After another season of relentless success, including the Tour de France, Road World Championships and three Monuments, Tadej Pogačar has headed off on holiday - but not without first warning his rivals that if 2025 was already a marked step up from 2024, then in 2026 he's keen to raise the bar again.
Talking to Marca at the Andorra Cycling Masters event last weekend, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG leader did not reveal his global race program for next season.
However, what was most important was that far from resting on his laurels or cutting back on his major goals, Pogačar made it clear he will continue hunting for all-around success.
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It goes without saying that while the Tour de France 2026 route is due to be unveiled in Paris on Thursday, October 23, regardless of the exact challenges that emerge, for Pogačar not to be on the Barcelona start line next July when a fifth, record-equalling triumph is on the cards would be virtually out of the question.
Beyond that, while his team management has recently played down the chances of participation, he did not rule out a 2026 return to the Vuelta a España, the only Grand Tour he has not yet won, saying "there's always a chance."
"It's been a positive season, last year [2024] there were more triumphs, but in this one we've had more Classics," Pogačar, who raced eight fewer days in 2025 than in 2024 – when he won both the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France – pointed out.
As for 2026, the 27-year-old was categorical about his global aim of improving on 2025. Assuming he manages to do that and maintains his current advantage on his rivals – neither of which can be taken for granted, although there is a considerable precedent for expecting it – that could only mean even more remarkable breakaway and with even fewer opportunities for his rivals to defeat him.
"We want next year to be as good or better," he told Marca. "It's hard to improve every year, but that's what we want to do. It was a perfect season this year, but we'll see if we can do better."
Pogačar was not overly forthcoming about the specifics when asked about riding Paris-Roubaix, Milan-San Remo, and the Vuelta in 2026 - the three biggest races he has yet to win, although he has podium positions in all three.
"Each year I'm taking some more steps forward, so we'll see if I can go on improving in the future," he argued. "We haven't talked about the calendar, this is when my holidays start, and I want to rest."
That said, when asked directly if the 2026 Vuelta could be on his calendar, he did not rule it out.
"I don't know, the Worlds are in Canada and that works well with the Canadian [WorldTour] races" – which overlap with the Vuelta's final weekend in September – "but we've still got a lot of time to work on the calendar. There's always a chance."
Also present as a spectator at the Andorra race, Pogačar's agent, Alex Carera, was more forthcoming than his protegé about what he felt Pogačar could win in the future – although it should be underlined that these weren't definitive goals, just what was out there within the realms of possibility in the years to come.
In fact, Carera, like the Slovenian, was notably vague about the coming year, with some of these potential targets clearly feasible in 2026 and others, like Mark Cavendish's record of 35 Tour de France stage wins, obviously not.
"He can win five Tours, three World Championships, the Vuelta, beat Cavendish's record [of stage wins] in France and the [all-time] record of Monuments wins," Carera told Marca.
"Roubaix and San Remo as well, although that's tougher. But what is true is that with him, everything is possible."
