Pogacar’s former right-hand man feels his importance waning at UAE: "The team is of a slightly different calibre now"

Mikkel Bjerg has openly acknowledged a shift in his standing within UAE Team Emirates - XRG, admitting that his once central role around Tadej Pogacar has gradually faded as the team has continued to evolve at the very top of the sport.

“Yes, I think so. Mainly because the team is of a slightly different calibre now,” Bjerg said in conversation with Feltet, reflecting on how the internal hierarchy has changed around Pogacar in recent seasons.

Bjerg was a near constant presence alongside the Slovenian during the early years of Pogacar’s Tour de France dominance, riding multiple Grand Tours and long training blocks together. But as UAE Team Emirates have strengthened their roster, Bjerg has found himself increasingly squeezed out of the biggest objectives, including repeated omissions from the Tour de France squad.

Rather than pointing fingers, the Dane is candid about where he feels things began to shift.

“I maybe feel a little that in my first Tour de France I found it a bit difficult to live up to what was expected of me,” Bjerg explained. “I wasn’t the best domestique in the entire peloton in my first Tour de France. It would have been perfect if I had been from the start.”

Crucially, Bjerg makes clear that his reduced role has not bred frustration towards the riders who have taken on more responsibility around Pogacar.

“It’s clear that the new riders completely deserve to be on the Tour de France team,” he said. “It’s not like I’m sitting there thinking, ‘Oh, Nils Politt shouldn’t be there’. Because he’s incredibly good.”

For Bjerg, the situation is simply a reflection of the direction the team has taken as it has cemented itself as the dominant force in men’s road racing.

“You can’t put a finger on the success, but I had also noticed that I had ridden the Tour de France every year,” he added. “That’s just the team’s development. It’s difficult to point to anything specific. There’s nobody doing anything wrong. Everyone is just riding incredibly strongly.”

Despite fewer shared race days, Bjerg insists his relationship with Pogacar remains intact, forged through long periods spent together in Grand Tour environments.

“When you’ve been together in a Tour de France squad for almost two months, both at altitude training camps and in a Grand Tour, it’s clear that you build a close relationship,” Bjerg said. “We’ve now ridden some Grand Tours together. That’s something that never disappears.”

He also recognises that Pogacar’s expanding circle within the team has, in many ways, strengthened the collective.

“He has ridden Grand Tours with so many different riders,” Bjerg noted. “Obviously, he can’t be best friends with everyone, but I think there are many who are thinking, ‘I know him really well. I would go to war for him’. In that way, it’s really good for the team.”

While Bjerg’s position within UAE Team Emirates - XRG may have shifted, his words underline a rider who understands the realities of success at the very top, even when it comes at personal cost.