{"id":226692,"date":"2025-10-26T15:38:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T15:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/226692\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T15:38:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T15:38:11","slug":"the-vuelta-wants-pogacar-so-bad-that-its-bringing-the-2026-race-to-his-doorstep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/226692\/","title":{"rendered":"The Vuelta wants Poga\u010dar so bad that it&#8217;s bringing the 2026 race to his doorstep"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                        <img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/corvos-tdf-2024-nice-pogacar.jpg\" alt=\"The Vuelta wants Poga\u010dar so bad that it's bringing the 2026 race to his doorstep\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                        <a class=\"article__category\" href=\"https:\/\/escapecollective.com\/tag\/news-and-racing\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">News &amp; Racing<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"article__sub-title\">The 2026 Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a will open with a 9.6 km individual time trial in Monaco, home of Tadej Poga\u010dar, who has not raced the Spanish Grand Tour since 2019.<\/p>\n<p>                                <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Kit Nicholson\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"author__photo lazy \" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/profile-pic-KN-150x150.jpg\" width=\"99\" height=\"99\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Cor Vos<\/p>\n<p>In the same week as the route presentation for the Tours de France <a href=\"https:\/\/escapecollective.com\/double-alpe-dhuez-baby-heres-the-mens-2026-tour-de-france-route\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hommes<\/a> et <a href=\"https:\/\/escapecollective.com\/the-tour-de-france-femmes-avec-zwift-is-headed-for-mont-ventoux\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Femmes<\/a>, the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a has revealed the location of its 2026 Grand Depart, and with it, practically hand-delivered an invitation to the elusive Tadej Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n<p>From a grand unveiling in Monte Carlo came the news that Monaco \u2013 where Poga\u010dar is based \u2013 will host the seventh foreign start in the Spanish Grand Tour&#8217;s history, rewarding the first red jersey of the 81st edition after a 9.6-kilometre individual time trial on Saturday 22nd August.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/corvos-tdf-2009-stage-1-ITT-monaco.jpg\" class=\"kg-image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\"  \/>The start-finish area for the 2009 Tour&#8217;s opening ITT in Monaco. The stands look over the finish line which will be similarly positioned at next year&#8217;s Vuelta.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Monaco is synonymous with sporting excellence and organisational prowess,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavuelta.es\/en\/news\/2025\/la-vuelta-26-will-start-with-an-individual-time-trial-in-monaco\/51013?ref=escapecollective.com\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said race director Javier Guill\u00e9n<\/a> of Vuelta organiser Unipublic. &#8220;Some of the world&#8217;s most prestigious events take place here, with the Formula 1 Grand Prix as the jewel in the crown. Launching La Vuelta in this setting is both an honour and a guarantee of success for everyone.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Also among the many dignitaries was Prince Albert II of Monaco, whose city will become the first to host a Grand Depart for all three Grand Tours after the 1966 Giro d&#8217;Italia and 2009 Tour de France. It has, of course, been a host city for a range of other stages and events, including the start of the stage 21 ITT that closed the 2024 Tour.<\/p>\n<p>            This post is for paying subscribers only<br \/>\n            <a class=\"gh-btn\" data-portal=\"signup\" href=\"#\/portal\/signup\" style=\"color:#FF6F42\">Subscribe now<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Already have an account? <a data-portal=\"signin\" href=\"#\/portal\/signin\">Sign in<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                Did we do a good job with this story?<\/p>\n<p class=\"reactions\" data-post-id=\"68fd1357a962ad802f01213b\">\n                    \ud83d\udc4dYep<br \/>\n                    \ud83d\udc4eNope\n                <\/p>\n<p class=\"tags\">\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/escapecollective.com\/tag\/news-and-racing\/\" title=\"News &amp; Racing\" class=\"tag tag-67a677ae0c7ad49bf4f293b3 news-and-racing\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">News &amp; Racing<\/a><br \/>\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/escapecollective.com\/tag\/vuelta-a-espana\/\" title=\"Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a\" class=\"tag tag-67a677ae0c7ad49bf4f29621 vuelta-a-espana\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a<\/a><br \/>\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/escapecollective.com\/tag\/tadej-pogacar-2\/\" title=\"Tadej Poga\u010dar\" class=\"tag tag-67a677ae0c7ad49bf4f29551 tadej-pogacar-2\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a>\n                <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"News &amp; Racing The 2026 Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a will open with a 9.6 km individual time trial in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-226692","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}