2024 Season Review | UAE Team Emirates: Tadej Pogacar completes Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, World Championship hat-trick in legendary year for the team

Over the past few months, we have reviewed the seasons of all World Tour teams in 2024. We’ve had highs, we’ve had many lows, and we’ve taken a look at what each team needs to do to either build on their gains, or rebuild and get back on track in 2025. Now, there’s just one team left for us to review. And it’s the one you’ve all been waiting for. Step forward UAE Team Emirates, and Tadej Pogacar, who put together one of the greatest seasons we have ever seen. And where should we begin?

The team finished the year ranked first in the UCI rankings, just as they did in 2023, but this time, they accumulated an astonishing 37,407.6 points. To put that into perspective, they nearly doubled the 20,428 points of second-placed Team Visma | Lease a Bike. With an incredible 81 victories, UAE Team Emirates was in a league of their own this year, and there was no close contest between them and Visma, or anyone else, this time around.

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But how did they achieve this dominance? And what made their 2024 season so special? Let’s dive into the details.

UAE Team Emirates, founded in 2017, has quickly become one of cycling’s most dominant forces, thanks to excellent management and an investment in world-class riders. With Mauro Gianetti and Matxin Fernandez managing the team, and backing from UAE-based sponsors, the team has a clear long-term vision: to dominate cycling across all terrains and disciplines. Back in 2021, Pogacar had just won his second yellow jersey and looked set to dominate the sport, but after the emergence of Jonas Vingegaard in 2022, the team was beaten comfortably in the previous two editions of the Tour de France.

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The 2023 season in particular had its ups and downs. Pogacar had dominated the spring, winning races like Amstel Gold and the Tour of Flanders, amongst others. However, a crash at Liège-Bastogne-Liège that injured his wrist derailed his preparations for the Tour de France. Despite his best efforts, he was crushed by Jonas Vingegaard in the mountains in July 2023, leading some to question whether UAE Team Emirates could reclaim their dominance. And Visma took a clean sweep all three grand tours, so, had the pendulum swung permanently in Vingegaard and Visma’s favour?

Fast forward to 2024, and the team answered every critic emphatically. And it wasn’t just Pogacar who shone; the entire squad contributed to what will undoubtedly go down as one of the greatest seasons in cycling history.

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Spring Season

UAE Team Emirates set the tone for their 2024 season early, and the victories came thick and fast. It all began at the Santos Tour Down Under, where Isaac Del Toro gave the team their first victory of the year by winning stage 2. From there, Brandon McNulty took charge at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, claiming both stage 4 and the overall GC, before Adam Yates added another GC win at the Tour of Oman, proving the team's depth across early-season stage races.

Then, Tadej Pogacar joined the part on the white roads in Italy, and his season opener at Strade Bianche was a sign of things to come. With an 81km solo attack, Pogacar annihilated the field, finishing nearly three minutes ahead of his nearest rival. It marked the fourth consecutive year Pogacar had won his opening race of a season, and as we know now it was the first of many ridiculous long range attacks.

Tadej Pogacar began his campaign with dominance at Strade Bianche

Pogacar’s dominance continued at the Volta a Catalunya, where he won stages 2, 3, 6, and 7, along with the GC. His 250 points from this race alone were a significant boost to the team’s ranking in the early weeks and months of 2024.

The cobbled classics, typically not UAE’s forte, saw Nils Politt put in standout performances, finishing third at the Tour of Flanders and fourth at Paris-Roubaix. Meanwhile, Filippo Baroncini delivered a win at the SUPER 8 Classic, and Juan Ayuso claimed the overall GC at the Itzulia Basque Country following the horrific crash that ended the hopes of Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel, and Primoz Roglic.

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Pogacar capped off the spring with a superb victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the race that had ruined his 2023 season. This time, he stayed on his bike and attacked with over 30km to go, blowing the field apart and claiming his second win in the monument, having first won it in 2021.

With the team firing on all cylinders, UAE Team Emirates headed into the grand tour season brimming with confidence, and ready to reclaim their throne.

Grand Tour Season

If the spring was spectacular, the grand tour season was simply legendary. UAE Team Emirates delivered one of the most dominant campaigns in the history of cycling.

Tadej Pogacar’s announcement that he would attempt the Giro-Tour double sparked scepticism across the cycling world. It had been more than 25 years since any rider had achieved this rare feat, the last man being the late Marco Pantani in 1998. Many cycling experts believed that in the modern era of racing, it would be impossible for Pogacar to complete the Giro and then recover in time for the Tour within five weeks. However, Pogacar silenced his doubters with performances that will be talked about for decades.

