What’s Tadej Pogačar’s real aim at this point in his career? Mike tries to get inside the G.O.A.T.’s head in this introspective version of EuroTrash — while also searching for excitement elsewhere in the cycling world, such as…at the World Mountain Bike Championships? Among the sport’s youngsters? At Wout van Aert as he pleads for the return of his shades? Hey — you take what you can get!
TOP STORY
- Pogačar Aims to Run the Vuelta Table
RACE NEWS
- Where to Mathieu Watch van der Poel (and the World Mountain Bike Championships)
- Top Sprinters Set for Lloyd’s Tour of Britain Showdown
TEAM, RIDER AND CYCLING NEWS
- Pssst Paul Seixas — You’re Not the Only Next-Gen Rider Knocking at the Door
- British Cycling Leaders Urge PM to Back £30m Legacy Fund for Tour de France 2027
- Even Wout Doesn’t Get the Same Treatment as Tadej
MIKE’S RIDE OF THE WEEK
- Annual Ride to Cousin Daryl’s (Davis to Discovery Bay, CA)
VIDEO
- Richard Recounts this Vuelta’s Best Stage
Pogačar Aims to Run the Vuelta Table
There’s not much left for Tadej Pogačar to achieve.
Paris-Roubaix eludes him; he’ll likely keep returning until he crosses the line first in the velodrome. And of course he actually needs to win this Vuelta — which seems virtually assured already. Then there’s the Olympics; a cycling purist, Tadej seems largely uninterested, though may race in LA in 2028 — if Team Slovenia awards Urska a slot.
Mostly, though, what Pogačar seems to want is to be memorable. To be remembered — as the greatest cyclist ever, sure, but that argument will likely never be settled, and seems pointless; this era is very different from Merckx’s. I believe that what Tadej Pogačar most wants at this point is to achieve feats that are memorable.
Win Milan-Sanremo? You’re on a list. Win after crashing? That’s memorable.
It’s what we all want as well. We want stories, not just palmares.
In 2023 I read and heard pundits admonishing Jonas Vingegaard not to let the Vuelta title slip through his fingers, to his teammate Sepp Kuss. I couldn’t disagree more: I’ll never remember how many Vueltas Jonas won — but I’ll never forget that he worked on behalf of his teammate, so that he could take what would likely be his only Grand Tour GC victory.
It’s the difference between achieving, and achieving something badass.
And you know what’s badass? Donning the leader’s jersey in the first stage, and wearing it in every stage thereafter. Wearing red from 1 to 21 — wire to wire.
That’s what Pogačar wants. That’s badass. That’s memorable.
We saw him hurl himself through the final meters at the finish line in the opening time trial, surely aware that he would finish very close to Ethan Hayter. And it’s why he threw down the gauntlet in stage four, far earlier than he needed to, knowing many more mountain stages loomed; he wanted to carve a vast gap between himself and any “rivals,” so that he might ride risk-free for the remainder of the Vuelta.
The feat isn’t unique; across the three Grand Tours, a handful of riders have worn the leader’s jersey across the entire route. But it’s been awhile — since Gianni Bugno mustered it in 1990 — and when Merckx did it in the 1973 Giro, he first donned the Maglia Rosa by winning a two-man time trial. Like I said: different era.
That’s what I believe Tadej is after: being memorable. Achieving the memorable.
After stage four, I’d say he’s on his way.
RACE NEWS
Where to Mathieu Watch van der Poel (and the World Mountain Bike Championships)
Where are you planning to be this Sunday morning?
Me, I’ll be on my bike. But then I’ll find my way to a computer to watch the 2026 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Val di Sole, Italy, finding out whether Mathieu van der Poel can work his way through five rows of competition to Tom Pidcock and the other leaders.
You can watch it too! The event will have live/near-live coverage on the five continents, allowing fans in most major cycling markets to watch the action:
- Africa: SuperSport (including, among others, South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Congo and Tanzania);
- in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa): Abu Dhabi Sports TV* (notably United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Iran, Algeria and Iraq);
- North America: FloBikes (United States and Canada);
- South America: DirecTV (including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela) ;
- Asia: Astro (Malaysia)
- Europe: CT Sport (Czechia), L’Équipe (France), Duna Media (Hungary), STVR (Slovakia), BBC* and TNT Sports (United Kingdom), VRT and RTBF (Belgium)*, TV2 (Denmark), RSI/RTS/SRF (Switzerland), RAI (Italy), NOS* (the Netherlands), TVE* (Spain) and RTV Slovenija (Slovenia); in most European countries, coverage is (also) available on Eurosport, as well as on HBO Max and Discovery+;
- Oceania: Stan* (Australia) and Sky* (New Zealand).
* To be confirmed.
All this information can be found in the documents available on the page dedicated to the event.
As with all UCI World Championships, the 2026 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships will also be available to watch live on the UCI YouTube channel, subject to geo-blocking.
In addition, the event will be covered on the following UCI social media channels:
- Facebook : UCI Mountain Bike
- Instagram : @uci_mountainbike
- TikTok : @uci_cycling
- X : @UCI_MTB.
Top Sprinters Set for Lloyd’s Tour of Britain Showdown
Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) and Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) headline the opening confirmations for this year’s Lloyds Tour of Britain Men, with the race kicking off in Lincoln on Wednesday, September 2 and wrapping up in Earlston on Sunday, September 6.
The two are fresh off a fierce Tour de France sprint rivalry — Kooij claiming his first-ever grand tour stage win in Pau, while Merlier banked three stage wins despite abandoning before the finish in Paris. That rivalry now heads to Britain, with likely bunch sprints in Skegness and Beverley plus the punchy Michaelgate climb in Lincoln testing both men across five stages.
