António Morgado talks about 2025, looking back on his debut season on the World Tour: "The doctors told me I was blown up. I was really dead"

António Morgado is going into his second year with UAE Team Emirates - XRG, after a impressive start to his World Tour career in 2024. Ahead of his 2025 campaign getting underway in Spain later this month, the Portuguese has reflected on his development.

One of the highlights of his season came in the Spring with 2nd at Le Samyn followed shortly after by 5th at the Tour of Flanders. "The day before I was ill, I couldn't train or eat," he recalls of the Tour of Flanders in an interview with Top Cycling. "The team was asking whether I should race or not and I remember that in the first 100 km the goal was to get into the breakaway, because the team believed that if I got into the breakaway I could fight for a top 20 finish because the breakaway is caught when the group is already reduced. I tried, I didn't succeed. Then I had the same symptoms as the day before, so I went to the medical car."

"I did the race on my own, if a camera had been with me all day then it would have been impressive because what I did there I'll never do again. It was unbelievable from my point of view. I always came off the line in the last 55 km and I did it all alone," he remembers. "When the hard part started I was last, but I started to think 'it's today, it's today, it's today'. After the Koppenberg I was alone and from then on I had never felt like this."

Morgado recalls something that only a few people knew: "A curiosity that only my friends know: I didn't know where I was, there were three of us since the Koppenberg, which was the climb we did on foot. I couldn't get up, I kept slipping, hitting my knees on the ground and I started crying, everyone was leaving, so I thought 'this is it'. I was catching, catching, passing and they weren't coming with me (...) I started to hear on the radio 'Tim (Wellens ed.) you're fighting for the podium' and I thought 'this is good for us', but then I saw Tim 10 seconds ahead of me... 'so he's fighting for the podium'," recounts the Portuguese prospect. "At the Kwaremont, I'll be honest, I'm not going to lie here, I wasn't going full out, I was going well, at a good pace."

As for the World Road Championships, where he performed below expectations, he said. "I wasn't going with any aspirations. I knew I wasn't going to win the World Championships, it's a tough race. I hadn't prepared at all and you have to prepare specifically."

He also commented on his performance at the Tour de l'Avenir: "At the Tour de l'Avenir I knew I wasn't well. The doctors told me I was fatigued, I was blown up, I was tired, I was dead. But it was something I set out to do and I wasn't going to back down. On the very first stage, on a rolling stage, I fell behind because of stomach problems and then..."

Fans of the sport will have to wait a little longer to see the young UAE rider on the start line of the Grand Tours. "It's not this year yet, I don't think I'm quite ready to do a grand tour. I'll take it easy. In principle, I'll do it next year. I'll start in Valencia with one-day races, then Mallorca, Figueira and the Algarve. I don't know the races. Here [in Valencia] it's more for riding, in Mallorca there are tougher races, but also at a high level, so we'll see how it goes."

As he said, he'll be at the Volta a la Comunidad Valenciana, the Mallorca Challenge, the Figueira Classic and the Volta ao Algarve, but he did mention a few stage races where he'll be present. "My calendar will be different, I won't be doing many classics, I'll be doing stage races, different races. Tour de Pologne, Renewi Tour, Tour de Suisse," he says.

Morgado will also be taking part in some of the Spring Classics this year, but he can't say which ones. He says he's a fan of long races, of 5/6 hours of effort, recalling the first 'long' race he took part in: the Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields (1.UWT). "I've gained more experience over time, I like doing bigger, longer races, in Gent I did over 250km"

The UAE Team Emirates - XRG rider is confident that he has the right people on his coaching staff to help him grow in a sustained and unhurried manner. "My coach specializes in classics and I train a lot for classics," he said, taking a short trip back in time, with an eye on the future "I've been very unlucky in the last two years, I could have won two Nations Cups and because of a puncture I missed out. I'd prepared well, but I punctured both times," he says, then continues in his usual victorious manner "I'd like to win everything. Now I'm focused on the one-day races"

Morgado has some big names on his team, but there's one who can win in any type of terrain or race. Whether it's the Grand Tours, the Classics, the Monuments or the World Championships, Tadej Pogacar is the name everyone is talking about, and talking about the Slovenian cyclist was inevitable "Pogacar is the greatest ever. I was born in 2004 and I haven't seen the others, but for me he's the greatest ever," he says of his teammate. "He's a simple person. With what he's won, he could be anything he wants, but he's still a very simple person."