"I have no doubts" - Tadej Pogacar will evolve in 2025 according to UAE manager Matxin

Joxean Fernández Matxín has renewed his contract with UAE Team Emirates for four more seasons. His contract with the team led on road by Tadej Pogacar came to an end at the end of the current campaign and will continue at least until 2029.

"I have signed on as Team Manager and as responsible for the directors. Actually my job is more as a manager, because I no longer take care of the cars, the clothes.... In the past I used to make the agreement with the brands. I still do the camps, dates, calendar, riders that are hired, just like in Gen Z," he commented on his position in the team in an interview in the diario AS in which he also talks about Pogacar's calendar and the possible Tour de France - Vuelta a España double. 

He specifies his role in the Emirati structure: "I want the collective to prevail over individualism, even though we have indisputable individualities such as Tadej. I often speak clearly and harshly with the riders. I have to unify criteria with all the directors and that we race in a way, in the UAE way. We don't race like in the old days with rhythm, rhythm and boom. We don't have a pattern to follow, but we are a combative team. And also to love the riders as people, not as cyclists."

On the possible margin of improvement of Tadej Pogacar despite his extraordinary 2024 in which he won, among many other things, the World Championships, the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France, he seems to have no doubts: "It's not that I believe it, it's that I'm convinced. I have no doubts. Obviously, it won't be a 30% margin, but I don't know if it can be 5%, 2%, 1%. He knows how it has to be done and how it has to be executed."

He says he will try to continue winning the races he has not yet won and obviously does not hide the fact that the Vuelta will be his goal at some point. It is not out of the question that he will try the Tour-Vuelta double in 2025:

"We would like to, and obviously will run it at some point. Sometimes it's a calendar problem. For example, when you want to ride Tour of Flanders, you can't Itzulia, because it's the next day. Just like Strade Bianche with Paris-Nice. Tour-Vuelta is a possible idea for 2025, a thought on high, but we are still evaluating different options, there is no conclusion or decision," he concluded.