Joxean Matxin confident of Tour de France: "Tadej's situation is very good, we have confidence in ourselves"

UAE Team Emirates may have the Tour de France in the bag if Tadej Pogacar manages to not have an explosion in the remaining mountain stages. Joxean Matxin has seen the Slovenian dominate the Giro d'Italia and he is very confident that his team's star will be able to take the yellow jersey all the way into Nice this Sunday afternoon.

"Tomorrow (stage 19, ed.) it's going to be tough but Tadej's situation is very good, we have confidence in ourselves to control the stage," Matxin said in words to Cyclism'Actu. In the past Pogacar struggled on some occasions at altitude, heat or multi-mountain stages but that is no longer the case. "Everything is different. This year on the Galibier, there were 4 UAE riders with Tadej Pogacar so it's different. The general classification is also different with a 3-minute lead, Tadej is the best in the Giro and he's better than last year."

On the time-trial Pogacar is expected to be as strong if not stronger than the Dane, whilst stage 20 is pretty hard but the climbs lack the element that used to be a difficulty for the 25-year old. Stage 19 today, with the Col de Vars, Cime de la Bonnette and Isola 2000 is the final brutal stage that will on paper suit the Visma rider better. Realistically, he can put on a great performance, but turning the Tour will depend on Pogacar struggling like he hasn't thus far.

This isn't a matter of luck, Matxin knows of this and tells that over the past year he has worked on some of his flaws, which now seems him as consistent as ever. "Tadej Pogacar is training in very hot conditions. He has improved in many marginal gains. Isola 2000, Bonette, he came to do a training camp 20 days after winning the Giro. He trained in the same conditions."