"The pressure will be on Team Visma | Lease a Bike" at the 2024 Tour de France says UAE Team Emirates' Pavel Sivakov

UAE Team Emirates are set to bring a stacked lineup to the 2024 Tour de France with multiple riders capable of being leader. One of the men tasked with helping to reclaim the Maillot Jaune will be new signing, Pavel Sivakov.

Tadej Pogacar will of course be the outright leader although given the fact the Slovenian is taking on a Giro d'Italia/Tour de France double, his form in France is up for debate. As such, Adam Yates, Juan Ayuso, Joao Almeida, Marc Soler and Sivakov himself are all also pencilled in to take part.

"The pressure will be on Team Visma | Lease a Bike," insists Sivakov in conversation with GCN. "Although on paper we may have the dream team, the pressure to win the Tour is on them. They won three Grand Tours last year and we’re in an ideal position, so I am looking forward to that. I think no one has ever seen a team like this, it is going to be fireworks."

Joining UAE Team Emirates over the off-season following six seasons with the INEOS Grenadiers, Sivakov is excited for a fresh start. "We've been for so long in the same environment," reflects Sivakov, "I think for us it was about time. At the end of the day, a cycling career is not that long and if you stay in the same team, maybe then you will have some regrets by the end. I think for us it was just about time to try something new and I think we will both benefit from this."

"If I’d have stayed at Ineos, I’d have stayed in that role, settled in that position within that team and then finished my career there. But I want more than this and I want to try something new," continues the 26-year-old, citing Adam Yates' improvement since similarly swapping INEOS for UAE, highlighted by a podium finish at the 2023 Tour de France.

"I'm really enjoying the new environment, new guys, starting fresh and starting new. That’s what I wanted really, to just make that step up that I’ve missed over the past few years," he adds. "I think I have made a good choice here. Although some people might think there are already a lot of leaders and big riders here, I think this is a team that always gives opportunities to everyone and that is a project that I really liked."

"Training is definitely completely different here," Sivakov concludes. "It is work that I’m not going to see next month or in two months, it is going to be more longer term and hopefully I will be a more resistant rider. Hopefully, it will also improve my climbing in terms of my capacities to sustain a really high pace for a long time."