{"id":195864,"date":"2024-05-01T13:59:26","date_gmt":"2024-05-01T13:59:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=195864"},"modified":"2024-06-06T14:02:24","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T14:02:24","slug":"uae-team-emirates-poised-to-become-kings-of-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/05\/01\/uae-team-emirates-poised-to-become-kings-of-the-road\/","title":{"rendered":"UAE Team Emirates Poised to Become Kings of the Road"},"content":{"rendered":"

With its iconic leader Tadej Poga\u010dar about to set off on a quest to conquer two \u2013 or maybe even all three \u2013 of the Grand Tours and its only possible rival, Visma\u2013Lease a Bike, badly wounded as a result of injuries suffered by its stars, Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert, UAE Team Emirates seem poised to become the new kings of the road.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

They are already sitting on top of the world, having amassed an astonishing 30 wins in four months, beginning with a stage victory in the Tour Down Under on January 17, by the team\u2019s very impressive 20-year-old Mexican rider Isaac del Toro, and ending with victory in the Vuelta Asturias on April 28 by \u2013 Isaac del Toro. Another UAE rider, Rafal Majka, finished second in that race.<\/p>\n

There were seven wins by Poga\u010dar, five by Brandon McNulty and three each by Juan Ayuso, del Toro and another youngster, the 22-year-old New Zealand native Finn Fischer-Black. The team looks to be set for years of success, with a squad made up of talented young riders (Ayuso is only 21), strong veterans (Majka, Nils Pollit and Adam Yates), and many excellent riders just reaching their prime (McNulty, Marc Hirschi and Pavel Sivakov).<\/p>\n

And, of course, there is their superstar, Poga\u010dar, who seems unbeatable on his best day. UAE are so loaded with talent that even after Vingegaard and van Aert return to their best form, it seems unlikely that Visma can dominate as they did last year \u2013 if only due to the departure of Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d\u00a0to BORA-hansgrohe.<\/p>\n

\"Tadej<\/a>
UAE Team Emirates seem poised to become the new kings of the road. \u00a9 Profimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In addition to Poga\u010dar\u2019s expected GC win, UAE are looking to grab a hatful of victories at the first Grand Tour of the year, the Giro d\u2019Italia. They have included an accomplished sprinter on the squad, Juan Sebastian Molano, who has taken two stages of the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a<\/a> as well as registering numerous other victories on smaller stages.<\/p>\n

So what can go wrong?<\/p>\n

Well, as Mike Tyson said, everybody\u2019s got a plan until they get punched in the face. When you plan a season around a single rider, lots of little things can go wrong, such as a bad day, an inopportune mechanical or a fever, and one big thing. Visma knows how the loss due to injury of a star rider can ruin a team\u2019s best-laid plans. UAE and Poga\u010dar are hopeful of no less than making history this year, if for no other reason than because Visma did last year. Fortunately, Poga\u010dar is an excellent bike handler and rarely crashes \u2013 the mishap in last year\u2019s Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge, in which he broke his wrist, was a rarity.<\/p>\n

So the team and its superstar are understandably confident ahead of the Giro. In a statement<\/a> on the team\u2019s website announcing the Giro squad, Poga\u010dar\u00a0 said, \u201cThe preparation for the Giro has gone really well. I haven\u2019t raced too much so far this year, just 10 days, so I\u2019m feeling fresh and ready to take on my first Giro. It\u2019s a race I\u2019ve dreamed of doing for a long time and it feels like now that the time is right to go for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI raced in Italy a lot as an amateur and it has been an important country in my journey as a cyclist. For sure it is one of my favorite places to ride a bike and I also love the culture and of course the food. I hope we can make this month a special one. Obviously my aim is to go for the GC and we also have Molano for the sprints and a very solid team in general. We can\u2019t wait to get it started.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team named to support Poga\u010dar in the Giro is strong but it does not include several of UAE\u2019s top riders, such as Yates, Ayuso and del Toro. But the 25-year-old Slovenian has little serious GC competition in the three-week race, so the top lieutenants are probably being saved for the Tour de France, where he will face Rogli\u010d, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal\u2013Quick Step) and perhaps Vingegaard. Only then will we know how strong UAE Team Emirates really is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With its iconic leader Tadej Poga\u010dar about to set off on a quest to conquer two \u2013 or maybe even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":195283,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"tags":[7527,5450,3544,3415,7847],"global-categories":[3366],"class_list":["post-195864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-road-cycling","tag-2024-giro","tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-remco-evenepoel","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-uae-emirates","global-categories-cycling"],"yoast_head":"\nUAE Team Emirates Poised to Become Kings of the Road - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With its iconic leader Tadej Poga\u010dar about to set off on a quest to conquer two \u2013 or maybe even all three \u2013 of the Grand Tours and its only possible\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/05\/01\/uae-team-emirates-poised-to-become-kings-of-the-road\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UAE Team Emirates Poised to Become Kings of the Road\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With its iconic leader Tadej Poga\u010dar about to set off on a quest to conquer two \u2013 or maybe even all three \u2013 of the Grand Tours and its only possible\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/05\/01\/uae-team-emirates-poised-to-become-kings-of-the-road\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-05-01T13:59:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-06-06T14:02:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2024\/03\/Tadej-Pogacar-profimedia-0859189780-CVR.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"990\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"660\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tereza\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Siegfried Mortkowitz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/05\/01\/uae-team-emirates-poised-to-become-kings-of-the-road\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/05\/01\/uae-team-emirates-poised-to-become-kings-of-the-road\/\",\"name\":\"UAE Team Emirates Poised to Become Kings of the Road - 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