Pogacar to defend Tour de France and world title as 2025 programme unveiled

AFP| Paris

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Tadej Pogacar will race a number of classics and the Tour de France as well as either the Giro d’Italia or Vuelta in 2025, Team UAE sporting director Joxean Fernandez Matxin said yesterday.

The 26-year-old Slovenian dominated the 2024 season winning the Giro, the Tour and the world title. He will get his 2025 season underway at the UAE Tour.

“He will then do the Strade Bianche, Milan-San Remo, the E3 Grand Prix, Gent-Wevelgem and the Tour of Flanders before the Ardennes classics,” Matxin told a press conference in Benidorm, where UAE is in training.

As well as the Tour de France, which will run from July 5-27, Pogacar will take part in a second Grand Tour in 2025 and will choose which one once the routes have been announced for the Giro and the Vuelta.

If he foregoes the Giro (May 9-June 1) in favour of the Vuelta (August 23-September 14), the Slovenian will take part in the Criterium du Dauphine (June 8-15) in preparation for the Tour de France.

“What’s certain is that he won’t be doing the three big Tours next year,” Matxin added.

Pogacar is also due to defend his title at the World Championships in Rwanda in September, on a very demanding course in Kigali. He should then end his season on October 11 at the Tour of Lombardy, the last Monument of the year, where he will be aiming for a fifth consecutive success.