Young Spaniard who impressed riding behind Van der Poel at the World Championship makes his pro debut for UAE: "Very special"

Do you remember Adria Pericas? Probably not, but in a few years or even months, that could just change. The Spaniard made an impression as a junior in 2023 by following Mathieu van der Poel up Montrose Street during the recon for the World Cycling Championships in Glasgow. Meanwhile, he is paving his own path towards success. IDLProCycling.com spoke to him at the AlUla Tour, where he is making his debut for the UAE Emirates-XRG WorldTour team.

First, let's go back to August 2023, Scotland. Van der Poel, the later world champion among the elite men, completed his laps there and accelerated firmly several times. In doing so, a Spaniard followed him, which turned out to be the then 17-year-old first-year junior Pericas. "I accelerated well a few times on the lap. I don't know who that boy was, but he did ask me if he could sit on my wheel," the Dutch rider recalled a few days later.

We spoke to Pericas, who gave his take on the event back then. "Mathieu passed me on another climb, and I put myself on his wheel. I had to work hard to hold that wheel. I could barely say anything, and it was hurting a lot, but during the race, now they were still going uphill a little faster than Mathieu," he stated after that World Championships.

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Pericas is developing rapidly as a rider and is considered one of the great Spanish talents

A good year and a half later, Pericas is ready to show himself. The number 26 at the Junior World Championships in Glasgow had a very good 2024, in which he competed for prizes all year as a second-year junior. For example, he finished second to Paul Seixas in the highly regarded stage race Tour du Pays Vaud and won the Vuelta al Besaya.

Anno 2024, you then immediately stand out among the big teams. Joxean' Matxin' Fernandez, on behalf of UAE Emirates-XRG, was the first to act and secure Pericas for his development program. Together with Marcos Freire, the son of, he now races for the Emirates-based team's development squad. "Adria is one super great talent, but make no mistake: those guys are only 18; they also still need time," Oscar Freire said.

Pericas, who made the necessary impression on his team's staff last winter, at least sees his professional debut at 18 as something beautiful. "It's special to ride for UAE's WorldTour team for the first time. And that too in a special race, so I'm very happy to be here."

As a climber, he already wanted to test himself on day four, but that didn't quite go as hoped due to the neutralized descent. "We had planned to take a slightly different approach, but the course went the way it did. We would have liked to have made it a different race, a tougher battle. But in five kilometers, that's impossible. For us, that situation was not good."

"It's very different racing, tougher especially," the youngster, who finished 20th on Mountain Wikrah, pointed out the difference between the pros and juniors. "But I try to enjoy it. Someone like Rafal Majka has a lot of experience, and I can learn from that," said the Spaniard, who comes from Tona.

And that video on Van der Poel's wheel, which made big media headlines in Europe, how does he look back on that? "I did get some attention because of it. That's it, actually," Pericas concludes.

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