Cycling at the Vuelta: Pogacar has to give up with bleeding wounds – Sport

This means the big favorite is out. Similar to his Tour rivals Jonas Vingegaard and Florian Lipowitz, Pogacar was forced to retire after a heavy crash at the Vuelta. 32 kilometers before the finish in Xeraco, the Slovenian world champion went headfirst over the handlebars after a swerve. He also carried away two drivers from the Visma racing team. What the exact cause was initially remained unclear. Pogacar may have avoided a stone on the side of the road.

“This hurts. Not the ending anyone was hoping for,” wrote the Vuelta. There were quickly numerous well wishes for Pogacar on the cycling portals.

UAE sports director Matxin Fernandez could not yet say anything about the severity of the injury. “He wanted to continue, but his shoulder hurt incredibly. He was bleeding from his eyebrow. He had to get stitches,” said the Spaniard and, referring to the crash, added: “Nobody is responsible for that. These are things that happen in cycling. We don’t know exactly what happened.”

The 27-year-old was well on his way to winning the Vuelta for the first time. After three stage wins, he was already 3:50 minutes ahead of the Spaniard Enric Mas in the overall ranking before the eighth stage. The Tour of Spain is the only Grand Tour that Pogacar is still missing from his list of winners. At the end of July he won the Tour for the fifth time and also won the Giro d’Italia in 2024.

After Pogacar’s exit, Mas is now the new front runner. Behind them, four-time overall winner Primoz Roglic can also hope for further success. The eighth stage was won after 171 kilometers from Pucol to Xeraco by Frenchman Bryan Coquard in a sprint ahead of former world champion Mads Pedersen. Shortly before the finish sprint there was a massive crash. Only a small group was still sprinting for victory.

Pogacar was taken to hospital after the fall, Eurosport reported. His UAE team announced further information later in the evening. After the fall, it is also questionable whether Pogacar will be able to defend his world title at the title fights in Montreal in September. The exceptional athlete won the World Championship road race in 2024 and 2025.

Serious falls are rare at Pogacar. In 2023, the exceptional athlete fell at the classic Liège-Bastogne-Liège and suffered a fractured scaphoid bone. Otherwise, the Tour champion’s few falls were rather minor, as was the case in the 2025 Tour. On tours, Pogacar had also finished the race in 50 starts.

On Thursday Pogacar was lucky when he got taxed on the descent of Puerto El Bartolo and had to go to the botany. During the incident, he was able to stay on the bike and immediately resume his journey. The images were somewhat reminiscent of the scenes of his rivals Vingegaard and Lipowitz. Both had fallen during the tour and each suffered a broken collarbone. Vingegaard has already ended his season. As for Lipowitz, it is still unclear whether he will take part again this season.