“We count on everyone, we are not Team Pogacar” — Tomas Gil Martinez from the UAE

UAE Team Emirates has had a season that hasn’t been seen in a long time. Some people said Tadej Pogacar had the best season ever by a professional cyclist, but the team as a whole won over 80 races with over 20 riders, so it was a huge success.

Oh, I see. Hirschi has won eight times already, and twenty other riders have as well. It says a lot about our team. “We depend on everyone; we’re not Team Pogacar,” Tomas Aurelio Gil Martinez told Wielerflits. “He is, without a doubt, the best rider in the world right now.” He has helped us win a third of the times. However, we go into every race with the same mindset, which is a great way to win.

It’s true that Martinez thinks of the old HTC team or how Soudal-Quick-Step used to be the best at classics and sprints. “That’s right. That pyramid needs a great winner at the top, like Pogacar or, at the time, Mark Cavendish or Tom Boonen at the teams you named. The other guys can look up to those types of people; they can push them. Not only will their coworkers do that little extra thing, but so will the staff. Nobody works as hard as they do when Pogi is on the team. They’re a little better at what they do. That’s the reason why they won.

The team was driven in every way, with very strong leaders, a huge budget that lets them have a group full of stars, and a calendar that covers a lot of ground from January to October.

“Yes, but it’s not just money.” There’s no doubt that money helps us give our riders the best and solve problems. “But making sure everyone is happy isn’t just about money,” Martinez says. “Knowing what the riders need and giving them the best place to perform is also important.” The results are directly related to making sure that both users and staff are happy.

“We also have important people on our team, like [Joxean] Matxin, who is a great scout.” He can see young riders coming together at just the right time and help them grow into the top riders they are now. As long as the team has money and good scouts, they will continue to get some of the best players in the sport. “We didn’t pay a lot of money for Pogi, right?” We helped him get better as a team member. That’s just as important. The money is used to improve performance and keep our best horses.

People also asked him about Pogacar’s success this season. Martinez says it was the right thing to do to try to get so many wins with the Slovenian while he showed he could do it.

No doubt that Pogacar is very good, but even he was surprised by how well he did this season. You have to grab everything you can when you’re that strong. Get to work while the iron is still hot. “Maybe things were different twenty years ago, when someone like Miguel Indurain gave away some stages,” he says.

“That can’t be fun for the other teams.” They might have done it the same way if Pogi had been on their team, though. You get bad words everywhere you go. We’re not going to change how we do things, though.