Pogačar’s list of victories: These are the races the top star has yet to win

​Tadej Pogačar once explained why some races no longer appeal to him as much as they used to. A second victory doesn’t feel quite the same because he’s already ticked that race off his list. Anyone who thinks like that eventually finds themselves focusing mainly on the races they haven’t yet ticked off. For Pogačar, that list is now quite short.

A season straight out of a picture book for Tadej Pogačar, right up to Xeraco

By the end of August 2026, things had gone almost according to plan for Pogačar. In the spring, he won Strade Bianche, Milan–Sanremo, the Tour of Flanders and Liège–Bastogne–Liège. He also claimed the general classifications at the Tour de Romandie, the Tour de Suisse and the Tour de France. With his fifth Tour victory, he has become only the fifth rider in history to achieve this feat. By winning Sanremo, he also filled one of the gaps that had dogged him for years.

He had hoped to close the gap at the Vuelta, but things turned out differently. On Stage 8 to Xeraco, Pogačar crashed on the flat 32 kilometres from the finish, whilst wearing the red jersey and holding a 3-minute 50-second lead over Enric Mas. He was diagnosed with a concussion, a broken left collarbone and a fractured cervical vertebra. That was the end of his season. Instead of ticking off more races, Tadej Pogačar was forced to watch from the sidelines.

The Big Three: Roubaix, the Vuelta, the Olympics

Three gaps stand out in his list of achievements. The first is Paris–Roubaix, the only Monument still missing from his collection since his victory in Sanremo. He has already narrowly missed out twice. On his debut in 2025, he led the race for a long time alongside Mathieu van der Poel, but then crashed and finished second. A year later, after a mechanical problem and several wheel changes, he fought his way back to the front and rode into the Velodrome alongside Wout van Aert. There, he came off second best in the sprint.

In this race of all races, it remains to be seen whether he will even compete again in 2027. In his plans for the coming season, as revealed so far The ‘Hell of the North’ does not feature. This is not yet final: the team intends to finalise a provisional race programme in Abu Dhabi and announce it in December.

The Vuelta a España, on the other hand, is firmly on the agenda. It is the only major stage race that Tadej Pogačar has yet to win – ironically, the very race where his Grand Tour career began. In 2019, as a 20-year-old, he finished third there with three stage wins. Speaking on Slovenian television channel RTV, he has now set out his goal for 2027: the World Championships combined with the Tour and the Vuelta. He said he would actually prefer to ride the Giro, but that he would have to tick the Vuelta off his list at some point. It won’t be easy. The World Championships on 29 August in Sallanches cover 265 kilometres with 5,700 metres of climbing, and the Vuelta a España begins just six days later.

That leaves Olympic gold. In Tokyo in 2021, Pogačar won bronze in the road race. At the 2024 Games in Paris, he decided not to compete due to severe exhaustion following the Giro and the Tour. The next opportunity will be the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. This is another reason why 2027 is considered the ideal year for the Vuelta: in 2028, the Tour de France is followed directly by the Olympic Games, and another major stage race might then prove too much.

Tadej Pogačar’s WorldTour record: 17 out of 36

As well as the three major gaps, it is worth taking a look at the full WorldTour calendar, which turns out to be quite surprising. The top-tier series comprised 36 races in 2026. Pogačar has won 17 of these at least once, including the Giro and the Tour – the major stage races in the spring – and the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, formerly known as the Critérium du Dauphiné. So the world’s best rider still has 19 WorldTour races to go – more than half.

Some of these are certainly within the Slovenian’s reach. In the Tour of the Basque Country, Pogačar finished sixth in 2019 and third in 2021. He came third in the E3 Saxo Classic in 2023 and tenth in Dwars door Vlaanderen in 2022. The GP Québec is particularly intriguing: Pogačar has won its sister race in Montréal twice, but in Québec he failed to feature in the final sprint in 2022 and finished seventh in 2024. Of course, the race in Québec is clearly designed for strong sprinters. Nevertheless, Tadej Pogačar certainly still has a chance here. He is also still waiting for a good result at the Clásica San Sebastián; in 2022 he had to withdraw from the race due to exhaustion, whilst Remco Evenepoel has already won the race four times. He has competed in the Bretagne Classic twice, in 2021 and 2022, and on both occasions played no part in the victory.

Other races are simply missing because they haven’t been on his programme so far. This applies to the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the Eschborn–Frankfurt classic, the Tour de Pologne and the Tour of Guangxi, the season finale in China. Added to these is the one-day race in Australia, the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. He has already competed in the Tour Down Under during his first year as a professional, but he has yet to secure a victory there either.

And then there are a handful of WorldTour races in which even Pogačar has virtually no chance. The Brugge–De Panne Classic, Gent–Wevelgem, the Copenhagen Sprint, the Hamburg Cyclassics and the Renewi Tour are usually decided in a bunch sprint. It is riders such as Jasper Philipsen who set the pace here; in 2026, he won no fewer than three of these five races. They are virtually impossible for a climber or all-rounder to win, and Tadej Pogačar is likely to continue to steer clear of them in future.

And then there’s Australia

Given these gaps, a report from the past few days takes on added significance. Following his crash, Pogačar began training much earlier than usual. It did take five weeks before he was back on his bike. However, he said he is now training regularly – a month earlier than in previous years. This almost inevitably raised the question of what his 2027 racing calendar will look like. One possibility is a return to the Tour Down Under; it would be his second appearance.

It all began for Pogačar in Australia. In 2019, he made his debut for his team at the Tour Down Under and finished 13th overall. He hasn’t been back there since. His friend Michael Matthews thinks it’s entirely possible he’ll compete there. He wouldn’t be surprised to see him there, says the Australian; Pogačar sounds as though he’s really looking forward to racing there at some point.

An early start to the season would have several advantages. It would allow for a longer break before the summer and might mean fewer spring classics. With a summer featuring the Tour, the World Championships and the Vuelta, that would make sense, and it would also explain why Roubaix is missing from the plans so far. The Australian season opener also offers two opportunities: the Tour Down Under is followed a few days later by the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. Pogačar could therefore tick two races off his list in the first two weeks of the season.

More relaxed, but not frugal

Following his injury-enforced break, Pogačar seems a little more relaxed than before. Whilst watching the World Championships and European Championships, he naturally missed racing. However, the older he gets, the easier it is for him to stay away from races and find other things that bring him joy. That doesn’t sound like a rider who’s determined to win races at all costs. Nevertheless, his goals for 2027 speak for themselves: a sixth Tour victory, reclaiming the rainbow jersey and, finally, the Vuelta. In any case, he certainly isn’t short of gaps to close, and the first opportunity to do so could come as early as January.