The medical report from UAE Team Emirates confirmed the worst: Slovenian Tadej Pogacar suffered a fracture in his left collarbone and one of his vertebrae, so he will undergo surgery after the brutal crash in stage 8 of the Vuelta a España.
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Doctor Adrian Rotunno, medical director of UAE Team Emirates, explained in his medical report that the Slovenian rider suffered a concussion and a series of fractures in the body after the crash that forced him to withdraw from the last grand cycling tour.
“Unfortunately, Tadej suffered a dramatic fall during today’s stage and could not continue in the race. He is stable and, after a thorough medical evaluation at the hospital, he has been diagnosed with a concussion, a displaced fracture of the left collarbone, a stable fracture of the cervical vertebra C7, and multiple abrasions. Fortunately, he has no other serious injuries or neurological sequelae,” the specialist said.
Tadej Pogacar: first medical report is not encouraging at all after the hard crash he suffered in stage 8 that forced him to withdraw from the Vuelta a España
Rotunno noted that Pogacar, who was leading the general classification of the Vuelta a España before the accident, “will need surgical intervention on the collarbone, which will be postponed due to necessary precautions for the concussion.”
A brutal crash
An initially transitional stage turned the Vuelta a España upside down: Pogacar abandoned the race after suffering a crash with 32 km to go to the finish. The Slovenian tried to continue, but the pain and concussion did not allow him.
Alarms went off when Pogacar, a huge favorite for the title and who won three stages in the first week of the competition, went down to the asphalt and TV images showed he had bleeding wounds, especially on the left shoulder and left eyebrow.
Video | Tadej Pogacar suffered a violent accident in stage 8 and withdrew from the Vuelta a España: he left in an ambulance after the serious injuries
He was attended to and initially tried to get back on his bike before realizing he could not due to the pain and was evacuated from the site by ambulance.
“It was a fall like those that happen in cycling. At first he wanted to continue, but we saw that his shoulder hurt a lot and he could not continue,” said UAE team director Joxean Fernández Matxín at the finish.
This unexpected withdrawal leaves the Vuelta orphaned of its great star, who had decided to participate in this edition to be crowned for the first time in Spain and thus complete his full set of titles in the three grand tours, after having won the Tour de France five times (2020, 2021, 2024, 2025, 2026) and the Giro d’Italia once (2024).
Before this edition, Pogacar had only participated once in the Vuelta: it was in 2019, in his debut in a grand tour, and then he won the young rider classification (white jersey), finishing third in the final general classification won by his compatriot Primoz Roglic.
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