“That’s the hardest race to win,” says UAE boss Matxin about Pogacar, which goes against what most people think.

Even though Tadej Pogacar’s amazing season is over, rumours are going strong about the Slovenian world champion’s plans for 2025. Will the star rider for UAE Team Emirates try to win all three grand tours next year by focussing on the Vuelta a España? Or will he try his luck on the Paris-Roubaix cobblestones as early as 2025? The team manager and important member of the Emirati group, Joxean “Matxin” Fernandez, has given some very important information.

One could easily say that Pogacar’s 2024 season was one of the best ever by a cyclist, and it might be hard for anyone else to beat it. He won the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, the World Championships, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Tour of Lombardy, Strade Bianche, the GP de Montreal, and the Tour of Catalonia. He was 26 years old at the time. Matxin himself says he didn’t expect such an unmatched level of power.

The 53-year-old Spanish player told Eurosport, “You know he’s going to have a great year and win, but you can never tell how much.” “You can manage how well your team’s riders do and keep them motivated, but you can’t manage the other teams.” We know everything about our riders but not a thing about our competitors. “That’s why you can never be sure, even with someone as great as Tadej,” Matxin, whose deal with UAE Team Emirates was recently extended, said.

“Our goal for 2025 is to keep doing what we’re doing,” Matxin said. “Being the best rider and team in the world is hard to keep up because your competitors know your strengths and weaknesses quite well.” “We’re working to make the most of our strengths and get rid of our weaknesses,” he said, anticipating the challenges that rivals would bring.

Pogacar’s 2025 plan was approved by “we’ve made those decisions,” Matxin said.

The cycling world has been buzzing with rumours about Pogacar’s race plan for 2025 for a while now. Matxin says that the choices have already been made, but they won’t be made public just yet. “We’ve already talked about the calendar for 2025.” The plans are set and those choices have been made. The plans will be made public on December 10 at the team’s media day in Alicante.
Even though Pogacar has already won a lot of big cycle races, he still needs to win some important ones like Milan-San Remo, the Vuelta, and Paris-Roubaix. Matxin says that handling these races is exceptionally hard. “You have to skip Paris-Roubaix because you need to get ready for a grand tour if you want to race the Giro like we did last year.” “Some of the interesting races happen at the same time,” he said, making it look like Pogacar would not be racing in Paris-Roubaix in 2025.

It’s clear that the goal is to keep adding to Pogacar’s list of wins, with a focus on the games he hasn’t won yet, Matxin said, stressing the point of filling up Pogacar’s bingo card. Many people think that Paris-Roubaix is the hardest of those, but Matxin doesn’t agree. The Milan-San Remo is the race I think is the hardest to win. In the real world, no rider can be miles ahead of the rest of the pack in just five minutes. There are too many other riders who can win besides Tadej. Van der Poel, Van Aert, Hirschi, and Narvaez are just a few examples. “As the best rider in the world—and I think Tadej is that, without putting anyone else down—you can’t go into Milan-San Remo sure that you’ll win,” the 53-year-old boss said in the end.