The news of Pogacar’s withdrawal will make Jonas Vingegaard the overwhelming favourite for this year’s Vuelta. The Dane has never won a Grand Tour outside the Tour de France, having finished second to teammate Sepp Kuss in 2023, and showed in the final week of the Tour that he is back climbing at his best level.

XRG was part of a breakaway group of six through the streets of Paris, but ultimately had to settle for second place behind Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) on Montmartre. Pogacar has already had twenty tough days,

Tour de France overall leader Tadej Pogacar suffered a big scare on Thursday when he bumped into the team car of his chief rival Jonas Vingegaard before the start of the 18th stage, a brutal mountain trek from Vif to the Col de la Loze.