UAE manager Matxin challenges popular belief about Pogacar: "That’s the hardest race to win"

Pogacar’s 2024 season could easily be described as one of the greatest years ever by a cyclist — perhaps impossible for anyone else to match. Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, World Championships, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Tour of Lombardy, Strade Bianche, GP de Montreal, Tour of Catalonia... the 26-year-old Slovenian dominated them all. Even Matxin admits he didn’t expect such unprecedented dominance.

"You know he’s going to have a great year, and you know he’s going to win, but you can never predict how much," the 53-year-old Spaniard told Eurosport. "You can control the performance and motivation of the riders in your team, but you can never control the competition. We have all the data about our riders, but nothing about our rivals. That’s why, even with someone as extraordinary as Tadej, you can never be completely sure," said Matxin, who recently extended his contract with UAE Team Emirates.

"Our goal for 2025 is to maintain what we’ve achieved," Matxin continued. "It’s not easy to remain the best rider and the best team in the world, because it means many of your rivals now know your strengths and have studied your weaknesses. We’re working to maximize our strengths and eliminate those weaknesses," he said, looking ahead to the challenges from competitors.

Speculation about Pogacar’s 2025 race schedule has been blazing through the cycling world for a while now. According to Matxin, the decisions have already been made, though they won’t be revealed just yet. "We’ve already discussed the 2025 calendar. We’ve made those decisions, and the schedule is set. We’ll announce the plans on December 10 during the team’s media day in Alicante."

While Pogacar has already ticked off many of cycling’s big events, some key races are still missing from his resume, such as Milan-San Remo, the Vuelta and Paris-Roubaix. According to Matxin, balancing these races presents significant challenges. "If you want to race the Giro like we did last season, you have to skip Paris-Roubaix because of the preparation required for a grand tour. Some of the interesting races overlap with one another," he hinted, seemingly ruling out Pogacar’s participation in Paris-Roubaix for 2025 once again.

"It’s clear that the idea is to keep building Pogacar’s resume, with the focus on the races he hasn’t won yet," Matxin explained, emphasizing the goal of filling Pogacar’s bingo card. Many consider Paris-Roubaix to be the most challenging of those, but Matxin has a different opinion. "In my view, Milan-San Remo is the hardest race to win. Realistically, no rider today can be head and shoulders above the competition in a five-minute effort. There are too many contenders besides Tadej — riders like Van der Poel, Van Aert, Hirschi and Narvaez excel in those moments. I believe that as the best rider in the world — and I consider Tadej to be that, without discrediting anyone else — you can’t approach Milan-San Remo with the certainty that you’ll win," the 53-year-old manager concluded.