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"In this Giro, you saw that there is a big difference" - Gap between 'best' and 'the rest' clearer than ever believes Joxean Matxin
CyclingMonday, 27 May 2024 at 15:00
Tadej Pogacar was far and away the dominant force at the 2024 Giro d'Italia, taking victory by almost ten minutes by the time the race reached Rome. After Team Visma | Lease a Bike boss Richard Plugge recently played down the Slovenian's dominance, UAE Team Emirates boss Joxean Matxin has now responded.
“I’m absolutely in agreement with him, because in cycling today, you have a Big Six of riders – Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic, Tadej Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel, as well as Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert – who are on another level," Matxin explains in conversation with Cycling News, referencing the vast gap between the Maglia Rosa and the rest of his general classification challengers over the last three weeks. "in this Giro, you saw that there is a big difference between a race when they’re present and when they’re not. Tadej is very strong and in great condition, but at the Tour de France, it will be a different kind of competition to the Giro.”
Given the superior level of Pogacar in relation to his rivals at the Giro, Matxin was keen to impress the importance upon his rider to conserve energy with the upcoming Tour de France in mind. “When we made the plan for the Giro, we obviously had to have an eye to the Tour too, even if we had to have full concentration on this race from the moment it started, out of respect for our rivals and for the sport,” Matxin explains. “We wanted Tadej to win as well as he could, but with no exaggeration, no attacking from distance, always keeping one eye on the Tour de France. With that in mind, we had a team to help bring him close to the finish – he couldn’t go and race every day like he did at Strade Bianche, attacking with 80km to go, for three weeks straight.”
Given the Tour de France is now a month away, Pogacar also won't have much time to relax and enjoy his Giro victory. “First up, he’ll have seven days of total rest, and then he’ll go to altitude next Monday, to Isola 2000, for exactly 19 days,” Matxin says of Pogacar's coming weeks. “There are five weeks between the Giro and Tour this year, and that’s important, because it allows time both to recover and to train before the Tour. We realised Tadej would need a week of rest and then a minimum of three weeks of training before the Tour, as well as some time at home before the race begins.”
The likes of Alberto Contador, Chris Froome and Tom Dumoulin has all tried a Giro/Tour double in recent years but been unsuccessful. Pogacar however, is now surely best placed to be the first man since Marco Pantani in 1998 to do the feat. “We did study other double attempts, but it’s also clear that the circumstances were totally different,” Matxin analyses. “He’ll go to the Tour with 31 days of racing in his legs, which has always been our plan. Our idea was to limit Tadej’s racing before the Giro, so he came in here with ten days of competition, and we’ve added 21 days more here. Some of his rivals for the Tour will have something similar in their legs.
The strength of UAE Team Emirates' Tour de France lineup also benefits Pogacar as he has support from the likes of Joao Almeida, Juan Ayuso, Adam Yates and Pavel Sivakov among others. “We never considered having other riders on the team do the Giro and Tour, only Tadej,” Matxin concludes. “That’s because Tadej is special. He has immense quality, and he also has great powers of recovery. We weren’t going to ask the same thing of the other riders. The guys on the Giro can focus on the Giro, and the guys on the Tour can focus on the Tour. This is a custom calendar for Tadej, and it’s a custom preparation for Tadej too.”
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- 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
- It's the BBC. Who cares outside of little Britain.leodis22-12-2024