“What a shame, I got new shades just before the race,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I thought they were already a bit loose on my head, and then, when I looked behind, they flew away. <\/p>\n
“I’m not like Pogacar that I can take new glasses every day, so if somebody finds them please bring them back!”<\/p>\n
Van Aert won three stages at La Vuelta<\/a> in 2024, but has taken a more selfless role at this year’s La Vuelta, and he gave his thoughts on the satisfaction of helping Brennan to the line.<\/p>\n Asked if it felt as good as winning himself, he said: “Yeah, it comes close.”<\/p>\n Van Aert is currently fifth in the points standings<\/a> on 49, with the imperious Pogacar out in front on 82.Pogacar – ‘I better not say anything’<\/p>\n Pogacar has already established a lead of more than three minutes in La Vuelta, and appears on course to become just the ninth man to win all three Grand Tours.<\/p>\n The UAE Team Emirates-XRG star was in formidable form at the Tour de France<\/a> in July as he secured a fifth title<\/a>, but he remained coy when asked to compare the shape he is in at La Vuelta to the Tour.<\/p>\n “I better not say anything,” he said, after a moment of hesitation.<\/p>\n ‘I better not say anything’ – Pogacar tight-lipped in response to Tour-Vuelta comparison<\/p>\n Video credit: TNT Sports<\/p>\n On his Stage 5 performance, Pogacar said: “It was a pretty hard stage. I was a little bit nervous in moments, then the climb was pretty steep. It was a hard day, but we did really good with the team and I am happy.”<\/p>\n Asked if he can relax having established a significant lead, he added: “Any advantage is good, I always say, but more is better. If you have more advantage, you can go more calm into the next days.<\/p>\n “We will see. I feel good, but tomorrow is another hard day. You never know.”<\/p>\n How to watch La Vuelta 2026 on TV and live streamWatch every stage of La Vuelta live on TNT Sports and HBO Max.<\/a><\/p>\n Orla Chennaoui will once again front the live coverage, with Adam Blythe and Matt Stephens on analysis duty throughout the race.<\/p>\n Rob Hatch, Sean Kelly and Matt Winston will join Blythe and Stephens in the commentary booth, while Robbie McEwen arrives in week three.<\/p>\n TNT Sports is available across all major TV platforms, offering a line-up of up to four TV channels (TNT Sports 1, TNT Sports 2, TNT Sports 3, TNT Sports 4), and up to six digital or red-button channels (TNT Sports 5 to 10), and TNT Sports Ultimate plus TNT Sports Box Office HD.<\/p>\n You can subscribe to TNT Sports through HBO Max<\/a>, BT, EE, Sky, and Virgin Media.Add TNT Sports as a preferred source here<\/a> to enjoy more content like this.Download the TNT Sports app on iPhone<\/a> and Android<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘Can’t take new ones every day’ \u2013 Van Aert jokes he’s ‘not like Pogacar’ after losing glasses Video…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":751032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55,231743],"class_list":["post-751031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-vuelta-a-espana-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751031","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=751031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/751032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"picture\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-d4bdb7dc-5779-4c94-8555-e22cb28bec0b-85-2560-1440.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n