Tadej Pogačar has extended his contract with UAE Team Emirates-XRG through the end of 2032, committing his long-term future to the team he has represented throughout his professional career.
The new agreement adds another two years to the contract that had been due to run until 2030 and means Pogačar is now tied to UAE until he is 34.
The announcement also brought confirmation that the five-time Tour de France winner will not race again in 2026 following the serious crash that ended his Vuelta a España challenge on Stage 8. Pogačar will spend the remainder of the year recovering and rehabilitating from his injuries before returning in 2027.
“From the beginning, this team has felt like home to me,” Pogačar said. “We’ve grown together over the years and shared some incredible moments, so I’m very happy to extend my contract through 2032.
“There is still a lot I want to achieve in this sport, and I believe this is the right place to do it. I’m very grateful for the trust the team has shown in me and excited for what we can continue to build together.”
Pogačar commits another two years to UAE
Pogačar has been with UAE since turning professional in 2019 and has spent his entire WorldTour career inside the same structure.
The previous agreement already made him one of the most securely contracted riders in professional cycling, running through 2030. The extension to 2032 takes that commitment even further and removes any realistic uncertainty around his team future during the central years still remaining in his career.
His relationship with UAE has developed alongside his rise from an outstanding young stage racer into the dominant all-round rider of his generation.
Pogačar’s first season with the team included third overall and three stage victories at the 2019 Vuelta. Within a year he had won his first Tour de France.
His Tour record now stands at five victories, in 2020, 2021, 2024, 2025 and 2026. His latest success made him only the fifth rider to reach five yellow jerseys, alongside Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain.
The full scale of that achievement is covered in our Tour de France 2026 final results and classification.
Vuelta crash brings Pogačar’s season to an early end
The longer-term contract news comes only a week after the most serious setback of Pogačar’s 2026 season.
He crashed heavily during Stage 8 of the Vuelta a España while wearing the red jersey and was unable to continue.
Pogačar suffered a concussion, a displaced fracture of his left clavicle, a stable C7 cervical fracture and multiple abrasions.
His Vuelta abandonment immediately transformed the race.
Pogačar had won three of the opening seven stages and built a 3:50 advantage over Enric Mas. What had increasingly looked like a controlled attempt to win the final Grand Tour missing from his palmarès ended suddenly on a stage that had been expected to cause few problems for the GC contenders.
Mas moved into red, while Pogačar left the race for hospital treatment.
No World Championships or Lombardia comeback
The initial question after the crash was whether Pogačar could recover in time to salvage any part of his autumn programme.
That possibility has now been removed.
UAE have confirmed that he will not return to competition during 2026, ruling out a late comeback for the major end-of-season objectives that would normally form an important part of his programme.
“Right now, the most important thing is to recover properly and give my body the time it needs,” Pogačar said.
There will consequently be no attempt to rush his rehabilitation for another race.
The next competitive appearance from Pogačar will come in 2027.
Given the injuries involved, the decision provides a much clearer recovery window than trying to work backwards from a World Championship or Monument date only a few weeks away.
A spectacular 2026 still ends with unfinished business
The crash gives Pogačar’s season an unusual ending because so much of what came before it had reinforced his position at the top of the sport.
His fifth Tour de France victory was the centrepiece.
Pogačar won five stages during the race and finished 6:26 ahead of Remco Evenepoel, moving level with the four previous record holders on five overall victories.
His season also extended well beyond stage racing, continuing the extraordinary range that has defined the later part of his career.
The Vuelta was meant to provide something different.
Pogačar had won the Giro d’Italia in 2024 and the Tour five times, leaving Spain as the only Grand Tour he had never won.
His return to the race for the first time since 2019 was built around completing that career set.
Our pre-race look at what winning all three Grand Tours would mean for Pogačar showed how small that remaining gap in his palmarès had become.
Seven stages into the Vuelta, he appeared well on course to fill it.
That objective will now have to wait.
Pogačar says there is still plenty he wants to achieve
The most significant line in Pogačar’s contract announcement may have been the simplest.
“There is still a lot I want to achieve in this sport.”
A contract through 2032 gives him plenty of time to decide what those objectives look like.
A sixth Tour de France victory would take him beyond the five-win record he currently shares.
The Vuelta remains unfinished business after the way his 2026 challenge ended.
There are also one-day races where further victories would continue expanding a palmarès that already crosses Grand Tours, Monuments and championships.
The important distinction is that UAE do not need to construct his programme around an approaching contract decision.
Both sides know where Pogačar intends to race for the foreseeable future.
UAE continue locking down their long-term leaders
Pogačar’s extension also fits the increasingly long-term approach UAE Team Emirates-XRG have taken with their strongest riders.
Isaac del Toro recently extended his UAE contract through 2031, securing another rider expected to remain central to the team’s Grand Tour plans for years.
That matters because UAE’s strength is no longer built around asking Pogačar to lead every major stage race.
Del Toro has developed into a genuine GC contender in his own right, while the wider squad contains enough depth for the team to divide its objectives across the calendar.
For Pogačar, that creates freedom.
He can increasingly select targets based on the races he still wants to win rather than the events UAE simply need their strongest rider to attend.
For the team, the hierarchy remains clear. Whatever other leaders emerge, Pogačar is still the rider around whom the wider sporting project has been built.
The Vuelta remains the obvious missing Grand Tour
The 2026 Vuelta was supposed to close the most obvious gap in Pogačar’s Grand Tour record.
Instead, it has created another reason to return.
His only completed appearance remains 2019, when a 20-year-old Pogačar won three stages and finished third overall in his first Grand Tour.
Seven years later he returned as a Giro champion and five-time Tour winner.
He was also dominating the race before the Stage 8 crash.
That makes a future Vuelta attempt difficult to ignore.
Pogačar has repeatedly shaped his calendar around historic or personally significant goals, and winning all three Grand Tours across his career remains one of the clearest still available.
Whether that means another attempt in 2027 or a later season will depend heavily on his recovery and how UAE build his programme.
There is no longer any need to wonder which team will be building it.
Recovery comes before the next target
The 2032 contract inevitably encourages discussion about Tour records, the Vuelta and what else Pogačar might attempt over another six seasons.
The immediate priority is much simpler.
His 2026 season is finished.
The crash that ended his Vuelta caused injuries serious enough that neither Pogačar nor UAE see any value in accelerating the return to competition.
The autumn will instead be devoted to recovery before preparation gradually begins for 2027.
Pogačar’s career with UAE was already one of the longest and most successful rider-team relationships in the modern peloton. The new agreement now gives it another two years to run.
For a rider who says there is still plenty left to achieve, UAE Team Emirates-XRG will remain the team with which he tries to achieve it.
