UAE Team Emirates-XRG have confirmed a formidable eight-rider squad for the 2026 Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, with Tadej Poga\u010dar returning to the Spanish Grand Tour for the first time since making his three-week race debut there in 2019.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Slovenian heads a balanced and experienced line-up\u00a0as the Emirati squad looks to build on the successes of the Tour de France.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Joining Poga\u010dar are Jo\u00e3o Almeida, Jay Vine, Pavel Sivakov, Pablo Torres, Kevin Vermaerke, Domen Novak and Ivo Oliveira.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 81st edition of La Vuelta gets underway with an opening individual time trial in Monaco before heading through France and Andorra on its way into Spain. The route is expected to be one of the toughest in recent years, featuring seven summit finishes, two individual time trials and almost 3,300 kilometres of racing before the final stage in Granada.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The opening week already includes demanding mountain tests at Font Romeu and Aram\u00f3n Valdelinares, while iconic climbs such as Alto de Aitana, Calar Alto, La Pandera and the queen stage to Collado del Alguacil promise to shape the battle for the red jersey in the final week.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alongside the Slovenian, Jo\u00e3o Almeida adds another genuine general classification option following another outstanding season, while Jay Vine and Pavel Sivakov provide proven climbing support. <\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Young Spaniard Pablo Torres\u00a0makes his Grand Tour debut\u00a0after a solid 2026 campaign, with Vermaerke, Novak and Oliveira completing a versatile squad capable of supporting the team\u2019s ambitions across all terrain.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The team will be directed by Sports Directors\u00a0Marco Marcato, Manuele Mori\u00a0and Tomas Gil.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Poga\u010dar : \u201cI\u2019m excited to say I\u2019m going back to La Vuelta. It was my first ever Grand Tour back in 2019 and an amazing experience. Spain is a country I love to visit and race in and I think the time is right to go back.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe motivation is high to finish off the year in a good way and the Vuelta will be a big target. The team is strong and we hope to do good things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UAE Team Emirates-XRG have confirmed a formidable eight-rider squad for the 2026 Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, with Tadej Poga\u010dar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":844137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-844136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844136","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=844136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}