"We're not even at the 'three and a half'" - UAE's Matxín says Tour far from over for Pogacar

With Tadej Pogacar holding the lead in the general classification, UAE Team Emirates – XRG sport manager Joxeán Matxín isn’t letting the team ease into any sense of comfort. Speaking to Marca, he stressed that the Tour de France is still wide open, and the hardest part is yet to come.

“Favorable in sporting terms, unfavorable in terms of the loss of Joao Almeida, who was a very important piece for us,” Matxín said of the opening week and a half. “But we are optimistic. Last year we also lost the Pau stage with Juan Ayuso due to circumstances and we competed with seven riders. We were able to keep up. We hope that this year it will be similar.”

He said Team Visma | ease a Bike’s early aggression hasn’t come as a shock. “Not particularly. They are being very offensive, maybe looking to repeat what worked for them at Granon, which was the way they managed to unseat Tadej. You can tell they have that same character in mind.”

Still, Matxín emphasized that the dynamic now is different from the 2022 Tour, when Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic, and Wout van Aert combined to crush Pogacar’s ambitions in the Alps. “We are in a different scenario. The one who leads the classification and is one minute ahead is Tadej. The one who should attack is Vingegaard. Sometimes cycling seems to forget that it's not always the one who's first who should attack.”

And when it comes to the big picture, Matxín is adamant: the race is just getting started. “There are eight decisive stages, and we've only passed one. There are seven to go. One was the time trial, and there are still the rest. We can't relax in any of them.”

Despite talk of a potential fourth Tour win, he says the team isn’t getting ahead of itself. “We're not even at the ‘three and a half’, to think about the fourth. The Tour is not over. Look what happened to Joao Almeida. I was convinced he was going to be a protagonist, even for the podium. I'm not saying that to make myself look good. I really mean it.”

And as for rumors of Pogacar riding the Vuelta a España? Matxín dismissed the speculation outright. “We are in the Tour. When it's over, we'll analyze everything. I have the utmost respect for the Vuelta a España and its organizers.

“I don't want to plan something that doesn't come true. It already happened one year when Tadej was scheduled to race and then he couldn't. We're going to be prudent. We are going to be prudent.”