It’s Merlier’s Tour of Britain debut: “The stages look well suited for sprinters, and as a team we will be aiming to make the most of the opportunities and put on a good show for the fans,” the Belgian said.
Kooij, by contrast, is a race veteran with seven career stage wins here — meaning a big week could push the 24-year-old Dutchman within striking distance of Mark Cavendish’s all-time record of ten.
Race director Jonny Clay called their presence “fantastic news,” adding: “They’re proven winners at the very highest level.”
The route: Lincoln to Boston–Skegness open in Lincolnshire, before Hull–Beverley and Helmsley–Leyburn cover Yorkshire’s Wolds and Dales. Earlston hosts the GC-deciding finale in the Scottish Borders. Fans can also ride the Stage 4 route themselves before the pros tackle it, and Hull’s free Family Cycling Festival runs alongside Stage 3.
TEAM, RIDER AND CYCLING NEWS
Pssst Paul Seixas — You’re Not the Only Next-Gen Rider Knocking at the Door
Paul Seixas has spent 2026 hogging the “future of the sport” headlines, and fair enough — a teenager finishing top-five at his Grand Tour debut and going toe-to-toe with Pogačar at Strade Bianche (for awhile) will do that. But zoom out from the Seixas hype machine for a second, because the kids’ table is getting crowded.
Start with Lorenzo Finn. The 19-year-old Italian from Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe closed out the Tour de l’Avenir on Wednesday with a statement, not a whimper. He’d already seized the yellow jersey with a demolition job in the mountain time trial to Flaine, dropping France’s Ugo Fabries by 34 seconds on the climb to the Col de la Pierre Carrée. Then, in the queen stage over the Iseran, he held firm while the race around him detonated. He sealed it Wednesday with a second stage win, riding solo up to Lago Serrù in the Gran Paradiso and crossing over two minutes clear of Belgium’s Niels Driesen. Final margin: 2:34. It’s Finn’s second U23 stage-race crown of the year, after also topping the Giro Next Gen — a rare double that has the sport’s power brokers taking notice.
Then there’s Jarno Widar, who most casual fans have never heard of — yet. The 20-year-old Belgian neo-pro made his Grand Tour debut this month at the Vuelta and, on stage 4’s brutal first mountain test through Andorra, simply refused to be intimidated. While Tadej Pogačar was busy soloing away for a two-minute-plus stage win, Widar sat in behind a chase group stacked with proven Grand Tour operators — Felix Gall, Primož Roglič, Enric Mas, Sepp Kuss — and beat every one of them in the sprint for second. “It’s not normal,” Widar admitted afterward, with the kind of disbelief that suggests he might get used to it.
Two different riders, two different disciplines within the sport — a stage-race GC talent and a punchy climber finding his feet in three-week racing — but the same message. Seixas may have the biggest microphone right now, but he’d better not get comfortable. The line behind him is long, and it’s getting louder.
British Cycling Leaders Urge PM to Back £30m Legacy Fund for Tour de France 2027
A coalition of cycling and civic leaders has written to the British Prime Minister calling for £30 million in Government investment to create safe, accessible cycling facilities across Britain, securing a lasting legacy from the 2027 Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes Grand Départs.
The letter, signed by British Cycling, Grand Départ GB 2027, Scottish Cycling, Beicio Cymru and host-location representatives, argues targeted investment would boost public health, reduce inequality and strengthen communities.
Britain will become the first nation outside France to host both Grand Départs, with over 10 million spectators expected at what’s set to be the UK’s largest free-to-watch sporting event. Organisers are already delivering a social impact programme, including 9,000+ volunteer “JOY Makers,” schools engagement, a Readiness to Work initiative, and efforts to boost girls’ participation in cycling.
Signatories say the £30 million would build on this momentum, funding facilities in high-demand, under-provisioned areas to improve health, confidence and access to affordable transport.
The proposal follows the original Places to Ride programme, which used £15 million (2019–2024) to support 150+ English projects. A similar Scottish program linked to the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships has funded 50 facilities, generating over £48 million in social value.
Backers believe Government funding could unlock further match funding from local authorities.
Lee Gibbons, Interim Group Chief Executive of British Cycling, said: “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity… we have a pipeline of projects ready to deliver, and the evidence for investment is clear.”
Even Wout Doesn’t Get the Same Treatment as Tadej
Last Sunday we shared a video of Tadej Pogačar giving his sunglasses to Wout van Aert’s son. Here’s the flip side: Wout can’t afford to lose his during a Vuelta stage!
MIKE’S RIDE OF THE WEEK
Annual Ride to Cousin Daryl’s (Davis to Discovery Bay, CA)
ROTW is back!
Because I’m back in the USA, and back on my bike. I went big for my first real ride after returning from Ireland: 117 miles — with a twist!
My wife’s family holds an annual family reunion in Discovery Bay, an odd community carved out of the Delta, the body of water that flows into San Francicso Bay. The reunion’s a good time with good people — and serves as an opportunity to ride long.
This year’s twist: about 30 miles in, my di2 went out. Dammit! I could have sworn I charged it. So I got to ride (and walk, for a bit ) the last 87 miles in my 52 x 11. At one point I saw 24 RPM.
I rode out of my way to Fairfield Bikes, a bike shop that promised charging for my derailleur. Alas: it wasn’t that kind of shop. But it did feature some rad dirt jumpers and BMX bikes — and a couple of very nice guys who set me up with a ride snack that was way better than a gel.
Painful, but worth it. Always worth it.
VIDEO: Richard Recounts this Vuelta’s Best Stage
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The post EUROTRASH: Will Pogačar Go Wire to Wire? appeared first on PezCycling News.
