After two years of starting and winning seasons on the UAE Tour, Tadej Pogachar has returned to Spain to start his 2023 campaign and is already doing better than expected.

Few would have bet against the Slovenian winning both the Clasica Jaen Paraiso Interior and the mountain opener of the Vuelta a Andalucía, but the 24-year-old has completely dominated the first two days of the racing season.

After going solo with 36km to go on Monday, he repeated the trick in Wednesday's Andalucía opener, leaving his rivals behind on the final climb with 12km to go. In Santiago de la España, he was 38 seconds ahead of the rest of the field, taking his two wins by a combined 87 seconds.

After the stage, even Pogachar said he did not expect to start the year so strongly.

"I'm a little surprised at how I'm doing," he said. I knew I was in good shape, but I didn't expect to have won two races already."

In the overall standings, Pogachar already has a 38-second lead over the group that includes the pair of Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Berlene Victorious and Mikel Landa and Santiago Buitrago.

Rodriguez's teammate Tao Geoghegan Hart is 1:38 back, while Enric Mas (Movistar) is part of the chase group but suffered mechanical problems while chasing on the climb and is 1:39 back.

Along with Movistar, Pogachar's UAE Team Emirates team was at the front of the peloton for much of the 179-km stage through the hilly terrain of the Sierra de Cazorla, Segura, and Las Villas Natural Park. He applied pressure on the 10.6-km Despiernacabalas climb, which averaged 5.8%.

As a result, Pogachar was temporarily left behind in the elite group, but then decided to try to win. Buitrago was the only rider able to keep up with the acceleration, and that was only for 500 meters. The Colombian soon fell back, and Pogachar had a 40-second gap by the summit 4 km later.

"We did a good job again today, great teamwork," Pogachar said. 'The climb was steep. I saw the moments to attack and enjoyed the ride to the finish."

Pogachar is now tackling four stages through hilly terrain.

The second stage to Alcalá la Real is at 11.5%, the third stage to Alcalá de los Gazules is at 3.7%, and the fourth stage in Iznajar concludes with a 5.8% 900m climb.

Given Pogachal's form this week, there is no need to be overly concerned about him, but the last 40km of stage 4 is hilly and if he can outrun the UAE team of Tim Wellens, Alessandro Covi, Rafau Mayka, and George Bennett, he would be a great

"The Buccaneers are a good team to beat.

"As far as the overall leader of the Vuelta a Andalucía, it will be really hard to defend the leader's jersey until the end," Pogachar said.

"There will be some tricky stages, but we can rely on a strong team and I am confident we can reach this goal."