Alberto Contador urges Tadej Pogacar to return to the Vuelta a Espana: "He has to put it in his palmares, it's the only one he lacks"
Cycling
Despite being only 26 years old, Tadej Pogacar is already in the discussion of the greatest cyclists of all time. He may still be behind Eddy Merckx, but he doesn't have much to envy any of the others. To top it off, in 2024 he completed simply the best individual season in history, or at least one of them.
The Slovenian has won the Giro d'Italia, added a third Tour de France, took a Rainbow Jersey at the World Championship and added two Monuments to his list of honours. However, his ambition knows no bounds and he hopes to equal or even better it, if possible, in 2025. There are strong rumors that he could contest the Vuelta a Espana, the only Grand Tour he lacks on his palmarès. He made his name there in 2019, when he finished third and took three stage wins.
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During the broadcast of the Clásica de Almería on Eurosport, the legend of Spanish cycling, Alberto Contador, gave his opinion on the matter. The man from Pinto understands that UAE Team Emirates - XRG does not yet want to confirm that Pogi will be in the Vuelta this year, but he has made it clear that he should seriously consider it and complete his palmares in three-week races.
"I think it's good that he says so. If it is not 100% certain, if there is some variant, it is better for him to say this than for everyone to get their hopes up, to assume that Pogacar is coming and then in the end it is not so. I think they still have time to decide. It's true that I think he has to include the Vuelta a España in his list of winners. It's true that he's very young and that, in principle, he gives the impression that he's got a long way to go. But, well, it's the only Grand Tour he's missing in his list of winners," Contador commented.
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- Wout Van Aert won a Monument (San Remo, 2020), so he wouldn't be in that article. He might be in an article of riders like Sagan who were truly exceptional and won fewer monuments that expected. As for these two, they've won the last 7 monuments, 10 of the last 12, 15 of the last 20. Merckx and de Vlaeminck weren't that dominant in their era. It really is special the way these two race with such admiration for each other along the way. Rivals, not enemies.RidesHills14-04-2025
- So drunk Belgians will always target MvDP because they are drunk. That can't be right. If drunk Belgians target all other cyclist equally, then it may be reasonable.
KerisVroom14-04-2025 - Nobody cares about this nonsense.
Front24214-04-2025 - Thanks! Hadn’t heard of that word so would have been hard to search very specifically without your input.Mistermaumau14-04-2025
- Ok, that’s this year’s gold medal for classy comments :-)Mistermaumau14-04-2025
- of course it’s predictable. a dad is proud of his son. nothing else matters, and his dad was a celebrated rider in his own right. maybe if people respected the human side of this story, and these people, we would see fewer bidons thrown. lastly as a dad, I appreciate this. a dad should have be given grief for showing pride and love for his child. we need more dads and examples like Adriemij14-04-2025
- i willfully CHOOSE to believe in your theory about greatness being sharpened and driven by greatness, because in my ideal world that’s how i’d wish it to be. in this case, with mathieu in particular, i think the presence of first wout then tadej absolutely drives and consumes him to some degree. he’s a guy who admittedly gets BORED. and when mathieu gets bored he just goes and does something else. he’s very clear about the fact there are a BUNCH of things he just doesn’t really care about, and i think anyone who follows him has a sense that MVDP is here for a GOOD TIME, not a LONG TIME. my hope is that tadej’s greatness will keep mathieu focused and hungry. very sadly, wout no longer fills that role. he may again and i hope he does, but their career trajectories are going in different directions and have been for a few years now. i will be extremely sad for the truly SPECTACULAR van aert if his line MSR win is the only monument trophy on his mantle. at very least i want ONE roubaix cobblestone sitting next to it. he deserves to tell the story when the grandkids ask “why is there a big rock sitting up there, papa?”OCexile14-04-2025
- Why? He is being too hard on himself. No sane person will blame him if he stopped there and then.KerisVroom14-04-2025
- You can find a quick explantion by searching for "finish line camera howtown". The camera only captures the vertical line. The photo that we see is a composite of vertical lines.KerisVroom14-04-2025
- Let us not go off the deep end for a start it us not attempted murder. At most common assault. Country dependent. Yes horrible to see and ob not a real fan of the sport or just a VDP hater. This has been going on for years look at Froome in the TDF and other sports such as football. That is soccer to the North Americans. Let the police do there job and hope the offender gets what is coming to him or even her.paultryan200214-04-2025