EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW | Joxean Matxín asks to change the World Championship: "We could create one for sprinters, another one for climbers"

Today we publish the second part of our exclusive interview with Joxean Matxín, Team Manager of UAE Team Emirates. The first one was with a focus on Tadej Pogacar, the man who has made history in 2024.

In this second one, the Basque talks about his renewal with the best team in the world, how they develop the young riders in the team, One Cycling (the cycling Super League), possible changes in the World Championship and the situation of the contracts of the riders in the UCI WorldTour after the uproar of the Maxim Van Gils case.

He told us about his new contract with UAE until 2028.

"I have signed on as Team manager and my role is the same as it has been up to now: sports planning, sports performance, coordinating the coaches and director above all. That is to say, to define the objectives, the races, the calendars..."

We asked him about the situation of the lower categories and he gave us a more than interesting vision of why the U23 category has ceased to make sense in cycling today.

"It is clear that cycling has rejuvenated, it is much younger than before and that makes it necessary to adapt. Right now, the amateur field is practically dominated by continental teams of higher categories, which is partly not because the teams have wanted to, but because the UCI has always promoted helping the base and that has caused the base to be lowered, so to speak. As it has been lowered, as is logical, the U23 category tends to disappear. I am in favor of either making it U21 or changing its name. My opinion is that either you change the denomination or you make a new category, and the most normal thing is to make it U21. In our structure we have created it because we consider it to be the most correct, the most suitable thing to do.

On how he plans to develop promising young players such as Adrià Pericas or Pablo Torres, he is clear about UAE's modus operandi with its Gen Z team.

"My team concept is to completely take the pressure off them and give them confidence and experience. That will be done by racing a lot of U23 races, we will make a calendar for the Gen Z team, which is the U21 team. And depending on the characteristics of the rider, he will do more races with the Conti team or with the WorldTour. For example, if Adrià Pericas, to tell you a name, goes to a professional team and there is an expectation that in the end, whether he does well or not, he will have that pressure that I want to take away from the cyclists. I think the best way to do that is to give them confidence and take pressure off them. The key is that if they are going to race, they are not the ones who have to get the results. They compete learning, enjoying and with confidence, taking all the pressure off them."

In recent months the idea of a Super League has not only made noise in football, but also in cycling with the idea of One Cycling led by Richard Plugge, the boss of Visma. Matxín's vision on the matter is very clear: he doesn't believe that anything should be done for the teams themselves, but cycling could do with some centralization in the organization.

"Honestly, I don't have the information I need about what they really want to do. I don't think it's important to do anything for the teams. In my opinion, it's something very personal, if you do analysis of F1 everything is organized by one, NBA the same, soccer the same. Here (in cycling) perhaps the fact that there are so many organizers means that there are so many individualized interests. To be able to organize something beyond your own race or individual races, to create a collective that prevails over individuality could be interesting. But this is still a very general idea. I say it as an idea. I don't know about One Cycling and I'm not against some organizers who I think do it well, but I think the important thing would be to share more of the cake;

About these possible changes, he gives as an example something that could be done in the World Championship.

"For example, why in these three years the world champion is going to be a climber, why then two or three years it's only for sprinters? What if in those three years there is someone who has an impressive level and can't compete in the World Championship? Who says that this rider is the best rider in the world because he won a race? Well, maybe the fact of creating a sprinter world champion, a climber champion, a time trial champion as it exists. I think it would make much more sense to have a sprinter's world championship than to have a mixed relay, which I don't know if anyone is following it".

On Van Gils and his attempt to leave Lotto, Matxín talks to us from the point of view of what they do in UAE.

"We make open contracts and it's something that the rest of the teams don't do. Why, because it always benefits the cyclist because we are aware that when contracts are signed and they are for both parties when they go well and when they go bad. What happens, I think that when they go wrong is when we have to defend the cyclist the most because that's when they have more problems. I am part of helping them in times of difficulty and when they are doing well or very well, to recognize it and open the contract".

"If you have a rider that in the market is worth 1 million and by contract you are paying him 100 it is obvious that the rider knows it and it is obvious that the rider is not in the comfortable position, then this are decisions of each team. The issue of opening or not opening contracts is something that should be unified, in the sense that there is a regulation for everyone. Not because you are Belgian and you are in a Belgian team you can open it and if you are in a team and it has no Belgian Federation it plays differently, then possibly the fact of starting the game, the season with the rules very established and that everyone knows what the rules are before starting it seems to me that in any board game that is defined."