Tadej Pogacar plans to ride Tour de France, Vuelta a Espana and Tour of Flanders for first time in 2022

ByJames Walker-Roberts

Updated 10/01/2022 at 20:50 GMT

Two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) has outlined his plans for the 2022 season. The 23-year-old is again aiming to ride the Tour and will also target La Vuelta. He will start his season at the UAE Tour in February and will be riding the cobbles at the Tour of Flanders for the first time.

Tadej Pogacar has revealed his ambitions for a Tour de France-Vuelta double in 2022.

It will be the first time that Pogacar has competed in two Grand Tours in the same season.

The UAE Team Emirates leader has won the last two editions of the Tour de France and finished third overall in his only previous Vuelta appearance in 2019.

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"I hope to do two Grand Tours this year, the Tour and the Vuelta," Pogacar said at the UAE Team Emirates training camp in Spain.

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"You never know what can happen through the season but that's what I'd really like.

"The Vuelta was my first Grand Tour, and I was third place. I have really nice memories and I want to live those memories again."

Pogacar will start off his season at the UAE Tour (February 20-26) before competing in Milan-San Remo (March 19) for the second time in his career.

He will then make his debut at the Tour of Flanders (April 3), hoping the cobbles will be good preparation for 19 kilometres of pavé in Stage 5 of this year’s Tour.

"It's a new challenge for me and for sure it will help for the Tour de France and the cobbles," he said.

"To get the idea of the roads and the cobbles. You can do the recon after the race and the experience that comes with it.

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"I'm really excited to be doing Flanders. I'll go for four Monuments, but that doesn’t mean that I'm focused on winning them all. In the future, I'd like to try all of them."

Pogacar will again not ride the Giro d’Italia, which starts on May 6, but he is determined to continue building on his impressive success over the last few seasons.

“Every year there’s less progress but that doesn’t mean that there is less motivation,” he said.

“I still want to improve every year, but I know that it’s impossible to do it every season. Until now I’ve been getting better each year and that’s my motivation. You never know when you’re going to stop pushing more watts than the season before."

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