Vuelta a Espana: Tadej Pogacar abandons after crashing during stage eight

Race leader Tadej Pogacar has abandoned the Vuelta a Espana after crashing during stage eight.

The world champion, who was looking to complete a full set of Grand Tour victories, crashed with about 33km to go.

Pogacar, 27, was riding in the midst of the peloton when he came off his bike, hurting his left shoulder and cutting the left side of his face.

The Slovenian appeared to try to get back on his bike before sitting back down again.

He then walked unaided into an ambulance. It is the first time he has abandoned a Grand Tour.

The overwhelming favourite to win the three-week long race had started the stage three minutes and 50 seconds clear of Spaniard Enric Mas in second place.

In what was a chaotic race, another crash occurred in the finishing straight as France’s Bryan Coquard claimed his first stage win in a Grand Tour.

The 34-year-old edged Lidl-Trek rider Mads Pedersen in a photo finish.

“I think it has been 13 years, it has been a lot of work and I have finished second a lot of times,” Coquard told TNT Sports.

“I have not been in good positions in the first two sprints, I know I have good legs. Maybe I climb better now, I am fast again.”

Movistar rider Mas now leads the general classification by one minute and 11 seconds from Decathlon CMA CGM rider Felix Gall.

He is the first Spaniard to lead the Vuelta since Jesus Herrada in 2018 but a sombre Mas opted not to wear the red jersey when presented with it on the podium, instead holding it in front of him.

“It’s a real shame,” Mas said about Pogacar. “I hope he gets better quickly. We’ve still got a few races left and I hope he’ll be in good shape for them.”

Six-time Grand Tour winner Pogacar was on course to win all three of the sport’s biggest stage races, having already won five Tours de France and a Giro d’Italia.

Having become the joint most successful Tour de France champion of all time last month, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider is aiming to become the ninth rider to win all three Grand Tours.

Pogacar has also won almost all of the sport’s biggest races. In addition to his multiple stage race victories, the two-time road world champion has won 13 one-day monument races, including the Tour of Flanders (three times), Milan-San Remo (once), Il Lombardia (five times) and Liege-Bastogne-Liege (four times).

In 2025, he recorded his best finish of second in the other monument – Paris-Roubaix.