{"id":893177,"date":"2026-09-15T19:04:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T19:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/893177\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T19:04:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T19:04:17","slug":"pogacar-zigart-both-out-of-2026-european-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/893177\/","title":{"rendered":"Poga\u010dar, Zigart both out of 2026 European Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

Slovenia’s first-ever major road cycling championship, the European Championships, takes place in Ljubljana in October. It was all set to be a national celebration headlined by defending European champion Tadej Poga\u010dar and his partner Ur\u0161ka Zigart, the country’s most successful female cyclist. With Poga\u010dar confirmed out for the remainder of 2026<\/a> and Zigart’s season likely over after a repeated jaw fracture<\/a>, the race is going to be a very different affair. A course designed for Poga\u010dar<\/p>\n

The promotional language left no ambiguity. Slovenia’s tourism authority wrote that “it is not often that a reigning European champion has the opportunity to defend his title on his home roads.”<\/p>\n

Cycling Federation of Slovenia president Pavel Mar\u0111onovi\u0107 called the championship “the biggest sporting event Slovenia has ever organised so far,” with organisers expecting 300,000 spectators along the route from Ljubljana to \u0160en\u010dur.<\/p>\n

When the route was unveiled<\/a>, it was clear it had been tailored to Poga\u010dar’s strengths. The decisive climb of Mo\u017ejanca (2.1km at 10.2%) features in the final circuit, with the elite men tackling a 196km race and the women riding 130km.Slovenian circuit race would have allowed a repeat of 2025<\/p>\n

The organisers described it as a circuit that is “selective, but not extremely difficult.” Poga\u010dar won the 2025 European title with a dominant 75km solo breakaway in France’s Dr\u00f4me-Ard\u00e8che region, and the Slovenian course was built to give him a similar platform on home soil.<\/p>\n

Instead, the 27-year-old will not race again this season as he continues his recovery from a fractured collarbone and other injuries sustained in his Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a crash. UAE Team Emirates-XRG confirmed that he will miss the World Championships, the European Championships and Il Lombardia. “Now I’ll focus on getting healthy, supporting the guys from home, and coming back next year ready for what’s ahead,” Poga\u010dar said.<\/p>\n

\"tadej-pogacar\"\/Zigart’s absence leaves the women’s race without its home hopeSlovenia’s tourism authority had placed Zigart at the centre of its women’s race promotion, describing her as “Slovenia’s most successful female cyclist and multiple national champion.” However, Zigart refractured her jaw<\/a> in a crash on Stage 3 of the Faun Tour Femmes, having originally suffered the same injury at the Tour de Suisse in June. “Given the nature of the injury and the fact that it concerns a repeated fracture, Ur\u0161ka’s 2026 season is likely to come to an early end,” AG Insurance-Soudal<\/a> stated.Zigart had been riding in third place overall at the Faun Tour before the crash ended her race. Her absence also rules her out of the World Championships in Montr\u00e9al<\/a>, meaning the couple will now support each other through their recoveries while the championships they were supposed to headline take place without them.\"urskaRogli\u010d carries the home flag aloneThe one remaining headline act for the host nation is Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d, who finished the Vuelta 2:15 behind Enric Mas in second place overall<\/a>, his sixth Vuelta podium from seven editions.<\/p>\n

Speaking in Granada after the final stage, Rogli\u010d indicated he was looking ahead to the World Championships in Montreal and the European Championships on home roads in Slovenia. “Now I will try to focus on or enjoy the Worlds in Canada,” Rogli\u010d said, before pointing to Ljubljana as the next objective.<\/p>\n

“Second place feels like a victory to me,” the 36-year-old said of his Vuelta<\/a>, a campaign disrupted by a training crash before the race. His presence gives the organisers a legitimate star for the home fans, but filling the gap left by a defending European champion and a national women’s icon is a considerable ask, even for a four-time Vuelta winner.The European Championships are still expected to bring together more than 40 nations<\/a> and around 800 athletes for five days of racing from October 2 to 7 in Ljubljana. Road races will travel through the Gorenjska alpine region, from the heart of Ljubljana north through Medvode, \u0160kofja Loka and Kranj, with all 14 races finishing in \u0160en\u010dur. The celebration of Slovenian cycling will go ahead. It will just look very different to the one the country had imagined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Slovenia’s first-ever major road cycling championship, the European Championships, takes place in Ljubljana in October. It was all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":893178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,462724,85,6494,58186],"class_list":["post-893177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-european-cycling-championships","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-urska-zigart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893177","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=893177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}