biggest names we\u2019re expecting to see at the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, based on recent reports.<\/p>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tadej-pogacar-headlines-rumored-vuelta-a-espana-startlist\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2287793942-scaled.jpg”] Jim Cotton Updated July 30, 2026 05:10AM There\u2019s no better way to brush off the hangover of the Tour de France than to start mulling who\u2019s racing the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a. And now\u2019s a good time to do it. The evidence pointing toward Tadej Poga\u010dar returning to the Spanish tour is mounting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2069389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2069389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2069389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2069389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2069389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2069389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2069389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Tadej Poga\u010dar to the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a \u2013 the rumor that just keeps giving<\/h2>\n
![\"Poga\u010dar](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-1174652991.jpg?width=2048&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a posts social media teaser<\/h2>\n
Riders expected to be at the 2026 Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a<\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2287518800.jpg?width=2048&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
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