"If Pogacar starts, it is impossible to win..." - Felix Gall aims "realistically" for second place at Vuelta
CyclingFriday, 21 August 2026 at 23:08
The 2026 Vuelta a Espana gets underway with an opening time trial in the streets of Monaco this Saturday. The race has a clear favourite for overall victory in Tadej Pogacar, but many other riders aspire to achieve various milestones; either win other classifications, one or more stages, or secure a top result at the end of three weeks.
Pedersen aims to win plenty
One of the very interesting duels should be between Visma duo Van Aert-Brennan and Mads Pedersen for the points classification victory. The Lidl-Trek rider comes off a successful Tour de France where he not only secured the green jersey, but also won one stage.
As for the upcoming Vuelta, he'd like to focus a bit more on winning, and less on the "hard work" of jumping in breakaways day after day to make up for losses in bunch sprints.
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"How many stages suit me? I haven't studied the course in detail yet, but I think there are five to seven opportunities, although a few of them will be very difficult because they are tough stages. Then I will need the climbing legs I had in the final week of the Tour," Pedersen analyzes the Vuelta course with a notch of optimism.
In theory, the strong all-rounder could be Denmark's strong card for Montreal World Championships two weeks after the Vuelta, but Pedersen disregards that he'd be specifically targetting the hilly course in Montreal as a chance to win his second rainbow jersey.
Mads Pedersen won the points classification at the Tour de France
"The course in Canada is a bit too tough for me. So I am not using the Vuelta to prepare for the World Championships. I am here to go for stage wins, and then we'll see if I get selected for the World Championships and what my form is like."
Lidl-Trek however does bring (at least) two aces for the upcoming Vuelta. Perhaps even more ambitious than Pedersen is his compatriot Mattias Skjelmose - also a participant at the 2026 Tour de France.
Starting as a back-up leader to Juan Ayuso, Skjelmose eventually showed more consistency over the course of three weeks to conclude the Tour in 6th overall. This should be more than decent base for an attack on Vuelta podium - or so does Skjelmose hope, as he aims to improve his 5th place from two years ago.
"I hope to do better than my fifth place in 2024. But I don't know what is realistic, because it is the first time I am doing two Grand Tours in one year. So it is a bit of uncharted territory. But since the Tour, I have had a few very good training sessions in the south of Spain."
Gall knows what needs to be done
In the battle for final podium, Skjelmose will face multiple strong opponents. The 2026 Giro d'Italia runner-up Felix Gall might be the most intimidating among them. The Austrian has displayed hardly any weakness across the entire season and anything else than to stand on final podium in Granada would be a disappointment.
The Decathlon CMA CGM rider of course doesn't give up on overall victory either, but he acknowledges that Pogacar is not a regular human and beating him in a fair duel will be hardly an option.
"If Pogacar starts, it is impossible to win. He will probably be a bit tired from the Tour because he is human, but he still beats us at 95%. It is up to Pogacar to carry the race, so in that respect, things change a bit for me."
Felix Gall, Jonas Vingegaard and Jai Hindley on the final podium of the 2026 Giro d'Italia
This is why, realistically, Gall aims for the first spot "among humans", as is often referred the second place in races with Tadej Pogacar at the start.
"If I can do the same as in the Giro to finish second then I would be very happy. That result gave me a lot of confidence, although it also creates high expectations. But the positive outweighs the negative. If I finish on the podium in the Vuelta as well, then I will have had a very good season."
Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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- A great career - he was so fun to watch. I remember when the "big 3" was MVDP, WVA, and JA. He fell off quickly after a few big crashes, but was always such a gentleman in interviews and to his fellow cyclists. And he showed real class in the Quick-Step break up.mij22-08-2026
- I hope Gall does well - seems like such a great guy. Mads too.mij22-08-2026
- Tadej is an entity unlike nothing else. one year of his career would be the palmares of an entire TEAM for a DECADE and they would be stoked.mij21-08-2026
- yeah just said the same about WVA, Sepp, etc and your points are good ones. As I said, I think every time but UAE would take the "problems" of Vismamij21-08-2026
- yeah I'll give you all of that but it could be so many things. A lot of the guys - WVA, Sepp, Victor C, etc seem quite happymij21-08-2026
- Jegat is not a top climber but simply a rider who can get into breakaways.
Rafionain-Glas21-08-2026 - Naïve dumboMistermaumau21-08-2026
- Everything here is just openly knowned knowlege about visma declining. We know griescha left, we know visma have no money and we know their roster is getting incredible weak and we know they cant keep up with the likes of RBH and LIdl even. I dont know what ur on about but this is all knowned by all nowmiguel21-08-2026
- Some signing make no sense, they already have Ayuso, Skejlmose, there were already grumblings then. Then Gall is coming, he is a genuine podium contender now, so should be fine, even though friction will increase. Gall and Ben also had differences. Now Jegat, he is in no mans' land, not good enough to win GC or stages, but good enough for top 10 , used as domestique early will be not good and will not survive the peak fighting on the last slopes. He is pretty good for teams fighting for points but not for Lidlabstractengineer21-08-2026
- Andrew August could be the next big American cycling star. I'd say he absolutely has the ingredients, but it's too early to say he's the guy. His development is one of the things I'm most curious about over the next 2–3 years. He's got a pretty unusual combination of youth, climbing ability, European experience, and already-proven winning instincts. He’s one of the more intriguing young American road prospects right now. We have to give him time. PS: You should also ask @frieder3, he knows everthing about American cyclists. They call him the "Human Encyclopedia of American Cycling."PogiSloFans21-08-2026
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