UAE boss excited to have taken the Giro-Tour double with Tadej Pogacar: "We knew that there was the possibility of doing it with Tadej because he is a phenomenon"

After two years of losing to Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar has seized the control at the Tour de France in 2024 and added a third Grand Boucle title to his extraordinary list of achievements. That itself would've been a great feat, but the Slovenian won the Giro d'Italia earlier this season and added no less than six stage victories at both races.

"The feeling is joy. By putting all the strength we had at our disposal, we managed to achieve something important by doing, 26 years after Marco Pantani, the Giro d'Italia - Tour de France double. It's huge," said the general manager of UAE Team Emirates Mauro Gianetti to Cyclism'Actu.  

"Winning the Tour is already a great satisfaction, but the fact that it comes after the Giro is something important. And we knew that there was the possibility of doing it with Tadej because he is a phenomenon. It was a dream, it was a goal, but we did not have the pressure or the obligation to win when arriving at this Tour de France. We took things day by day and we let things come," he concludes a bit modestly.

Next up for the UAE Team Emirates rider will be a rest period as riding two Grand tours in a quick succession seems to have taken its toll even on such phenomenon Pogacar is. The Slovenian has already most likely cancelled his appointment at the Olympic Games and the Vuelta triple doesn't seem to be on his cards either. Pogacar's return to competition will thus likely happen at the classics in Canada at the beginning of September.