Race leader Tadej Pogacar pulled out of the Vuelta a Espana on Saturday after a heavy fall 31km from the finish of a flat stage eight left him with shoulder and face injuries.Pogacar of Team UAE has won five Tour de France titles and a Giro d’Italia and was targeting his first overall victory on the Spanish 21-day race.Pogacar fell after brushing shoulders with another rider and losing control of his handlebars, falling heavily on his shoulder and face.With his entire team waiting as the peloton carried on without them, Pogacar tried to remount after a couple of minutes but cried out “no” and winced in pain when he touched his bike.He was then led to an ambulance as his team-mates set off up the broad and freshly-laid dual carriageway towards the finish line at Xeraco, near Valencia.Pogacar had been leading by 3min 50sec over second-placed Spaniard Enric Mas and this marks the first time the 27-year-old has failed to finish a Grand Tour.Mas was a minute ahead of former champion Primoz Roglic of Slovenia, while Austrian Felix Gall was a further 11sec behind.In July, Pogacar joined an elite club of five-time Tour de France winners in Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain.He is the youngest rider to have won five Tours, more than a year younger than Merckx was in achieving the same feat, and is the first person to finish on the podium seven years running.He is also the only rider to have been on the podium in nine consecutive Grand Tours.Tadej Pogacar, the five-time Tour de France champion, has pulled out of the Spanish Vuelta after crashing during the eighth stage of the race.The Slovenian held a big lead in the race but got caught in a crash near the finish. He tried to get back on his bike but could not carry on and walked to an ambulance. Race organisers confirmed he pulled out of the race.TV footage showed Pogacar appeared to have hurt his left arm and shoulder.The UAE Team Emirates leader was trying to become the ninth male rider to win all three Grand Tour races. Pogacar won the Tour de France for a third straight time and a record-tying fifth overall in July, and he claimed the Giro d’Italia win in 2024 . He had not raced in the Vuelta since making his Grand Tour debut at the event in 2019.Pogacar had a lead of three minutes, 50 minutes over Enric Mas of Movistar before Saturday’s stage, which did not feature any major difficulty and offered sprinters a chance to shine along a flat 171km (106-mile) route from Puçol to Xeraco.⁠This story will update