"I needed a change and I got the change I wanted" - Pavel Sivakov reborn in 2024 after swapping INEOS for UAE

One of the unsung heroes of UAE Team Emirates' outstanding 2024 season, Pavel Sivakov really stepped up this year, quietly proving himself as one of Tadej Pogacar's most important domestiques. Having only joined UAE from the INEOS Grenadiers at the start of the year, the Frenchman couldn't really have asked for much more in his first campaign at the team.

"I'm super happy. I'm really fulfilled in this team. I needed a change and I got the change I wanted," Sivakov reflects on his transfer and the resultant success in 2024, in conversation with Eurosport. "It's really an exceptional season for me with the fact of having been alongside Tadej Pogacar during his victory on the Tour de France. Then I really felt that I had reached a milestone in the second part of the season. It's a great year for me and I can't wait for 2025."

As for highlights of the season, Sivakov casts his mind back to Il Lombardia, supporting his team leader to another Monument victory. "I was alongside Tadej, again, but I was playing for the podium and it was the first time I felt I had the legs to be on the podium of a Monument," he recalls. "I didn't manoeuvre perfectly in the final, but I had a great day physically and I was super confident in my abilities. I wanted to be one of the last to be with Tadej in the final. That day, I felt I had passed the milestone physically. At the Vuelta too, but I had already made a top 10 in a Grand Tour."

Sivakov always looked a rider with great potential while at the INEOS Grenadiers, but it's also probably fair to say that not many would have predicted him to become such a key cog in the UAE Team Emirates machine in his debut season. "A lot of things have changed, that's normal! That's what I was looking for. That's really what I needed," he explains. "The training has changed. The staff has changed. My teammates have changed. I had six great years at Sky and INEOS but I had decided to live something else."

"If all goes well, I will be the Tour de France once again to be alongside Tadej in the quest for the yellow jersey," Sivakov adds, previewing his plans for 2025. "Otherwise, on a personal level, one-week races, like the Tour of Catalonia or Paris-Nice. Or one-day races. Why not the Ardennes, or the Canadian classics in the second half of the season."