'It's everything I'm fighting for' - Pau Miquel on chasing a first win at the Vuelta

Pau Miquel keeps getting close. At the 2024 Vuelta, riding for Kern Pharma, he took a third and two fourths across three weeks. This season he has three second-place finishes in races. No wins yet but that would appear to be on the horizon with a goal in mind for the Vuelta.

"That's everything I'm fighting for," Miquel tells Domestique. "I'm just trying to be better every day and fighting for that win. This year I've done two second places already, so every year it's closer and closer. I think in the future, I hope not too far, I will get a win for sure."

That 2024 race is still the benchmark performance for the Spaniard.

"That was a really, really good Vuelta for us, for the team and also for me. I could see I could be battling for good positions close to the win. So this year I come back and I don't know, I'll try to do better."

Some of those sprints were against riders like Wout van Aert, until the Belgian crashed out with a horrific knee injury.

"Just sprinting against a guy like that was quite interesting, and difficult. But at the same time it was really motivating, and the ambition to beat him was super high. Until he had that big crash and he had to abandon."

Miquel comes into the Vuelta off a month at altitude with the team and a second place that has clearly done his head some good.

"It really gives me a lot of confidence. Coming together and doing this second place was really good for my feeling. Now I'm just waiting for the Vuelta, doing last trainings. At least the shape, I can say it's pretty good."

A win at the Vuelta would be a career-defining moment for Miquel, who hails from Sant Quirze del Vallès in Catalonia and is now resident in Andorra.  

"I think we have one of the best crowds in the world," he says. "Spanish fans, also in the Basque Country, also in Catalonia where I was born. People really like cycling. Racing in San Sebastián for example is a really good feeling. For sure in this Vuelta we will have really good fans, and I'm just waiting to ride for them."

The target is clear. "Winning a stage. This is my only and biggest goal. I know it's really tough work, but that's why we are there. I really believe I'm in good shape now and mentally I'm prepared to fight for a win. There are five, six stages I think I can battle for."

Miquel won't say which five or six. "You can really mark one, but in the end you have to try, try, try until the point where you can achieve it."

Two come up anyway. Stage 15 into Córdoba, where he was third in 2024: "It's maybe not the best sprint for me, it's a really flat finish. But two years ago I was third in that same finale, so it gives me motivation to try and improve that third place." And stage 2. "Why not? It's a good final for me, with corners and a bit uphill."

The 9.4km prologue in Monaco is written off before it starts.

"TTs, you really have to put a lot of work on them, work every detail. It's not something I've done in my career and my life. I'm really more looking forward to these stages where I can fight for winning in a sprint or a reduced sprint. I think I will try to just save energy and look to the second stage."

Miquel is honest about where he sits in a flat-out bunch sprint with a specific eye on the breakaway battles.

"I really think I have more chances to win a stage from a breakaway, or a big breakaway with a reduced sprint, than from a bunch sprint. We have riders like Van Aert, Pedersen, Brennan. These guys really have that power that maybe I don't have. But in the third week, with fatigue, maybe a breakaway, a sprint there I can have more chances."

The Vuelta is the Grand Tour for that, he reckons. Pablo Castrillo's two wins from the break in 2024 are the obvious example, and Miquel was in the race to see them.

"Maybe the Vuelta is the Grand Tour where you have more chances to win from a breakaway," he says.

Granada on the final day fits the same idea. "It's a really nice course for me. The biggest opportunity you have is in the last stage, where the GC is maybe done and everybody's tired and wanting to go home. If you are really focused you can make a difference."

Then there is Pogačar. Miquel lives in Andorra, so riding stage 4 was a case of going out for the day. He did it two days before we spoke.

"It's a really hard stage and it's just stage 4," he says. "We will see what he wants to do, but for sure he will make a difference. Big difference from the first week. I think it's going to be like the Tour."

With 104 kilometres, 3,000 metres of climbing, Miquel doesn't think a break will get to the finish.

"It's not a long stage, it's just 104k, so it's very short. But with 3,000 metres of altitude. The rhythm, the pace, it's going to be super hard all day. Even for a break, I don't really think it's going to make it to the end."

Is the likely dominance of UAE Team Emirates-XRG demoralising for everyone else?

"I wouldn't say demotivating. But for sure we all look at UAE before anyone, because they have the favourite rider and we think they need to control," he says. "Once [Pogacar] says he will be in the race, for sure you think, okay, so these five, six, seven chances I had, maybe it's just two or three." 

Not that Miquel is dwelling on it. "It doesn't matter what he does. If he wants to win he will go for the win, and for sure he has the legs to do it. You have to be there to try and win, and if he lets a break go, why not be there and try to win?"

Bahrain Victorious go in to the Vuelta with Santiago Buitrago for GC, but their goals are quite fluid beyond that.

"We didn't really talk about the main goal of the team, but for sure we go with Santi Buitrago. He's a really good rider and he can do a good GC. But the Vuelta is a super long race and we have to go day by day. I think the main goal for the team will be trying to win a stage with the riders we go there with. We have a lot of chances."

There is nothing in his calendar after Spain, on purpose. "Right now I just have the Vuelta in my plan, because I really wanted to focus on the race and on the preparation. We will see what the team has for me after. But now it's the Vuelta."

One thing outside his own race does bother him. Kern Pharma, the team he came through, is still seeking a sponsor to ensure its survival into next season.

"It would be really bad news for Spanish cycling," Miquel says. "There are a lot of cyclists in that team and they will need to find a team if Kern Pharma doesn't continue. I really want them to find a good sponsor and keep going, because they really do a good job with guys like me. I really feel they deserve to keep being in professional cycling."