"To win five, you first have to win four" - Tadej Pogacar and UAE will not get ahead of themselves thinking of Tour de France record
Cycling
Tadej Pogacar has dominated the Tour de France last year after two editions beaten by Jonas Vingegaard, and now has three titles. He comes closer and closer to the record of five triumphs, but UAE Team Emirates - XRG are working to keep that pressure off the shoulders of the Slovenian, as said by team manager Joxean Matxin.
"Right now, to win five, you first have to win four. In mathematics, I was taught that 4 precedes 5. To say that you are going to win the fifth when you have not won the fourth is too Basque," he jokes in conversation with EsCiclismo. As it stands, the World Champion should be the man to beat for this year's race, having confirmed his presence.
Most likely he will then also race the Vuelta a España, with Juan Ayuso and Adam Yates leading the team at the Giro d'Italia. It's still being questioned which other Grand Tour Pogacar will race, but Matxin hints that we may exclude the Giro from the list soon: "Out of respect, we are going to wait three days for the presentation of the Giro d'Italia to know the route, but the decision was made internally and we are clear about it".
Matxin was also asked quite a bit about Itzulia Basque Country, and expressed his love for the race: "The Tour of the Basque Country is always a priority goal for my heart, for my affinities and because it is one of the most prestigious races in the world. A victory in the Tour of the Basque Country is not a normal victory, it is a victory with a pedigree. Having the Tour of the Basque Country in the list of achievements is something that all the cyclists in the world would like," he concluded.
Read also
Happy New Year from everyone at UAE Team Emirates - XRG! 🎉
— @UAE-TeamEmirates (@TeamEmiratesUAE) December 31, 2024
✨ 2025 ✨ #WeAreUAE pic.twitter.com/yB2LgIsCDm
Just in
Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter today!
Popular news
Latest comments
- That a very plausible explanation why some of them have tattoos. I'm not aware of such behaviour because I don't follow other sports. Thanks for the explanation even though it may not apply to all scenarios.
KerisVroom12-01-2025 - You realise that’s an extremely ambiguous expression right but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt:-) It may not hold at this level but a lot of guys in sport “offer” themselves a tattoo (the Ironman logo is an extremely popular example) for reaching their personal goal, which can turn into a reason the lose motivation for lack of having another. Obviously Mr X doesn’t have this attitude, more prone to act as to warrant such perspicacious James Bond titles like The world is never enough, but most of us at some point become happy or satisfied with what we’ve achieved or our mind resigns itself to not believing we can attain more and just lose the will to go further in THAT direction. But the again, I don’t recall Froome having any so who knows ;-)Mistermaumau12-01-2025
- Pretty much sums it up. Races today are often fast from the go as many know it’s their only chance of an upset. GTs are basically fast EVERY day now, whereas in the past there were stages you’d consider asking your money back (if it was a paying sport) so slow and uneventful were they. One of numerous reasons the average speeds jumped up, that doesn’t necessarily mean anyone is speeding downhill any faster, even Pidcock with a huge chainring is going to brake before a bend, it’s not the top speed that matters, it’s your racing experience that knows what the limit is for each situation and many just don’t have enough of this experience for the races they’re doing or no longer care collectively like in the past with its unwritten rules of the peleton. The prize money and cutthroat employment market is also leading to more risk/reward acceptance among the peleton as a whole.Mistermaumau12-01-2025
- Comparing now yes but I think what he was trying to bring over is that he’s progessing so well that he’s on a par or faster than Wout was at his stage (which can be considered kind of true but as Wout wasn’t on the road to compare and Magnier has kind of stopped CC (to please those who got sick of XC) and MTB, it could be debated infinitely :-) Let’s just agree that for a kid just fresh from school, at age 20 he’s got no problem mixing it with the big boys when it comes to crossing the line first, he was one of the revelations of 2024 but as we know, it’s a result in the GTs that decide if the masses pick you up. If you look at the 2024 Tour of Britain (a favourite of Wout), he won 3/6 stages, came 2nd once, lead the peleton to cross in 9th once and would have been a favourite to win the last stage too if he hadn’t fallen (another favourite ou Wout ;-)), that’s pretty impressive for a 20y old and shows he not only has the speed but also the stamina to have it repetitively, I accept the comparison, he could be the next Wout, a little less versatile and probably not quite the stamina for 3 week GTs but a little faster for finishes? It’s possible.Mistermaumau12-01-2025
- Interesting! Spill the tea, pleaseKerisVroom12-01-2025
- I wish him luck but he should remember what many cyclists know, you can often perform well when you don’t feel good and be disappointed on days you feel good. Also that GC one day racing statement isn’t so true, not all GC riders would beat one day specialists, one obvious example is Jonas, definitely among the best in GC but hardly likely to beat MVDP, WVA amongst many in classics. He may be biased by a current crop of GC riders who are just on a higher level in several domains.Mistermaumau12-01-2025
- There might be a psychological explanation for that ;-)Mistermaumau12-01-2025
- It’s certainly more interesting to watch than most men’s races.Mistermaumau12-01-2025
- magnier is “a lot faster than wout”? really? because i haven’t seen ANYONE who’s a LOT faster than wout. van der poel is a LITTLE faster than wout, sometimes. pogačar is a little faster then wout, sometimes. but magnier is just A LOT FASTER, apparently. ok, tim…OCexile12-01-2025
- There is a corelation between the amount of tattoo one has and drop of performance. Examples: Filippo Ganna and Caleb Ewan. More data is needed. Maybe Tadej should a few tattoos!KerisVroom12-01-2025