UAE DS on Pogacar's Fleche Wallonne return: "He does not have to make the race again from 50 kilometers to the finish"
CyclingTuesday, 22 April 2025 at 09:45
Behind many of Tadej Pogacar's wins this years is a long solo attack and a story to go along with it. At Amstel Gold Race he attempted to do so once again, but this time it did not work out and he was beaten by Mattias Skjelmose in the final sprint. UAE Team Emirates - XRG DS has warned the World Champion against doing the same at Flèche Wallonne.
“In any case, he still needs a strong incentive on Wednesday or Thursday to be completely ready for Liège-Bastogne-Liège. So yes, he will ride the Flèche Wallonne. But he does not have to make the race again from 50 kilometers to the finish or necessarily win".
The Italian manager is behind the wheel throughout much of Pogacar's season, however at Amstel he saw how this aggressive tactic of the Slovenian can backfire. Some have argued that he did not need to be present at Flèche Wallonne and instead recover towards Liège-Bastogne-Liège where it seems like he will not have an easy task, Gianetti instead approaches the mid-week classic triying to put as least pressure as possible on his leader.
"He rides because he wants to, but it is not a must. We also have other riders in the team who are suitable for a race like the Fleche Wallonne," Gianetti said in a podcast for RTBF. Realistically however, the team will work for Pogacar, who continues to be the main favourite for the ascent to the Mur de Huy.
Fatigue wise, there seems to be no concern at the moment: “We are not worried, because we knew that recovering from the fatigue after Paris-Roubaix would be the hardest part. But in the end we saw in the Amstel that his form was good.” Ultimately this comes as a result of the option to do only one stage-race this season (the UAE Tour, already two months ago, skipping the main ones).
“After Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Tadej will have thirteen days of racing under his belt since the start of the season. They are all big races, of course — races that he always rides in his own way: with spectacle, with dedication. But the Flèche Wallonne simply fits well into the program.”
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- "The Giro d'Italia 2024 saw a strong increase in audience figures across RAI networks, especially on Rai2 and RaiSport HD. The race also experienced a significant boost in online engagement, with record numbers of website visitors, video views, and media articles. The event reached over 700 million viewers worldwide...." Sorry, but Pogacar is boring only for ... envious? ex-riders.
maria2024202406-05-2025 - It's always the way in pro cycling - 1 rider wins and the rest,instead of working with each other to topple the better rider, they ride behind said rider collecting scraps that're left...
leedorney06-05-2025 - Better for the Giro? I'm sure viewers would rather see Tadej dominate the Giro from day 1, than see Van Hooydonck (if he were still racing for Visma) battle it out with whoever, maybe Uidtjebroeks (if he was in the Visma lineup).. pun not intended ,for the maglia rosa in the 21-day race.. A grand tour is not like a horse race. People want to see Tadej, Jonas, Remco, Primoz, MVDP, Van Aert etc... If not, I'll just watch the Tour of California.FredMan06-05-2025
- Respect to Caleb Ewan for making the decision to bow out of professional cycling. He's the only one that's knows what's best for him at this point in his life, and I wish him all the best in his future endeavors.
santiagobenites06-05-2025 - Yeah, a big one 😁
DareDevil06-05-2025 - That's a surpriseleedorney06-05-2025
- You were doing so well up until the last paragraph :-). So Almeida did not win a single stage race with UAE and now because of contract uplift he can win prestigious races? Come on. The man was being shaped to get to this level and took 2 years. After leaving QS he had lost his punch, he is not a sprinter of course but he had a good kick, he also lost a bit his TT performance, was a disaster going downhill. All this time he was improving his climbing and now he is recovering all the aforementioned qualities he had before. He is not putting on a show because of contract negotiations, he simply evolved also due to changing trainer. I think he will do a hat-trick in Tour de Suisse and then go with no pressure to the Tour. Depending on how well Jonas or Remco recover and how tired Roglic is from the Giro, a podium might fall on his lap. Then Vuelta maybe UAE can compensate his performance by making him the solo leader if Pogacar is doubting. However, where I am really interested to see Almeida is the World Championships. I am hoping the race is split early and then we see Almeida picking up corpses along the Rwanda streets up until he reaches an empty Pogacar and then tips him over the line. Then I wake up and life continues.Indioshak06-05-2025
- Jonas had also had a speed wobble on that same descent. They have both improved their descending skills since then, and in 2024 took scary risks on downhills.Hill3306-05-2025
- Should be a good one! It's been since 2022 since we have seen peak Pogi vs peak Vingo. 2023 Pogi had injuries and a suboptimal preparation. 2024 Vingo had even worse injuries and a poor runup to the Tour. UAE team has gotten stronger since 2022, while Visma maybe less strong.mobk06-05-2025
- You'd have to be an amoral prick to work for this team.Matt06-05-2025
The question is, did he listen?
All this media food is just cup half full or empty strategies to make it sound as if they know what they’re doing perfectly. You either play it safe or risky, Tadej seems incapable of playing it safe. Great if P-R recovery went well but maybe it would go even better without one or both of these intermediate races, nobody knows in advance but IF your main goal is LBL then treat it that way and don’t care too much about the others, ride them to prepare for LBL. Not sure that’s what we saw last week and not sure what he’ll do now BUT, why not take a leaf out the book of a master and consider riding this one in support of another team member to give a chance to, it won’t hurt your reputation, on the contrary, as the JP/MVDP combo shows, people appreciate it, and if you imply you MIGHT in advance (obviously no need to warn rivals which strategy you’re going to adopt), nobody is going to criticise you for “losing”.