Tadej Pogacar builds 2026 programme around Monuments and Tour de France record

Speaking to reporters at the UAE Team Emirates-XRG media day in Benidorm on Saturday, Pogačar confirmed that he will start his season at Strade Bianche in early March, and he will then ride Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Pogačar placed second on his debut at Paris-Roubaix in 2025 after crashing while in the decisive move with winner Mathieu van der Poel. Asked to choose between winning the Hell of the North or a fifth Tour, Pogačar opted for the former.

“I think I would choose Roubaix because I won already the Tour four times,” he said. “The difference between zero and one is bigger than the difference between four and five.” 

The prospect of equalling Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Induráin’s record, he said, was not a motivation. “No, it doesn’t matter,” he said.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG sports manager Matxin Joxean Fernandez indicated to Domestique that Pogačar’s programme had been designed to keep him motivated by targeting races he hadn’t won before.

Asked if wins at Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix would mean he had “completed” cycling, Pogačar said: “Yeah, I would think more or less there is not much more you can do, but there is always something else – a lot of one-week races I haven’t been to yet, the Vuelta as well, there are so many things left to try.”

While Pogačar will target a third straight rainbow jersey at the World Championships in Montreal, no decision has yet been taken on his participation at the Vuelta a España. João Almeida has already confirmed that he will ride the Vuelta after leading UAE at the Giro d’Italia, while Isaac del Toro will make his Tour debut alongside Pogačar at the Tour. Brandon McNulty is also set to return to the Tour for the first time since 2022, as well as the ever-present Adam Yates.

Despite speculation earlier in the winter, Pogačar will not face Remco Evenepoel at the Tour of Flanders after the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider opted against making his debut at the Ronde.

“Everybody likes their own way to prepare for the biggest goals of the season,” Pogačar said. “I saw I can handle the Classics and the Tour as well, but maybe it’s harder to race a Monument every week and then switch to the mountains and prepare for the Tour. Sometimes I think I would like to do a few one-week races and altitude in the first part of the season, but that’s not me and I totally respect Remco’s decision not to do the Classics.”

Pogačar would later acknowledge his own preference for the cut and thrust of one-day racing over the slow-burning pressure of three weeks at the Tour.

“In the Classics, it’s just one day: you go there and everything is concentrated on that day, but it’s not pressure like at the Tour,” he said. “The Tour is way more stressful. It’s impossible to have the same amount of fun when you go deep every day on the bike. At the Tour, you work for 21 stages and afterwards you can be happy with what you did.