“Those ten summit finishes, five or six really hilly stages, and two time trials…” says Joxean Matxin about Pogacar’s possible return to La Vuelta after the route was made public.

The route for the 2025 Vuelta a España was made public on Thursday. One that spans four countries, has a few time-trial kilometers, and a lot of mountain finishes… I can’t really be said to fit any one person. Since Joxean Matxín was there, he was asked if Tadej Pogacar would be coming back. This is what he said.

“It feels like the real Vuelta when you ride it.” Ten finish lines at the top of mountains, five or six really hilly stages, and two time trials… Matxín told AS, “What surprises me is that the race will have a time trial right after a transfer.” Before yesterday, riders and teams didn’t know much about a few rounds of the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia.

In weeks one and three, there is a short team time trial and a short solo time trial on this route. As usual, there are a lot of mountainous and hilly stages. 10 peak finishes and a few more days that were very hard. But most mountain stages are “unipuerto,” which means they are mostly flat but end at a top. To win this race, you should be good at climbing, since there aren’t many stages where GC raids can happen.

“Tadej and I will talk from my hotel, and then we’ll decide.” We already know for sure that any race he runs will be amazing, and within the team, we have a pretty good idea of what he will race,” Matxín said.

Many people know that the Slovenian wants to win the Vuelta and finish the Grand Tour treble. However, the team probably won’t decide if he can join until the summer. Or maybe not until after the Tour and if nothing strange happens. “The Vuelta is a race in which he will participate, sooner or later, because we want to try to be sure that he has the Vuelta in his palmares,” Matxín ended.