Tadej Poga\u010dar surfaced from his hospital bed Sunday morning wearing a neck brace, a bandage above his eyebrow and cuts across his face and hand after the brutal crash that ended his Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a.<\/p>\n
The injured superstar struck a defiant pose, flashing a sign-of-the-horns gesture in an Instagram<\/em> story set to the Bee Gees\u2019 \u201cStayin\u2019 Alive.\u201d<\/p>\n While Poga\u010dar hasn\u2019t publicly spoken yet, new \u00a0details have emerged about the brutal high-speed crash that left him with a concussion, a displaced fracture of his left collarbone, and a stable C7 cervical fracture.<\/p>\n Joxean Fern\u00e1ndez Matx\u00edn, UAE Emirates-XRG\u2019s sport manager, confirmed that Poga\u010dar was drinking from a water bottle when he crashed Saturday with around 40km remaining in stage 8.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was drinking water, so he had one hand on the bottle and another on the handlebar, so the fact that he only had one hand on the handlebar was decisive in the crash,\u201d Matx\u00edn told Velo<\/em> at the start of stage 9 Sunday.<\/p>\n Broadcast images appeared to show Poga\u010dar\u2019s front wheel striking a dark object on the roadway. It remains unclear whether the object, described variously as a rock, debris or even a piece of equipment, caused the crash.<\/p>\n Matx\u00edn\u2019s account provides a crucial new detail because with one hand occupied by the bidon<\/em>, Poga\u010dar had less control from the impact when his front wheel folded beneath him and pitched the race leader violently onto the pavement.<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar is a world-class bike handler who can float across the pav\u00e9<\/em> of Paris-Roubaix and attack the most treacherous Alpine descents. But with only one hand on the bars, it\u2019s much harder to control the bike if the front wheel hits a rock, pothole or other road hazard, even more so at nearly 60kph.<\/p>\n Pavel Sivakov, who was riding directly behind Poga\u010dar, also said he saw the Slovenian handling a bottle immediately before the crash.<\/p>\n \u201cI was just in his wheel when it happened,\u201d Sivakov explained to reporters ahead of stage 9, including Domestique<\/em>. \u201cActually, I could avoid it, but there was nothing I could have done there. I think he was drinking. It happened so fast, but he was just taking a bidon or putting it back. I don\u2019t exactly remember, but I remember him taking a bidon<\/em> at this moment, and that\u2019s how he lost his balance so quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n UAE confirmed Saturday night that Poga\u010dar suffered a concussion, a displaced fracture of his left collarbone and a stable C7 cervical fracture, along with multiple cuts and abrasions.<\/p>\n The team said examinations found no neurological damage, a relief considering how brutal the high-speed impact was.<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar was transported to a hospital in Barcelona, and Matx\u00edn said doctors planned to wait 24 hours following the head injury before operating on Poga\u010dar\u2019s collarbone.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are going to wait 24 hours for the blow to the head before operating on him,\u201d Matx\u00edn said. \u201cIt\u2019s too early to say anything about if he can return to race again this season.\u201d<\/p>\n Matx\u00edn described the moment when he arrived at the crash scene, and Poga\u010dar initially tried to stand and continue, but quickly realized the damage to his shoulder made that impossible.<\/p>\n \u201cHe tried to get up, and he was saying his arm hurt, saying \u2018shoulder pain, shoulder pain,\u2019 and I could see he was bleeding. When he tried to lift his arm to get back on the bike he realized he couldn\u2019t continue,\u201d Matx\u00edn said.<\/p>\n Ironically, the crash that took down the superstar came on one of the widest and least technically complicated sections of what was \u2014 at least on paper \u2014 the easiest stage so far in this Vuelta.<\/p>\n The peloton was regrouping on a wide stretch of double-lane highway after a tense succession of traffic islands and roundabouts, and was readying to take on the day\u2019s final Cat. 3 climb before a reduced bunch kick.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, it\u2019s a blow. We came to this Vuelta with Tadej is great shape, with many stages that suited him, with the idea of winning in Granada, and now, like a stone in the road, everything is changed,\u201d Matx\u00edn said.<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar\u2019s exit also blew open a race that had appeared all but decided.<\/p>\n Enric Mas (Movistar), nearly four minutes behind the Slovenian before the crash, arrived at Sunday\u2019s stage 9 start wearing the red leader\u2019s jersey, with six riders now packed within 2:22 on the overall standings.<\/p>\n UAE teammate Kevin Vermaerke was riding ahead of Poga\u010dar when he heard the crash behind him at close to 60kph.<\/p>\n \u201cI was in front of him, there were three of us. I heard a crash behind, we were going 55-60kph. It was a hectic moment and then on the radio we heard that Tadej crashed and we all stopped,\u201d Vermaerke told Velo<\/em>. \u201cWhen you don\u2019t hear anything on the radio and he\u2019s not coming back, you know it\u2019s not great.\u201d<\/p>\n Vermaerke said the available footage did not establish whether the mysterious black object on the road brought down Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are probably a thousand rocks on the roads that are being closed an hour or two before we come through. It\u2019s impossible to make the roads completely clean for the 180 kilometers we race every day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Once it became clear Poga\u010dar would not return, Vermaerke and his UAE teammates regrouped and rode somberly toward the finish behind the peloton.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were all a bit in shock that it all happened so quick. Tadej is our team leader but he is also a friend of ours. He\u2019s the one that makes us laugh at the dinner table and motivates us,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a big loss to have him leave, but we have a good team, we want to make him proud.\u201d<\/p>\n The crash instantly destroyed UAE\u2019s central objective for the 2026 Vuelta. Poga\u010dar had led the race since the opening stage and appeared firmly in control of the red jersey.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a devastating day for us. We came here with one clear goal to win with Tadej and that\u2019s the cruelty of cycling that in one split second on the easiest day so far with 40km to go and you don\u2019t expect anything to happen, and the worst-possible scenario happens and our race changed instantly.\u201d<\/p>\n Vermaerke said now UAE will start unleashing attacks to try to win a stage to honor Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n Vermaerke and three of his teammates wasted no time, and rode into the day\u2019s main breakaway in Sunday\u2019s uphill finale.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/vuelta-a-espana\/tadej-pogacar-drinking-bidon-vuelta-crash\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/pogi-uae.jpg”] Andrew Hood Updated August 30, 2026 08:36AM Tadej Poga\u010dar surfaced from his hospital bed Sunday morning wearing a neck brace, a bandage above his eyebrow and cuts across his face and hand after the brutal crash that ended his Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a. The injured superstar struck a defiant pose, flashing a sign-of-the-horns […]<\/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-2119495","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\/2119495","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=2119495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2119495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2119495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2119495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2119495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Poga\u010dar awaiting surgery, no word on comeback<\/h2>\n
\u2018The worst-possible scenario\u2019<\/h2>\n