UAE Team Emirates-XRG manager Mauro Gianetti has explained that Tadej Pogačar‘s decision not to race the Vuelta a España was due to the need to give their team leader mental and physical breathing space after the demands of his spectacularly successful, but very intense 2025 season.
Pogačar’s run of 2025 victories began with the UAE Tour in February and recently ended with his fourth Tour de France victory in six years. He also won Strade Bianche, the Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Critérium du Dauphiné. His worst result was third in Milan-San Remo.
The decision not to ride the Vuelta a España, a goal Pogačar had cited as possible during the winter, was made public shortly after he finished the Tour de France. Juan Ayuso will now co-lead UAE Team Emirates in Spain alongside João Almeida.
Gianetti explained that the team felt it was important Pogačar “has enough physical and mental rest to be happy in races, to enjoy himself and to provide entertainment as he has always done.”
“Being Tadej Pogačar is nice, but it’s not easy,” Gianetti told Cyclingnews and Domestique during the recent Tour of Pologne, won by UAE rider Brandon McNulty on the final day.
Pogačar referred to how long he will be capable of racing at the highest level in a recent interview with Slovenian media, saying, “I am counting the years to my retirement.”
“I am prepared for everything that is coming,” Pogačar said. “So I am all the more aware that I have to enjoy the moment. I have to be prepared to stop, say thank you and say goodbye to racing at the highest level.”
Talking in Pologne, Gianetti argued that Pogačar’s ultra-intense first half of the season was a key factor in his opting for fewer races in the second part of 2025.
Pogačar has raced 43 days this year so far, compared to 54 by this point in 2024. But unlike in 2024 when he completed the Giro-Tour double, Pogačar targeted the spring Classics. Gianetti suggested that doing a one-day race of the magnitude of Paris-Roubaix – not initially on Pogačar’s programme – took a much greater emotional and physical toll than a week-long stage race.
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