Tadej Pogačar has revealed a surprising race calendar for the upcoming season, featuring just 16 race days before the Tour de France and debuts at Romandie and Suisse. We also break down the confirmed schedules for stars like Primož Roglič, who looks set to skip the Tour, and recap a thrilling weekend of cyclocross as Mathieu van der Poel makes his return to the mud in Namur. Plus, we round up the latest transfer gossip and WorldTour license news.
Chapters: ⏱️
00:00 – Intro & Christmas Shop
01:05 – Pogačar’s Surprising New Schedule
06:20 – No Tour de France for Roglič?
06:42 – Lidl-Trek & Rider Schedules
07:34 – MVDP Returns: Namur Men’s Highlights
09:41 – Namur Women’s Highlights & Results
11:09 – Transfer News & WorldTour Licenses
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38 Comments
Do you think 16 race days is enough for Pogačar to prepare for the Tour de France, or is he taking a risk with this new approach? Let us know your thoughts in the comments! 👇
No UAE Tour?
Pogacar wants the hour record, that's why Colnago made a track bike
Thanks, Dan, and my take is all with contracts have all won already. They are getting paid to race in public, with cameras and commentary to chronicle their wins and losses. And some will even get coverage on the GCN Racing News Show. 😀
Onley to Ineos would make sense.
WELL, he and his team have to schedule his jucing program for optimal performance…THAT'S WHY…IMHO
I very much get the impression his motivation has changed. He's racing himself in 2026 – he's got a list and he wants to win cycling. Forever.
It was 8.5 laps before Mathieu shook off the rust but I think Nys will make the racing close this year
If Tadej doesn't feel able to back to back into the Vuelta this year he may well skip the TDF next year, doing the Giro & Vuelta double.
Vingegaard takes the tour this year. 😊
To not get caught by WADA.
It will not be forgotten when he proves you wrong
Yolanda Neff, Swiss mtb legend, had not raced CX since 2021. She finished 5th in Namur, so watch out for her.
Sorry.Dan. You will never be allowed to forget. signed, THE Ether
feels like MVDP will have to relinquish his Roubaix crown in 2026.
I would love to see him go to the Vuelta too. I was disappointed to see him not participate this year. Mostly importantly though, spring can't get here fast enough.
Vuelta makes sense as one cannot possibly be in the elite circle for the greatest rider of all time without winning all three grand tours.
If I understand it rightly, no rider has ever won all three grand tours in a single season but some have held all three titles at the same time (spread across two seasons). So I have been wondering for a while if Pogacar wants to join that latter group of riders and maybe even create a new record of winning all three in the same season. If he were to win the 2026 TdeF, pitch up to and win the Vuelta 2026 if he still feels good, then do the 2027 Giro, I don't see why he should hold all three titles at once, but is it just impossible – even for him – to win all three in a single season? Similarly I wonder what his goals are for numbers of wins of the biggest races – whether he cares about having more TdeFs or TdeF stage wins than anyone else ever and so forth.
awesome schedule. we see him more than other stars. not sure about romandie…just crappy weather at that time of year
If I were UAE team DS, I would take all great TT riders to Milano-Sanremo, make it a full gas, all out TTT leadout from the bottom of Turchino to the base of Cipressa with Pogcar mostly on the wheels and launch Pogi from there in a attempt to tire MVDP. I would bring Del Toro, Jay Vine, Almeida, every great TT rider they have and tell them that the race ends a few meters up the cipressa.
What's going on with all the shadows over Dan's face? Isn’t it a studio?
Hopefully he’s changed in all.
Perhaps the most prestigious challenge for a road cyclist would be capturing all three Grand Tours in the same season. Will Pogi attempt that in years to come?
I don’t think he is going for the vuelta . It is too close to the World and the european champ ( this year it is in Slovénia)he can’t miss that one.
It's going to be interesting to watch TP next year. He's setting up to retire in fashion. If he wins those races, next year may be his last.
That will be a shame if Oscar Onley goes to Ineos, they will ruin him!
Thanks to tnt not going to see any of it
More Pogacar stories, when it's the CX season………Now if he was racing CX World Cups it would be news.
What is left to win? La Primavera, Roubaix, Paris Tours, over 20 Six days, a green guernsey, a polka dot guernsey, and a yellow in the same Tour. A Le Tour by over 15 minutes, A Le Tour stage by over 8 minutes, a couple more world titles, an Hour record. A couple hundred more wins, the list goes on! A couple more Le Tours, a few more Giro's, a Vuelta. A Giro, Le Tour, and Vuelta within a 12 month period. Oh oops, thats just part of the palmares of the Greatest Cyclist, the Greatest Athlete Of All Time!
UAE should buy Van der Poel so that Tadej can win San Remo and Roubais…
One issue for Pogacar's schedule is that, as usual, the World Tour races in Quebec and Montreal overlap the final two days of the Vuelta. Of course, since the World Championships begin a week later, this makes it very attractive to plan a North American residency. In the past few years, the Mary Cycling Classic has been run the weekend before the Canadian events. It will probably be extended to a 3-day event in 2026, and, hopefully, be able to invite multiple World Tour Teams, making a September North American residency even more attractive.
Del Toro is the key to Pog win in MSR. The Team drives it very hard in the last 50km, Del Toro lits it up hard in the Poggio leaving 4-5 riders with them, all in the red, and Pogi leaves them for dead in the last 600m with a violent acceleration and keeps MVDP in the wheel all the way to the last 200m to the top when he finally pops and with a Del Toro in his wheel, the deal is sealed.
I bet a beer he wins Roubaix this year.
This schedule gives him the option to do the Vuelta and World Champs with Jonas doing the Giro and Tour this year.
It would have been great to see Del Toro have another shot at the Giro but I don't think he's quite at the level of Almeida just yet.
I dont give a monkeys about pog
Lucinda Brand is going great !!
First time I noticed that Dan has an Oura ring now!