Will Tadej Pogacar skip the Tour de France for the first time since 2019? According to Patrick Evenepoel, manager and father of Remco Evenepoel, it is a real possibility that the four-time winner will miss La Grande Boucle in 2026. However, José Antonio 'Matxin' Fernández — the sporting director of UAE Emirates XRG — dismisses this as pure speculation.
It was a striking statement from Evenepoel senior in the studio of the Walloon broadcaster RTBF, shortly after the presentation of the 2026 Tour de France route. He expressed doubts about Pogacar’s participation. "Are you sure Pogacar will go? Everyone keeps talking about Pogacar, but I don’t get the impression he’s heading to the Tour next year. He wants to ride the Giro and the Vuelta. That’s the sentiment from inside the peloton," he said.
In an interview with the Spanish sports newspaper Marca, UAE manager matxin was quite clear. "Tadej is, in principle, scheduled to contest the Tour de France and the World Championships next year. That’s what’s on the agenda. We’ll see how things develop from there. If one day he decides to change that, it will be out of passion for the sport, not based on strategic considerations."
What about the Giro?
What remains unclear is whether Pogacar will line up again for the Giro d'Italia in 2026. Matxin declined to comment in the Marca interview on a possible Giro-Tour double. That will only become clear in December, when the team reveals the world champion’s final race schedule.
In an earlier conversation with Eurosport, Matxin looked ahead to the spring of 2026. "Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix are the major one-day race targets for next year. Tadej has already won Il Lombardia, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and the Tour of Flanders, but two monuments are still missing from his palmarès."
