{"id":753719,"date":"2026-08-29T16:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T16:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/753719\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T16:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T16:24:15","slug":"i-would-like-it-to-be-a-rest-day-tadej-pogacars-teammate-battling-on-with-a-cracked-rib-at-the-vuelta-a-espana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/753719\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I would like it to be a rest day’ \u2013 Tadej Poga\u010dar’s teammate battling on with a cracked rib at the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a"},"content":{"rendered":"

American rider Kevin Vermaerke<\/a> inadvertently revealed that he’s racing with cracked ribs during Friday’s seventh stage of the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a<\/a>, talking about his injury with the UAE Team Emirates-XRG team car as a television moto lingered close by.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old is part of Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a>‘s support squad in Spain as the Slovenian marches towards the red jersey in Granada, but he’s fighting a personal battle during this final Grand Tour of the season.<\/p>\n

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Vermaerke could be heard saying “It’s OK. I have a crack in my rib, so it hurts” while taking a bidon from the UAE car on Friday. He later finished the mountain stage to Aram\u00f3n Valdelinares alongside teammate Jay Vine, 16 minutes down on winner Andreas Leknessund.<\/p>\n

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He told TNT Sports at the start of stage 8 that he suffered the injury in a crash before the Vuelta.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t know there was a TV motorbike right there, but it’s just… I crashed a few weeks ago, and I have a small crack in the back of my ribs,” Vermaerke said.<\/p>\n

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“But it’s not anything that affects me on the bike, so it was just a joke I had with the car, and they happened to have a microphone there. But it’s all good, so just a viral clip, I think, that went around last night.”<\/p>\n

He’s racing the Vuelta for the second time in his career, having finished 20th overall last year. He’ll battle on, he said, starting with Saturday’s stage 9, a 171km ride to Xeraco featuring the late climb of the Puerto de Barx.<\/p>\n

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Sunday’s stage 10 poses an even greater challenge, with 5,000 metres of elevation on the road to another summit finish, the 22km-long Alto de Aitana. Vermaerke said he’s looking forward to Monday’s rest day.<\/p>\n

“I would like it to be a rest day, but at the end of the day, we still have to ride 175km, and it’s never an easy day here,” he said.<\/p>\n

“So, with the wind, the roundabouts, and the climb in the final, it’s not going to be an easy day. But I think the whole peloton feels the last two days in the legs, and especially with the massive day we have tomorrow, a bit of an easier day would be nice.”<\/p>\n

For unbeatable coverage across road, gravel and tech, subscribe to Cyclingnews. You’ll get comprehensive race coverage of La Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, subscriber-exclusive analysis from our expert columnists, in-depth features and industry-leading tech insight. Plus, the Cyclingnews app lets you follow the action wherever you go! Join today.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"American rider Kevin Vermaerke inadvertently revealed that he’s racing with cracked ribs during Friday’s seventh stage of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-753719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753719","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=753719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}