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At the Giro d’Italia, Pogacar took control early, winning stage 2 and taking the pink jersey, which he would never relinquish, as he went on to win stages 7, 8, 15, 16, and 20, claiming the GC by nearly 10 minutes. While his rivals struggled to match his level, Pogacar completed one of the most dominant grand tour victories we have ever seen.

The question then became whether he could recover in just five weeks to take on Jonas Vingegaard at the Tour de France. He’d be comfortably beaten by his Danish rival 12 months earlier, and would his 3 weeks in Italy affect him in France?

In the mean time, the team continued their dominance at the Tour de Suisse, where Adam Yates narrowly beat Joao Almeida for the GC, and the two UAE men traded stage wins along the way. UAE’s Tour de France squad, featuring Pogacar, Juan Ayuso, Adam Yates, Joao Almeida, Pavel Sivakov, Marc Soler, Nils Politt, and Tim Wellens, was arguably one of the strongest ever assembled. In previous years, Pogacar had been left isolated in the mountains surrounded by the yellow of Visma, that wouldn’t be the case this year.

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He won stage 4 on the Galibier, dropping Vingegaard, Evenepoel, and Roglic to seize the yellow jersey, and take nearly a minute on his rivals. A momentary blip on stage 11 saw him outsprinted by Vingegaard, but Pogacar responded by winning stages 14, 15, 19, 20, and 21, utterly destroying his rivals and claiming his third Tour de France title. Where does this rank in terms of all time great Tour de France performances?

In total, Pogacar won 12 grand tour stages in 2024, seven at the Tour and five at the Giro. His Tour win alone earned UAE Team Emirates 500 UCI points, with his Giro win adding another 400 points. And it wasn’t all about the Slovenian, as Joao Almeida also impressed, finishing fourth in the Tour GC, while Adam Yates placed sixth, providing even more points for the team.

Tadej Pogacar claimed his third yellow jersey at the 2024 Tour de France

At the Vuelta a España, Almeida and Yates led the team in Pogacar’s absence. While Almeida looked strong early on, COVID forced him to abandon. Yates salvaged the campaign with a win on stage 9, but the team missed out on the GC podium, but in the grand scheme of things that doesn’t matter for the team, as Pogacar wasn’t done yet.

After some well earned rest following the Tour, Pogacar’s season reached its climax at the World Championships road race in Zurich, where he launched a 100km solo attack to claim the rainbow jersey. Only the third rider in history to achieve the triple crown, Pogacar followed this with a win at Il Lombardia, sealing most likely the greatest cycling season we have ever seen.

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Transfers

Despite already dominating in 2024, UAE Team Emirates have made significant additions to their roster for 2025:

Whilst Marc Hirschi and Finn Fisher-Black departed the squad, Jhonatan Narvaez joins the team from INEOS Grenadiers. Narvaez beat Pogacar on the first stage of the Giro in May, and now he will ride in support of the worlds best rider.

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Florian Vermeersch will strengthen their classics squad, while Julius Johansen and Rune Herregodts add even more time trialling quality to the team. Pablo Torres, a 19-year-old who broke Chris Froome’s Colle delle Finestre climbing record, is a potential future star, who will be a part of the squad in 2025.

Final verdict: 9.5/10

The fact that 9.5/10 seems harsh for the team shows you just how good they were. UAE Team Emirates’ 2024 season will go down as one of the greatest in cycling history. With 81 victories, Tadej Pogacar’s Giro-Tour double, and a rainbow jersey, the team rebounded emphatically from Visma’s rivals in 2023. Pogacar’s performances were nothing short of legendary, but the entire squad contributed to a season that redefined excellence.

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The year would have been a 10/10 had they claimed a podium at the Vuelta, which they may have done had Joao Almeida stayed healthy. It seems likely that Pogacar will attempt a Tour-Vuelta double next year, as he tries to win the red jersey, the one grand tour he hasn’t yet managed, and perhaps Juan Ayuso will finally get his chance to shine at the Giro.

As they look ahead to 2025, the challenge will be maintaining this unprecedented level. With Pogacar still at the peak of his powers and a roster stacked with talent, UAE Team Emirates appear poised to continue their reign at the top of the cycling world.