Sivakov had front-row seats for Pogacar show: "The amount of watts I had to push to follow him..."

Tadej Pogacar's super season resulted in a spectacular show for everyone, but his teammates at UAE Team Emirates had front-row seats. Pavel Sivakov helped the Slovenian secure victory in the Tour of Lombardy and was also a loyal support during the World Championships road race. In The Odd Tandem, the podcast by Jens Voigt and Bobby Julich, he recalls his experiences in Switzerland.

When Pogacar attacked with one hundred kilometers to go and joined the leading group, Sivakov was the only one who could follow the Slovenian's next acceleration. As rivals in the race but teammates outside the World Championships, the Frenchman supported his leader in his pursuit of the rainbow jersey. "The World Championships was the most impressive thing I saw in 2024. It was really bizarre. I was on his wheel and saw how many watts I had to push to follow him, it was truly insane. That day stands out for me. To attack with one hundred kilometers to go, with so many strong riders chasing you, that’s historic."

Sivakov managed to hold on for a relatively long time and even had hopes for a podium finish after a while. "I felt good that day and just wanted to follow him for as long as possible. At a certain point, I really believed in the podium. When he attacked at the top of the climb, I could initially follow, but just before the summit, he dropped me. He looked back and waited for me. That was the moment he squeezed the life out of me. I burned myself out on his wheel."

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Sivakov exploded on the wheel: "He could repeat it lap after lap"

With around forty kilometers to go, the Frenchman from UAE Team Emirates had given it his all. Keeping up with the eventual world champion had ultimately taken too much out of him. "I couldn't even recover on the short descent because you had to stay so focused. You don’t recover in those moments. I then completely blew up, which marked the end of my race. That also tells me how unbelievably strong he was. I was pushing extremely high numbers, and he could just keep repeating it lap after lap."

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