TOUR DE FRANCE champion Tadej Pogacar is returning to the Spanish Vuelta after a seven-year absence to pursue a hat-trick of Grand Tour titles.

The Slovenian rider’s team announced its line-up for the three-week race on Monday, confirming Pogacar will take part after claiming a record-equalling fifth Tour de France crown last month.

“It was my first ever Grand Tour back in 2019 and an amazing experience,” Pogacar said. “Spain is a country I love to visit and race in and I think the time is right to go back.”

Pogacar joined Belgian Eddy Merckx, Spaniard Miguel Indurain, and Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault as the only riders with five Tour de France titles to their names.

Unlike Hinault, Anquetil, Merckx and Jonas Vingegaard, however, Pogacar has yet to win the Vuelta to complete a Grand Tour hat-trick.

Pogacar, who won the Giro d’Italia in 2024 by a big margin, is also bidding to become just the fourth male rider to win the Vuelta and Tour de France in the same year after Anquetil, Hinault and Chris Froome.

The 81st Vuelta starts on August 22 with an individual time trial in Monaco, where Pogacar lives, before making its way through France and Andorra to Spain. It concludes in Granada on September 13 after nearly 3,300 kilometres of racing.

The 27-year-old won three stages when he finished third on his last and only appearance so far at the Vuelta.