Winner of the 4th stage of La Vuelta 2026 in Andorra la Vella, Tadej Pogacar now has more than three minutes' lead over his pursuers in the general classification.
"I didn’t have to do that [to attack with 50.5-kilometer to go, NDLR] but the pace was already super high in the first climb, and in the second we were going basically fast from the bottom. When Jay [Vine] let me pass, I knew I didn't want to be isolated against all the GC riders because they would have played against me, so I tried to attack and then continue until the finish. It was pretty tough but a beautiful day out there.”
“Any gap is more than enough but it's super good [to have a 3’21” lead] because now I can be calm and confident for the next days. We’ll keep going day by day and focus on each day, it will be a little less stressful.”
“Never, not in a second I ever thought that I would ride like this [when I won for the first time in Andorra in 2019]. I have such beautiful memories from my first time in Andorra, it was really beautiful and one of the favorite moments in my career.”
“Now it's a good gap so we'll give our best to control it every day [to have La Roja until the finish], but if it's uncontrollable then we will have to fight. It's gonna be tough but we have a really strong team so we are ready."
