Tadej Pogacar has a new race confirmed in his calendar... And he could race against Mathieu van der Poel

Tadej Pogacar is the current World Champion on the road and is a rider who does not race low-level events at this point in his career, as he focuses on major wins including Grand Tours, monuments and World Championships. Hence, he has not raced a single non-World Tour event this year and perhaps will not with one single exception. The UAE Team Emirates - XRG is set to be at the start of Tre Valli Varesine.

"I was at the Tour de France, and the UAE officials confirmed his presence," race organizers Renzo Oldani said it himself in words to La Prealpina. In 2024 the race was cancelled due to bad weather and it is said that Pogacar, who aimed to bring the race to a halt due to safety reasons, had promises to be back the year after. 

However in the grand scheme of his schedule this might have always been the plan. Since 2021 Pogacar has won every single Il Lombardia, and on every occasion he was at the start of Tre Valli Varesine. Only a few days before the final monument of the season, he uses it as a preparation race, but has only won it back in 2022.

This year Pogacar has let go of his goal to race the Vuelta a España and is instead taking a prolonged recovery period before returning to competition at the GP de Québec and Montreal in mid-September. He will race the World Championships in Rwanda and certainly return to Lombardia, via a few Italian autumn classics.

"Last year, we were the non-WorldTour race with the highest number of top teams, seventeen out of eighteen. Our dream is to bring back this group of starters," Oldani argues. And the race is aiming to bring in other big stars, not just settling with the road World Champion.

"We'd also like to have Mathieu Van Der Poel at the start, as he's expected to extend his commitment to road racing at the end of the season," he concluded.