MADRID (AP) — Tour de France champion Tadej Pogačar is returning to the Spanish Vuelta after a seven-year absence to pursue a Grand Tours hat trick of titles.
The Slovenian rider’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG team announced its lineup for the three-week race on Monday, confirming Pogačar will take part after claiming a record-equaling fifth Tour de France crown last month.
“It was my first ever Grand Tour back in 2019 and an amazing experience,” Pogačar said. “Spain is a country I love to visit and race in and I think the time is right to go back.”
Pogačar 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 male riders including Hinault, Anquetil, Merckx and Jonas Vingegaard, however, Pogacar has not won the Spanish Vuelta for a hat trick of Grand Tours wins.
Pogačar, 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 Aug. 22 with an individual time trial in Monaco – where Pogačar lives – before making its way through France and Andorra to Spain. It concludes in Granada on Sept. 13 after nearly 3,300 kilometers of racing.
The 27-year-old Pogačar won three stages when he finished third on his last and only appearance so far at the Vuelta.
“Joining Pogačar are João Almeida, Jay Vine, Pavel Sivakov, Pablo Torres, Kevin Vermaerke, Domen Novak and Ivo Oliveira,” UAE Team Emirates-XRG said.
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Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, races through the cobbled streets of Montmartre during the last stage of the Tour de France cycling race with start and finish in Paris, Sunday, July 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Etienne Garnier/Pool Photo via AP)
Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, celebrates as he crosses the finish line of the last stage of the Tour de France cycling race with start and finish in Paris, Sunday, July 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
SURABAYA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian rescuers searched for possible missing passengers Monday after rescuing 231 people from a ferry that caught fire the previous day off the main island of Java, leaving at least five people dead. Passengers described leaping overboard and staying afloat for hours before rescue.
The Mutiara Sentosa 2 ferry was traveling from Indonesia’s second-largest city of Surabaya in East Java to the city of Makassar in South Sulawesi. Initial reports said it was carrying 271 people, including 39 crew members, based on the ship’s manifest, when the fire broke out between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m.
However, by Monday officials said many more people were aboard than listed, and the number of people missing was unclear. Officials were relying on reports from families of victims and survivors in an attempt to determine the number of the missing.
It is common in Indonesia for the number of passengers on a boat or ferry to differ from the manifest. Such discrepancies can complicate search and rescue efforts, said Nanang Sigit, the search mission coordinator who also heads the Surabaya Search and Rescue Office.
The cause of the fire remained under investigation. Indonesian navy ships assisted, along with a number of passing vessels, at the scene about 35 kilometers (22 miles) north of Sapudi island in the Sumenep regency.
The vessel was also loaded with 180 vehicles, mostly trucks.
Ahmad Abdul Karim, a survivor, said the fire appeared to have started in a truck on the lower vehicle deck.
“Fanned by the wind, the flames spread extremely quickly,” Karim said, “In less than 30 minutes, everyone had been instructed to move to the bow of the ferry.”
Another passenger, Azhari, said many passengers had just woken up when the fire erupted, apparently from the rear of the ferry.
“The fire spread quickly to the middle of the vessel,” Azhari, who goes by a single name, said in a television interview. “There was no other option for us but to jump into the sea.”
He said passengers were in the sea for about four hours before passing vessels began pulling them to safety.
Television news showed exhausted survivors disembarking from a rescue vessel at a harbor in Surabaya, while rescuers transported bodies to ambulances and grieving relatives waited for information.
Transportation Minister Dudy Purwagandhi said the government would review the performance of the ferry’s operator, Atosim Lampung Pelayaran, after the National Transportation Safety Committee, or KNKT, completes its investigation.
“First we need to determine the cause based on KNKT’s findings,” Purwagandhi said.
The ferry was built in Japan in 1992 and was sold to Indonesia in 2015. With a length of 160 meters (525 feet), it can accommodate 689 passengers and 49 crew, along with up to 181 vehicles.
The Mutiara Sentosa 2 serves the Surabaya-Makassar route, a voyage that typically takes around 40 hours and is primarily used by domestic travelers and cargo transport between the islands of Java and Sulawesi.
Indonesia is an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands where ferries are a common method of travel. Disasters occur regularly, with weak safety enforcement often blamed.
Associated Press journalists Niniek Karmini and Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.
Survivors of a ferry fire arrive at Tanjung Perak Port in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Trisnadi)
Survivors of a ferry fire arrive at Tanjung Perak Port in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Trisnadi)
A survivor of a ferry fire receives medical attention at Tanjung Perak Port in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Trisnadi)
Rescuers assist a survivors of a ferry fire upon arrival at Tanjung Perak Port in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Trisnadi)
Smoke billows from passenger ship Mutiara Santosa 2 after it caught fire in the waters off Madura Island, Indonesia, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (AP Photo)
