{"id":316101,"date":"2025-11-30T09:00:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T09:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/316101\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T09:00:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T09:00:14","slug":"does-tadejs-grand-switcheroo-actually-make-a-lot-of-sense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/316101\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Tadej’s Grand switcheroo actually make a lot of sense?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tadej Poga\u010dar has a long list of big results to his name. He also has some big ideas for how to improve the sport. At a pre-season training camp\/fondo in Gran Canaria, the Slovenian made the case for a Grand switcheroo. That is, having two of the Grand Tours switch places.<\/p>\n

The world champions argument is simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always say that if they swapped the Giro d\u2019Italia and the Vuelta, it would be much better in terms of weather conditions and the number of cyclists who could attend,\u201d Poga\u010dar told AS while in Gran Canaria.<\/p>\n

The Grand Tour switcharoo<\/p>\n

Makes sense, right? But Poga\u010dar is talking about flipping the Grand Tour calendar around. That\u2019s no small proposition. But it\u2019s not unprecedented.<\/p>\n

The UAE racer would like to Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a to return to before the Tour de France. This would actually be a return of sorts for the Spanish Grand Tour, which took place before its French counter part in the past. To balance that out, Giro d\u2019Italia would move to a later spot on the calendar. This part is entirely new.<\/p>\n

The meteorological motives for the proposed switch should be clear to any long-time fan of the sport. Giro\u2019s high mountain stages are canceled, altered or rerouted with some frequency due to extremely weather<\/a>. The race is part of the reason why UCI\u2019s been forced to create, and actually follow its cold weather safety protocols. As for the Vuelta, its August heat has created safety concerns at the other extreme of the thermometer. So switching their calendar spots could mean Vuelta\u2019s high-mountain finishes would be open while its valley transitions would not yet be covered in a blanket of extreme heat. While the Giro could access its most iconic summits without so frequently checking the snow levels.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar has his own motivations, of course. Vuelta is the one Grand Tour the highly decorated Slovenian has yet to win. Its current spot after the Tour de France has, so far, seemed to prevent the UAE racer from claiming the final title in the Grand Tour trio. So maybe when he hints that an early Vuelta would be better in the \u201cnumber of cyclists who could attend,\u201d he\u2019s really referring to one cyclist in particular: Tadej Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n

From Grand Prix to grand daddy of one day races: Poga\u010dar focused on Montreal<\/p>\n

After his incredible defense of the world championship title in Rwanda to cap of his 2025 season, Poga\u010dar was also questioned on his intentions for Montreal in 2026. The Canadian event steps up from a Grand Prix to the grand daddy of one day races: world championships. With the event being one that the Slovenian has won on several occasions, there are already questions if he could attempt the three-peat in 2026.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar replied that Montreal worlds will be \u201cvery beautiful and tough to win,\u201d adding, with his usual wry smile, that he\u2019d \u201cgive his best\u201d to try find another win in Quebec.<\/p>\n

Part of that desire is his motivation to succeed. Part of that is the confidence of already winning in Montreal. And part is the Slovenian\u2019s high standards for himself. As he told AS, its not enough to win once. Or twice.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my point of view, if I do less next season, it\u2019s a problem. You try to reach the same level, achieve the same results, and show that you can do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tadej Poga\u010dar has a long list of big results to his name. He also has some big ideas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[88781,49,48,635,43199,140719,77778,2338,82,1422],"class_list":["post-316101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-2026-uci-road-world-championships","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-giro-ditalia","tag-grand-prix-cycliste-de-montreal","tag-la-vuelta-a-espana","tag-montreal","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}