Tadej Pogacar gets new teammate as UAE Team Emirates sign Julius Johansen: "He can add strength to the team"
Cycling
Last week, we reported that Julius Johansen was set to sign with UAE Team Emirates for the 2025 season. The team has now officially confirmed this, announcing that the Danish rider has signed a one-year deal.
Johansen, 25, last competed at the WorldTour level in 2023 with Intermarché-Wanty, and he is the latest addition to a UAE Emirates roster that will begin the 2025 season with big crowd of 29 riders.
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“We are very happy to welcome Julius,” team manager Mauro Gianetti said in a press release. “He already has a lot of experience at WorldTour level. In addition, with his profile, he can add strength to the team when it comes to supporting our leaders.”
Johansen expressed his gratitude for the opportunity. “It is a dream come true to join such a professional and successful team,” he said. “I know that this is the perfect place for me to grow and develop as a rider with the guidance of the experts within the team. Being part of such a winning culture is truly inspiring. I am looking forward to helping the team achieve many victories. I can’t wait to get started and meet everyone. I am ready to give it my all.”
Johansen was seen as a promising talent early in his career. In 2017, he became junior world champion and won Olympia's Tour in 2018 as a first-year U23 rider. Riding for ColoQuick at the time, Johansen was teammates with Jonas Vingegaard, his team leader Tadej Pogacar’s arch rival.
Despite his potential, Johansen struggled to make a significant impact at the WorldTour level. After not receiving a contract extension from Intermarché-Wanty following the 2023 season, he sought to relaunch his career with Sabgal/Anicolor.
Johansen joined the continental team in March 2024 after a roster spot opened up following the departure of Antwan Tolhoek, who had been dismissed due to a positive doping test. With this move to UAE Team Emirates, Johansen hopes to revive his career and contribute to one of the most successful teams in professional cycling, who through Tadej Pogacar won the triple crown in 2024.
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- yeah, that’s a more fair assessment. “reaching mathieu’s level” doesn’t mean you’re planning to replicate his whole career. the former IS doable, potentially. it’s just the latter that likely is not.OCexile25-12-2024
- That’s not entirely true. Every person follows their own development path and peaks differently. Remco and Primoz had hardly started cycling before elite level. Jonas was pretty much under the radzr until he unexpectedly had to take over responsibility at JV. Some guys only get real good in their thirties others have peaked mid-twenties. You can’t tell in advance how and upto what level they will progress, obviously his career might not have MVDPs length but nothing says he could not end up doing a few seasons at his level.Mistermaumau25-12-2024
- well, del grosso is 21 right now. when mathieu was a year younger than that, he was already winning elite level world championships, not U23. i think del grosso will be a very good pro for years, but if he was really going to be the next van der poel someday, he’d already have to be at that level right NOW. van der poel was showing signs of true greatness when he was 15-16. THAT’S what generational talent looks like.OCexile25-12-2024
- Yeah.... gear 😅.mikolajjj24-12-2024
- It shouldn’t be about expectations in the first place should it? Besides, if you look at everyone’s calculations as a whole they don’t add up in the first place. There’ll be 2-3 riders with a 50% chance, a dozen with 10 or 20% and dozens more with a 5% so we’re expecting at least 2 if not 3 winners. Remind me again who won before her? Says it all about using data to decide on participation.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- Ok, happy I’m not too interested in this team coz’ the account of what happened is really hard to follow.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- The UCI is worse than USA CyclingVeganpotter24-12-2024
- It's not like they wanted her to not win😅 She had an outstanding Olympics. But there's a reason why she wasn't expected to win the road race and that's ok. Things like this happen and it's great...better than seeing expected winners win.Veganpotter24-12-2024
- Bruyneel ? The man with a lifetime ban from cycling...why do you keep giving him and his doper mate, Armstrong, a platform?DJ24-12-2024
- yeah, agree. on the subject of being a “complete rider,” i do think that’s getting more interesting. mathieu seems to have decided he wants to get much better at climbing the the high mountain passes. he appears to be looking for new challenges, which should be interesting to watch. in most cases you’d dismiss a goal like that at age 30, but it’s mvdp. he’s never going to climb with the real climbers, but if he can improve enough it could open up stage wins when the parcours isnt just purely toothy and punchy.OCexile24-12-2024