“It is a team of nothing without Tadej Pogačar” - Dutch Eurosport Journalist delivers a brutal assessment of UAE Team Emirates’ team dynamics at Paris-Nice

Having already won both races in his career, Tadej Pogačar decided not to compete at either Paris-Nice or Tirreno-Adriatico this season after his victory at Strade Bianche earlier in the month, as he continues his build up ahead of his attempt at winning both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France later this year.

In the Slovenian’s absence, Visma | Lease a Bike won both races with Matteo Jorgenson at Paris-Nice and Jonas Vingegaard at Tirreno-Adriatico. However, UAE Team Emirates still managed to achieve two podium finishes, with Juan Ayuso finishing second in Italy, whilst Brandon McNulty finished third in France, having led the race going into the final stage.

Despite achieving two strong results last week, Dutch commentator and journalist Jan Hermsen gave a brutal assessment of the team, with him being particularly critical of their performance at Paris-Nice. On Eurosport’s Kop over Kop podcast, Hermsen said “it is a team of nothing without Tadej Pogačar. They just don’t have a plan. They figure it out halfway through”.

After the team’s victory in the team time trial on stage 3, Hermsen was left confused as to who the team’s leader was supposed to be, as he said that “everyone thought Finn Fisher-Black took the yellow jersey including me. Then suddenly he is the leader. But Almeida is also somewhat of a leader. They then leave Felix Großschartner to ride Almeida back, while McNulty is in yellow. There is no way to tie a rope to it. Without Pogačar it’s just a mess”.

Having already lost time on the mountaintop finish to La Madone d’Utelle on the penultimate stage, McNulty lost the maillot jaune to his compatriot Jorgenson on the final stage around Nice, as he was dropped on the Côte de Peille with over 40km to go, but managed to limit his losses to hang on to a podium position in the overall standings.

In contrast to Hermsen, many would say that a stage victory, three days in the maillot jaune and third place overall is a success for UAE Team Emirates, considering that they did not have their strongest rider present and yet were able to remain in a competitive position throughout the race.