🎥 | A new season awaits. Sit back and enjoy our very first behind the scenes of the new season. #UAETeamEmirates #WeAreUAE
"If anybody can do that, it’s Tadej" - Tim Wellens interested in Tadej Pogacar's Giro-Tour double
CyclingSaturday, 06 January 2024 at 12:30
Tim Wellens has signed with UAE Team Emirates in 2023 and became a valuable domestique for Tadej Pogacar. Although he's been hampered by injuries, in 2024 he looks to show his best level and be part of Tadej Pogacar's challenge to win the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France.
“What impresses me the most about him is that he always keeps his two feet on the ground and he doesn’t feel better than anyone else. And that’s even though he’s the one rider that could feel better than anyone else, because he’s the best rider in the world, “ Wellens said in an interview with Cyclingnews, regarding his teammates implosion on the Col de la Loze. “But no, he’s stayed perfectly normal and the way you see him on social media and TV is exactly the way he is in real life. He’s not playing a role... He likes what he does, and for sure he’s very playful. But apart from being a good rider, he’s easy to bond with because he’s a very nice person as well.
Read also
Wellens reports on a personality that looks very friendly with other riders and very popular among fans and fellow riders. His aggressive style of racing also makes him a wildcard even in races that don't suit him as well. Wellens, as a classics rider and puncheur, can often become part of the plan to help surprise climbers who re not as much used to such type of racing where the Slovenian also thrives.
Pogacar will make his debut at the Giro next spring, and then will race the Tour alongside three other leaders in Adam Yates, Juan Ayuso and João Almeida. “I think the team is very smart and when it comes to this challenge, they know what they’re doing. They’re not just doing it whatever. He’s proved three years in a row that he’s the best rider in the world and so there’s no one better who could try to do it. So if anybody can do that, it’s Tadej.”
At the Giro it will not be easy for there to be competition if he shows his very best level. However at the Tour that will not be the case. One such rival is Remco Evenepoel, who as a compatriot will be a rider to watch for Wellens as well.
“For sure Remco’s got a big chance, even if it’s not as big as Tadej, though maybe I’m biased," he says. "But really, nobody doubts Remco, not about what he can do in the Tour. If he can win the Vuelta a España, then of course he can win the Tour.”
Read also
claps 2visitors 881
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- If anyone would be interested enough to launch an official survey as to who out of these three should shut up, I don’t know who’d win but I’m due Boonen would be way back in 3rd place.Mistermaumau22-12-2024
- And your point is what exactly?vappaxbipmv22-12-2024
- MVDP dominates this sport even more than Pogaçar dominates road racing. Also he can beat Tadej on the road quite regularly, the opposite is unlikely.Mistermaumau22-12-2024
- If you listen to team radios you'll hear each DS telling their riders to ride faster, fight their way to the front, and all occupy the same 8 places.Sweep22-12-2024
- You're talking about a sport where equipment and clothing is measured in grams.Sweep22-12-2024
- “During a TT, I am basically blind”. That was his quote after crashing into the barriers in a TT. The problem isn’t the UCI, radios or air bags. The problem is the riders and their teams.JoeyB22-12-2024
- I think you overestimate scientific knowledge and for sure the spreading of it. There are huge numbers of people in similar situations, if there were an easy solution somebody would be making big money out of it. Nerve pain can have many complex origins or be due to complex combinations of reasons. Even if you discover a reason there is not always a solution. Migraines haven’t been solved either. I have had lower back/hip nerve pains on and off for over 30 years, no kind of doctor has ever found a way to reduce, prevent or solve the problem. It may just be that some people are born with nerves that are too short or get twisted out of position during certain movements.Mistermaumau22-12-2024
- Amazing ride by her and very promising for her future. On a side note, it’s a bit worrying all these wins riders have after emotional moments in their lives, someone will come up with emotional doping at some point. Maybe give them fake news just before a big race to get hormones pumping.Mistermaumau22-12-2024
- I doubt he will have the energy to do that if he continues to do leadout for Phillipsenabstractengineer22-12-2024
- I know several people who’ve tried contacting sport airbag manufacturers and none of them ever got a reply. Might be hard to organise anything with such attitudes.Mistermaumau22-12-2024