Six-time grand tour champion and Vuelta a Espana leader Tadej Pogacar has abandoned the race after a nasty crash on stage eight.
The two-time world champion was the overwhelming favourite to win the Vuelta, the only grand tour he has yet to win, and won three stages in its opening week. He led the race by nearly four minutes from Movistar’s Enric Mas before his shock crash and abandon with 31km to go on stage eight.
The race leader appeared to hit a rock as he swerved suddenly while travelling in the midst of the peloton along a wide road. He crashed hard, with riders falling around and behind him.
He sustained a nasty wound to his left shoulder and the left side of his face, with blood pouring from above his eye and his shoulder, and was immediately attended to by medical staff.
The Slovenian got up unassisted and attempted to get back on his bike before shaking his head and sitting down again in evident pain, before he was helped into a waiting ambulance by staff and taken immediately to hospital.
This is the first time Pogacar has abandoned a grand tour in 10 attempts, the first time he has ever not finished on the podium, and his first withdrawal from a race since breaking his wrist in a crash at Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 2023.
The 27-year-old won this year’s Tour de France in dominant fashion and carried that form into an electric first week at the Vuelta, winning stages one, four and six on his way to establishing a seemingly unassailable lead.
But his crash on an innocuous-seeming stretch of road on the way to Xeraco – reminiscent of his rival Jonas Vingegaard’s unexpected crash on stage 15 of this year’s Tour – blows the race wide open.
Spain’s Mas now leads the overall standings by one minute from Slovenia’s four-time champion Primoz Roglic, with Giro d’Italia runner-up Felix Gall third at 1’11”. Britain’s Oscar Onley leads the best young rider classification and now sits fifth, 2’16” off the pace.
Pogacar’s withdrawal also entirely changes the dynamic of the race. His UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad will now target stage wins through the likes of Joao Almeida and Jay Vine, while Visma-Lease a Bike, who had largely been expected to aim for stages through Wout van Aert and British rider Matthew Brennan, may now prioritise the general classification hopes of Sepp Kuss. The American won this race in 2023 and now sits fourth overall.
Solo breakaway rider Xabier Mikel Azparren was caught with just 1.5km to go on the technical run-in to the line in Xeraco, with a huge crash bringing down riders all over the road in a chaotic final sprint.
Two-time stage winner Brennan was momentarily boxed in and had too much ground to make up in the finale as Bryan Coquard of Cofidis won the sprint from Lidl-Trek’s Mads Pedersen for his first-ever grand tour stage win.
The race continues on Sunday with a mountainous 187.4km ride in the Costa Blanca, from La Vila Joiosa to the category-one summit finish atop Alto de Aitana.
