"If Pogacar starts, it is impossible to win..." - Felix Gall aims "realistically" for second place at Vuelta
Cycling
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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- the headline is poorly written too. it makes it sound like their plan is to simply wait until he stops.mij13-11-2026
- It doesnt take a genius to understand that Pogi is 1 level above and Pogi is younger that Jonas, so Jonas will not win under ordinary circumstances. Pogi has to crack hard for Jonas to win. It doesn't matter whether you defend Jonas or not , facts remain facts. Jonas himself says his numbers are better than 2022/2023, so Jonas is more or less optimized and we are just see the stochastic variation due to other factors. I think he will retire along with Pedersen in WC denmarkabstractengineer13-11-2026
- They only raced each other during the 2026 Tour, but here's a few metrics to look at. Stage 3 (Granollers to Les Angles): Pogačar won the stage, finishing 2 seconds ahead of Vingegaard (2nd). Del Toro finished 24 seconds behind Stage 6 (Pau to Gavarnie-Gedre / Col du Tourmalet): Pogačar won solo, Vingegaard finished 2nd (losing 2:38), and Del Toro finished 3rd (at +2:57, finishing 19 seconds behind Vingegaard). Here, Jonas Vingegaard outclimbed Isaac del Toro by 19 seconds on the mountain stageawp13-11-2026
- your clinging to the past. Jonas was dropped by del toro many times last year and jonas never managed a climbing numers del toro did in dauphine last year -entire year. Trend is also evident theres no discussion your living in the past, its beent he same with jonas for many years now and only developing, meanwhile del toro is rising and developing greatly. This is all obvious stuff and im not even a del toro fan. No point discussing numbers or this i suspect you dont watch much now but rather think its 2022 still cause this aint hard.miguel13-11-2026
- We can go through metrics if you like, Del Toro, who I do admire and support, is not on the same level as Jonas just yet. You will see that in early 2027 if they have any crossover races. I do hope they both race the Giro. You are correct though, Jonas is getting older and will not be able to hand on much longer. I see 2027 as a good year for him. Obviously behind Tadej though.awp13-11-2026
- What wins? Are you LA operating under a pseudonym?mij13-11-2026
- My point is this - Tadej, Remco, Seixas are all the outliers. Many riders don’t hit their peak until 28. It’s way too early to write him off. And the pogi slo guy that hates him - he’s also immature. Ayuso needs time.mij13-11-2026
- Then you need to use ur eyes or head if you have cause del toro already dropped jonas two times and beat him in tdf stages already this year.. Del toro climbed(dauphine) better numbers than jonas did all year too. So ur feelings and wishful thinking doesnt amtter del toro himself has already surpassed jonas infact just facts. Its also very evident for anyone objective that Jonas is declining alot, its just the truth and super obvious.miguel13-11-2026
- None of those victories stand, so there's that,wrsty13-11-2026
- No surprise there; it is British Sycling, yes, with an S
Rafionain-Glas12-11-2026
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