{"id":436410,"date":"2026-01-25T11:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T11:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/436410\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T11:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T11:14:09","slug":"tour-down-under-almost-featured-tadej-pogacar-organisers-left-frustrated-by-near-miss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/436410\/","title":{"rendered":"Tour Down Under almost featured Tadej Poga\u010dar, organisers left frustrated by near miss"},"content":{"rendered":"

The road season is truly underway, with plenty of action already unfolding in Australia. The race on the other side of the globe, the Tour Down Under, was on the verge of seeing world champion Tadej Poga\u010dar kick off his season there.<\/p>\n

As the first WorldTour race of the year, the Tour Down Under already boasts an attractive field \u2014 but Poga\u010dar\u2019s participation would have taken it to another level. According to race director Stuart O\u2019Grady, the Slovenian\u2019s presence was not far off. In fact, O\u2019Grady said in Canberra Times<\/a>: \u201cHe’s pretty excited about coming down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar\u2019s interest became a topic of conversation when super agent Alex Carera \u2014 who represents riders like Jasper Philipsen and Biniam Girmay alongside Poga\u010dar \u2014 made a quick visit to the Tour Down Under. While there, Poga\u010dar\u2019s name was discussed, and O\u2019Grady believes the champions\u2019 enthusiasm was genuine.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"tadej-pogacar\"\/O’Grady saw participation narrowly miss Pogacar: ‘They almost sent him here’<\/p>\n

O\u2019Grady admitted he didn\u2019t expect it, but saw it as a positive sign. \u201cBut I just think the lure of the fifth Tour de France title in 2026, they want to maintain the same program and schedule,\u201d he said, \u201cAfter he has that hopeful fifth Tour, we’ll do everything in our power to get him down to Adelaide.\u201d<\/p>\n

The race director also highlighted how difficult it is to judge the appeal of the Tour Down Under until you\u2019ve experienced it. He quoted Michael Kwiatkowski, who recently told him: \u201cWhy didn\u2019t I come here ten years ago? It\u2019s just such a perfect training platform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the race isn\u2019t the ideal build-up for Poga\u010dar\u2019s main target \u2014 the Tour de France \u2014 O\u2019Grady reiterated how enthusiastic the Slovenian was about the idea. \u201cI spoke with Mauro Gianetti (UAE team boss) in Geneva last month and they almost sent him here.”<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"pogacar-adam-yates\"\/Pogacar has competed once before Down Under<\/p>\n

O\u2019Grady also pointed out that the appeal of chasing a fifth Tour de France title in 2026 means Poga\u010dar and his team will likely maintain a similar race programme. But if things align in future seasons, the organisers are already planning to bring him down to Adelaide.<\/p>\n

If Pogacar does indeed compete in 2027, it will mark his return to the Australian stage race after eight years. The young Slovenian competed in 2019, finishing thirteenth in the general classification and fourth in the youth classification. Later that year, he had his big breakthrough, winning three stages in the Tour of Spain.<\/p>\n

Pogacar does, in any case, start his season with a series of races. Last year, as in 2022 and 2021, he started in the UAE Tour, while a year earlier he made his first appearance in the Strade Bianche. That will also be the case this year, as he will make his first appearance in Tuscany on March 7.<\/p>\n

Program Tadej Pogacar 2026Strade Bianche<\/p>\n

Milan-Sanremo<\/p>\n

Tour of Flanders<\/p>\n

Paris-Roubaix<\/p>\n

Liege-Bastogne-Liege<\/p>\n

Tour of Romandie<\/p>\n

Tour of Switzerland<\/p>\n

Tour de France<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The road season is truly underway, with plenty of action already unfolding in Australia. The race on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85,6494],"class_list":["post-436410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}