Tadej Poga\u010dar is so desperate to race his \u201chome\u201d European championships in Ljubljana on Sunday that he\u2019s putting pressure on his team to allow it.<\/p>\n
At least, that\u2019s according to reports from El Pa\u00eds.<\/em><\/p>\n The Spanish paper reported Monday that Poga\u010dar called the medic who operated on his busted collarbone four weeks ago in Barcelona. The Spanish paper wrote that the GOAT asked the surgeon Saturday for medical clearance to race the Euros this coming weekend, and was given the green light.<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar is reportedly using that as backing for a conflict with his entourage at UAE Emirates-XRG, who are urging patience.<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar broke his collarbone, a vertebra, and suffered a concussion when he crashed at 60kph last month at the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a. It was a brutal fall that supposedly ended his season.<\/p>\n As Poga\u010dar said at the time in a team statement, \u201cThis isn\u2019t the way I wanted my season to finish. But right now, the most important thing is to recover properly and give my body the time it needs.\u201d<\/p>\n If team brass buckles to Poga\u010dar\u2019s supposed wish to return, the 28-year-old will make a risky early comeback from his savage crash this very Sunday.<\/p>\n UAE Emirates-XRG told Velo<\/em> on Tuesday morning that the reports out of Spanish media are \u201cnot true.\u201d<\/p>\n Per El Pa\u00eds<\/em>, Poga\u010dar has pulled a 180 from his previous acceptance that his season was over.<\/p>\n After missing the chance to defend his world title and being forced to watch his domestique Brandon McNulty win the rainbow bands, Poga\u010dar is hungry to return to reimpose his rule over the peloton.<\/p>\n That\u2019s contrary to his team\u2019s ongoing reluctance to let him take any undue risk after such a hard crash.<\/p>\n But Poga\u010dar has plenty of motivation to return to racing ASAP.<\/p>\n The European championships this weekend take place on his home soil. The course passes near his home town. He\u2019s a national hero with home crowds to please. And he\u2019s the defending European champion. His massive victory at last year\u2019s race in the Ard\u00e9che is easily forgotten.<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar\u2019s home championship would be defizzed without him and his partner Ur\u0161ka \u017digart, who\u2019s also sidelined after she broke her jaw earlier this month.<\/p>\n Beyond that, the championship race against Remco Evenepoel (Paul Seixas confirmed he\u2019s not starting) would serve as a test for Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n El Pa\u00eds<\/em> wrote he\u2019s hungry to race Il Lombardia on October 10 to chase a record-breaking sixth victory in the falling leaves.<\/p>\n El Pa\u00eds<\/em>\u2019 reporting fuels a rumor that just keeps giving.<\/p>\n A mini storm of speculation blew up last week when Poga\u010dar appeared on a provisional start list for Slovenia\u2019s European champs.<\/p>\n At the time, UAE Emirates-XRG brushed it off.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s probably an old list,\u201d the team told Feltet<\/em>. \u201cAlthough he is back doing light indoor training, there are no plans for him to ride any more races this year.\u201d<\/p>\n Since then, Poga\u010dar has been bounding around looking chipper and race-ready.<\/p>\n He posted on Instagram on Saturday, sharing images from his first outdoor ride since La Vuelta<\/em>, and his last day as world champion.<\/p>\n He looked fit and mobile as ever, and he\u2019d not lost his sense of humor either.<\/p>\n The post includes a video of Poga\u010dar comparing his fresh, palm-sized scar from collarbone surgery with his ride buddies, Eddie Dunbar and Zigart\u2019s teammate, Gladys Verhulst-Wild.<\/p>\n UAE Emirates-XRG shut down the report from El Pa\u00eds<\/em> when Velo<\/em> reached out for comment on Tuesday morning. \u201cThe article is not true,\u201d wrote the team\u2019s head of media.<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar would be rolling the dice if he makes a comeback on Sunday.<\/p>\n He\u2019s not a rider who shows up to roll around at the back of the bunch \u2013 he\u2019ll be in his usual full superhero mode spraying attacks and railing descents.<\/p>\n El Pa\u00eds<\/em> reported that the surgeon told Poga\u010dar on Saturday there\u2019s no obstacle to him competing. But those healing fractures are presumably still fragile.<\/p>\n And while riders regularly return from broken collarbones within weeks, Poga\u010dar would lose a valuable, rare opportunity to fully unplug and recharge for 2027 if he starts the hilly 196km champs.<\/p>\n But Pogi is Pogi.<\/p>\n He loves to race, and he\u2019s got clear motivation to rush back to the bike and please his home crowds.<\/p>\n Or who knows? Maybe he just really dislikes his UAE Emirates-XRG trade team jersey.<\/p>\n He\u2019ll be wearing it for the first time in two years next season if he doesn\u2019t win the blue and white European top on Sunday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/pogacar-pressures-team-over-risky-euro-comeback\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Pog-scar-2.jpg”] Updated September 29, 2026 05:35AM Tadej Poga\u010dar is so desperate to race his \u201chome\u201d European championships in Ljubljana on Sunday that he\u2019s putting pressure on his team to allow it. At least, that\u2019s according to reports from El Pa\u00eds. The Spanish paper reported Monday that Poga\u010dar called the medic who operated on […]<\/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-2170045","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\/2170045","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=2170045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170045\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2170045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2170045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2170045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A home European champs and a Lombardia record<\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2292487115.jpg?width=2048&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Poga\u010dar back riding outdoors<\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-29-at-07.38.19.png?width=1080&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Is it worth the risk?<\/h2>\n