“This feels like my home already" - New UAE Team Emirates - XRG rider Pablo Torres thriving alongside Tadej Pogacar

Pablo Torres made his debut for UAE Team Emirates - XRG at the Tour Down Under last month, marking his first appearance with the WorldTour squad. He joins a team at the pinnacle of professional cycling, coming off a dominant 2024 season where the team led by Tadej Pogacar secured victories in the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France, and several major one-day races.

At just 19 years old, Torres is one of the most promising young riders in the peloton. He made a name for himself in 2024 by finishing second overall in the Tour de l’Avenir, winning two stages, and also securing second place at the Giro Next Gen. His transition to the senior team has been seamless, aided by his familiarity with the structure and many of his teammates.

“It has definitely made things easier because I knew so many of the riders and the staff already from the WorldTour squad,” Torres shared in a team press release. “This feels like my home already because, from the start of the season, all of my teammates have gone out of their way to help me and make me feel like a part of the group.”

Torres has quickly built a strong relationship with the team’s new signing, Jhonatan Narváez, who claimed his first victory for UAE Team Emirates - XRG at the Tour Down Under. “He’s a really good guy, and he’s really professional. And he has taught me a lot of things which I can use to improve,” Torres noted.

During their time in Australia, Torres and Narváez were roommates for nearly three weeks, giving the young Spaniard an opportunity to learn from a top pro rider. “He is really well organised and he taught me how to use this to my advantage,” Torres explained.

“Before we headed to the race, he would organise his things so that when he arrived, he didn’t even have to think about it. Before, I would wonder about what to bring and what I would need at the stage start, which would cause some headaches, but with Jhony, he taught me to be prepared. In both the Tour Down Under and future races, this allows me to be relaxed and focus only on the race. It is always important to have things such as this under control, which is perhaps the best lesson I learned from Jhony.”

The Tour Down Under was Torres' first experience racing at the WorldTour level, undoubtedly significant step up from the U23 category. “It was really nice but it’s very different,” he reflected. “Here all the guys are very very strong and in the bunch, it is easy to be suffering on your limit whilst you look around and the rest of the guys are seemingly not struggling.”

Despite the challenge, Torres took valuable lessons from the experience. “I think I need to learn a lot because I know in this race, for example, I suffered too much in the flat because the pace was very high and the other riders tend to have more power than a small guy like me. I have to get used to that pace, but I felt strong in the climbs.”

A mature and level-headed rider, Torres is mindful of managing expectations. “I try not to listen to outside expectations too much. I am only 19 years old and it is always difficult to get a result in this sport, never mind in such a short space of time at the beginning of my career,” he insisted.

“I will take things at my own pace and take every race as an opportunity to learn, so in this way, the pressure from the media does not affect me. In the end, the person who puts the most pressure on my shoulders is myself because I want to have a result more than any other person wants me to score a result.”

Torres' journey into cycling began in his early teens after he was forced to give up football due to knee issues. “Seven years ago, when I was 13, I started to ride my bike because, in football, I had some problems with my knees,” he admitted. “When I was young and maybe half a metre shorter than I am now, I carried a little bit more weight, and football caused too much stress on my joints.”

His early racing years were far from easy, often struggling to keep up in local races. But during the pandemic, he turned to indoor training, which helped him take a significant leap in performance. “There would be nothing else to do, so I rode for one hour and a half, or even for two hours on some days, and I really enjoyed it,” he recalled.

“In the junior ranks, I had joined the Union Ciclista San Sebastian de los Reyes, which is maybe the best team for juniors in Madrid, and our trainer would give me a list of efforts to do on the bike. He would send me a video of a stage of the Vuelta a España, and when the climb would start in the race, I would do an effort, and then I would recover in the flat, and this is how we would work. It is something funny to look back on but in the end, it improved me as a rider a lot.”

With steady progress year after year, Torres saw a breakthrough in 2024. “Every year after beginning indoor training, I would improve a little bit and last year, I was able to improve a lot,” he remembered. “I did not expect to improve so much.”

Looking ahead, Torres has a clear objective for the 2025 season. “I won’t do any Grand Tours this year but I will go to the Tour de l’Avenir and this will be my main goal of the season,” he revealed. “I will hope to begin the race in top shape and try to go one better than my second place from last season.”

His near-miss in 2024 has left him eager for redemption. “It was very close last year, with only 12 seconds separating me and the winner, but of course, this year will be a new challenge. Each year, the level gets higher and it will be difficult, but I know that I can improve myself and with each race I start this season, I will be learning new lessons.”

Torres acknowledges his strengths but is also aware of the areas he needs to work on. “I know that in climbs of more than 30 minutes, I am very strong, because I know that I am a light rider and I have good watts per kilo,” he recognised. “But maybe in the flat, I don’t have too much power to push like the other guys.”

“So that is a thing that I want to improve, to arrive at the climb and have more energy, because if I suffer in the flat and I don’t have the energy, then I can’t show my true self on the climb.”

Away from cycling, Torres enjoys a creative outlet that helps him relax. “It is not something I take seriously, but I really enjoy drawing on my tablet,” he shared. “This is something that started when I was a kid in school. I would doodle in my notebooks, and it is something that I still like to do to relax away from the bike.”

Despite his rapid rise, Torres remains patient about his long-term goals. “I know that I will be here for a long time, that the guys want me in the team, and so I have all the confidence to be focused on the learning process in the meantime,” he concluded. “In the future, I will, of course, aim for top results, but at the moment, I am here to learn. In time, I hope that the results will come.”