Luke Tuckwell is part of the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team that’s currently racing the final Grand Tour of the season, the Vuelta a España.
On the first rest day of the Vuelta, we had a chance to talk about a race that has evolved dramatically in recent days. Tadej Pogacar crashed out [of the Vuelta] during stage eight and the dynamic of racing, in theory, was likely to change in the absence of the former race leader.
There’s a lot more to Luke’s story than the Vuelta alone but given the events of recent days and the reality that his team-mate, Primož Roglic, is now lying in second on GC, we can expect to see a lot more of Luke in the final fortnight of the final Grand Tour of 2026.
– Click play on the link above and watch the interview, or read the transcript of the chat (below) –
- Intro | GC changes at La Vuelta
- 00:58 | Meeting Luke for the first time
- 01:57 | Vibe in the peloton moments after Pogačar’s crash
- 04:06 | Racing with Roglič
- 05:08 | Roglič’s return from injuries
- 05:59 | Luke’s role as a domestique “I’m the last guy in the mountains”
- 07:37 | Dynamic in the peloton without Pogačar
- 08:54 | Two more weeks of La Vuelta
- 10:14 | Direction – from the team car or team leader?
- 11:40 | Considering the favourites for the Vuelta title in 2026
Ride Media: I’ve done a little intro saying, ‘it’s likely that we’ll be speed-talking because I don’t want to take up too much of your time while you’re at your first Grand Tour.’ We can cover a lot of territory but I guess, first of all, do you want to talk a little bit about your chin, what’s going on there? Is that from the accident that you had with Tadej a couple of days ago…?
Luke Tuckwell: “It actually was a separate crash to be honest… Tadej’s was with 30km to go or something; mine was with 10km [to go]. So I made it a bit further before more people decided to take each other out. But yeah, it’s just skin, thankfully. The worst [injury] is my chin – and the top of my right knee. But other than that, it’s healing well and not causing me too many issues.”
Ride Media: It was quite a day on the day of that crash, wasn’t it? It must have been a totally bizarre atmosphere. Do you want to just talk about what happened in the 20 kilometres before you hit the tarmac. Was the vibe in the peloton strange? Subdued? Concerned?
Luke Tuckwell: “Yeah, yeah, yeah… I think everyone knew Tadej had gone down but to be honest, there wasn’t really that much waiting occurring.
“Either team directors gave a call pretty quickly – explaining that he ‘doesn’t look too good’ or something like this, and they were they were pretty quick to keep on moving, actually. And really, I felt like it didn’t change anything.
“On this uphill straight afterwards people were still dive-bombing each other in the corners and pushing on each other, and also there was a quite a fast descent straight off it and some people were diving around. It was like, ‘Woah, guys! Like, we don’t really need another situation like this…’ Then another three crashes happened afterwards. So, yeah, it was a bit of a sombre mood for some, but I feel like a lot saw it as an opportunity.”
Ride Media: Okay. Was there something at play on that day? Or was it like that for the entire first week?
Luke Tuckwell: “I just think everyone I just think everyone was tired from the previous days. Like it had been such a hard seven days and the first 150km were flat, chilled. Everyone was just trundling along, basically. No worries.
“Then everyone gets stressed and it bunches up… with everyone thinking about the final. Maybe some people have mentally switched off, or they’re not paying as much attention as when you’re focused all day – and this is where mistakes can happen.
“I mean, everyone was saying: ‘It’s always days like this in a Grand Tour were there is actually the most carnage…’ because people switch off. People are tired and aren’t thinking like they would if it had been hard all day. It sounds like it contradicts itself a little because you you’d think on the hard days where you’re racing all day, you would expect more mistakes, but it’s actually the other way around.”
Ride Media: You said earlier: ‘Opportunity’, and it certainly is for your team. Can you just talk a little bit about working with a four-time uh champion of this race and what it’s like racing now knowing that Primož is within striking distance of a potential fifth win?
Luke Tuckwell: “He’s just calm. He’s just always calm. He never seems stressed or under pressure or expecting too much. I think this is the biggest thing that I’ve realized.
“I think he hasn’t got ahead of himself too early, and he hasn’t done too much too early work. And he knows how to win this race. He’s done it four times before. He’s done it in the Giro on the last day. He just he just knows what he’s doing… so, yeah, I think it’s pretty impressive how he does that.”
Ride Media: There’s been a little bit of talk that he turned up at the Vuelta without very much training… Would you make that assessment of him riding with him?
Luke Tuckwell: “It’s true. Like, there’s no there’s no way around it. He was quite badly injured after his bingle with the car in Livigno. We were all there. And the time that he had off the bike is completely legit. He really didn’t get that many days of training in before, and we were all under the presumption that the first week actually was going to be the biggest danger in terms of time loss, because theoretically, he would improve week-on-week as he rode more after the injury.
“So, to be on the level that he already is… that’s incredible, and great. And hopefully that level actually continues throughout the race.”
Ride Media: Can you talk just quickly about the domestique pecking order, or what role you play in the team line-up? Where do you fit into the sequence in terms of helping Primož?
Luke Tuckwell: “I’m basically Primož’s last guy on the mountains. On the flat days, I kind of take a take a step back and let the other riders take more of a hands-on bodyguard role, let’s say. And I’m kind of allowed to not overextend on these days. But then, come the mountain days, then the expectation falls back on me.
“Okay, I haven’t had the legs that I wanted to support him deeper into the final like what I would have liked on these days. Yesterday [stage nine] was a bit better but really, coming into the next two weeks, I will have quite a big task on my hands to be there with him as long as I can and either fix situations or create situations… I’ve just always got to be there for him on the mountains.
“Yesterday, I really felt like I was getting close to the limit and the advice has always been to not overextend for no reason. So really, I just got to a point where I just dumped the rest of the cold water in the bidons that I had on Primož, because it was hot. I just poured it all over him. That was my big final contribution… basically disposing all of my water onto him, and then pulling the plug.”
Ride Media: How different was the dynamic on the first day without Tadej in the peloton? Was it all like, ‘Well, it’s old-fashioned cycling again!’?
Luke Tuckwell: “Almost. Like okay, I was riding up with a few a few guys at the end, and it was like… ‘If UAE were here pacing, the average power would have been 20-30 Watts more for everyone’, and you would have been going five minutes quicker on every climb.
“I’ve never raced against Tadej in a Grand Tour until this week… [and even still] Decathlon rode [at the front] in Andorra, so I can’t speak from experience of what it is like when you get into a Grand Tour and Tadej is going for it… but what other people were saying is that it was… it was a little bit easier.”
Ride Media: It’s your first Grand Tour. The longest race you’ve done… What are you going to do for the next fortnight? How does the body feel, and does it feel like you’ll be up to the task?
Luke Tuckwell: “Yeah, I mean I’ve been improving with every day, so that’s been a positive. I actually felt pretty shocking today [during the rest day ride] on the bike, but I think that’s a bit of fatigue off the back of yesterday and how hard [stage nine] was.
“I mean I’m in uncharted territory now. I don’t know how the body’s going to react or how it’s going to feel or what it’s going to be like. I just hope to be there on the days where I’m needed… and the team know, if I have a shit day, I have a shit day – and that’s completely fine, because it’s my first one and I’m here for that exact reason: to understand how it works, how my body works. And if I have a great day, I have a great day.
“Thankfully there’s not another mountain stage until Thursday, so that at least gives me a bit of time to kick back in after the rest day. But I think, as cliché as it is, it’s just taking it day-by-day and focusing on the basics and hopefully my body cooperates.”
