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“We see it as difficult, however not not possible,” was UAE Workforce Emirates supervisor Joxean Fernández Matxin’s view on Monday of the feasibility of Tadej Pogačar capturing not one however two Grand Excursions in 2024.
Following Pogačar’s shock announcement on Sunday that he’ll attempt to grow to be the primary rider since Marco Pantani in 1998 to win Giro d’Italia and Tour de France in the identical 12 months, 24 hours later there was no manner that another topic may dominate the UAE Team Emirates media day in Spain.
In the case of following Pantani’s wheel tracks 26 years later, as Matxin advised reporters, causes ranged from in search of a brand new objective for Pogačar to his having reached an age – 25 – when he had developed sufficient bodily resilience to deal with two Grand Excursions.
However, in keeping with Matxin, the primary purpose is that Tadej Pogačar being Tadej Pogačar, “the very best rider on this planet” as he put it, has what it takes as a racer to double his Grand Tour tally in a single season.
“It is a new problem, a brand new stimulus, and it is good to vary objectives generally,” Matxin advised reporters.
“We’re nonetheless preserving the thought of making an attempt to win the Tour de France, but it surely’s the primary time he’ll be doing two Grand Excursions in a single season and at 25 years previous, I feel Tadej is prepared for that problem.”
Other than a a lot later begin than final 12 months when he kicked off with the Clásica Jaén in early February, Pogačar’s deal with the 2 Grand Excursions in addition to the Paris Olympics after which the Zürich World Championships – means there is not any defence of his Tour of Flanders title. He’ll be skipping all of spring’s cobbled and Ardennes Classics, bar Liège-Bastogne-Liège, too.
“Barring levels which are utterly flat, each single race Tadej takes half in, Tadej creates expectations,” Matxin mentioned. “So we’re focussing on the Giro and Tour, and he will not be doing the cobbled Classics.”
So is it doable for Pogačar to win each Grand Excursions again to again, he was requested. “We’re crossing our fingers,” he answered. “For me, Tadej Pogačar is the very best rider on this planet, the one rider who’s all the time in good situation each race he does.
“Final 12 months he modified Tirreno-Adriatico for Paris-Nice, this 12 months he is doing the Giro. It is the second for him to do two Grand Excursions in the identical 12 months. We predict doing the cobbled Classics, then the Giro and the Tour and, hopefully, the Olympics is quite a bit, significantly when he’ll then deal with Canada and Worlds.”
Matxin additionally mentioned that Pogačar, the primary rider to go for the double since Chris Froome in 2018, wouldn’t do any racing in any respect between the Giro and Tour.
As for why the thought of doing the Giro and Tour this 12 months labored higher in 2024 than in one other season, Matxin identified that there’s an unusually lengthy interval between the top of 1 Grand Tour and the beginning of the following 33 days.
That is truly the identical as in 2023, however greater than the 31 in 2022 and most different years. The relative drop in mountaineering within the Giro d’Italia route in 2024 – round 10,000 metres fewer than in 2023 and much much less backloaded than typical – additionally makes going it extra propitious to strive each races subsequent Might and July.
Matxin additionally outlined which UAE Workforce Emirates riders would, in precept, be racing the primary two Grand Excursions of the season, with Rafał Majka and Jay Vine taking over the Giro whereas a stacked squad – together with Adam Yates, João Almeida, Juan Ayuso, and Pavel Sivakov – head to the Tour. He additionally talked about that Yates and Vine would probably participate within the Vuelta a España.
However, clearly, the important thing rider in all of that is Pogačar, whose private qualities as a racer made him the correct man for the double Grand Tour job – an try and repeat the feat achieved by Coppi, Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault, and Indurain in addition to Pantani.
“It is difficult to win two GTs however not not possible,” Matxin mentioned. “And one of many riders for whom that is simpler than for many is Tadej. I imagine that along with his character and his character, he can do it. He’s the particular one. He’s the very best rider I’ve come throughout in my profession.”
As for whether or not the largest objective was to win the Giro or the Tour in 2024 for Pogačar, Matxin made it very clear which one they needed in UAE’s and the Slovenian’s palmarès by this time subsequent 12 months, answering merely: “Each.”
UAE Workforce Emirates for the 2024 Giro d’Italia: Rafał Majka, Mikkel Bjerg, Felix Großschartner, Juan Sebastian Molano, Rui Oliveira, Jay Vine, Domen Novak, Tadej Pogačar
UAE Workforce Emirates for the 2024 Tour de France: João Almeida, Adam Yates, Juan Ayuso, Pavel Sivakov, Marc Soler, Nils Politt, Tim Wellens, Tadej Pogačar
Tadej Pogacar’s 2023 race program
March 2: Strade Bianche
March 16: Milan-San Remo
March 18-24: Volta a Catalunya
April 21: Liège-Bastogne-Liège
Might 4-26: Giro d’Italia
June 29-July 21: Tour de France
August 3: Olympic Video games street race (TBC)
September 13: GP Montreál
September 15: GP Quebéc
September 29: UCI Highway World Championships street race
October 12: Il Lombardia (TBC)
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