Even though Pogacar & UAE’s 2024 was a huge success, Joxean Matxin doesn’t give them an A: “That would be if you had achieved excellence and perfection.” And we haven’t done that yet”

It’s possible that Tadej Pogacar had the best single season of any rider in the sport’s history in 2024. Joxean Matxin, the manager of UAE Team Emirates, is apparently hard to please. The Spaniard won’t give 2024 an A grade, saying that the Slovenian and his partners can do better.

“I would give our season a B+,” Matxin tells Eurosport, making his grade system a little tough. “This season isn’t good enough for an A. Then you would have done that if you had reached greatness and perfection. “And we haven’t done that yet,” he says to explain.

During the 2024 season, UAE Team Emirates won 81 races. Not only Pogacar, but also Marc Hirschi, Joao Almeida, Adam Yates, Tim Wellens, Juan Ayuso, and others, all won important races. Using Jumbo-Visma in 2023 as a guide, Matxin isn’t completely happy with how well his team has done in the past twelve months.

“Win the Giro, Tour, and Vuelta,” Matxin says when asked what else could be done to make 2025 better. “We have great riders, so why can’t we compete for the Vuelta?” Even though we had great riders, we didn’t make it. We want 82 races if we win 81. We want to be the best team in the world again if we are already that. We want to win with 21 different drivers if we win with 20 different drivers. We want to get better all the time.

One thing that won’t likely change, though, is that Pogacar will still be in charge of the UAE Team Emirates. “Tadej is a gift for everyone who likes riding bikes,” Those of us alive at the moment will look back in a few years and say, “I lived through it and saw Tadej Pogacar win,” the 53-year-old Spaniard says.