After an enjoyable Giro d’Italia and a fantastic Tour de France, UAE Team Emirates didn’t have much to celebrate at this year’s Vuelta. The team still had Adam Yates in the top ten overall, with the Briton also winning a stage. But with team leader Joao Almeida out due to COVID-19, the other shadow leaders have not performed as expected. What is the current mood in the team? Joksan Matosin explains, and also discusses the downsides of having so much talent on one team.
Eighth place overall is not what UAE came to Spain for, says the team manager: “We want to be protagonists, we want to go for stage wins, we want to improve things with Adam and we’re going to fight as aggressively as we have been. We’re not happy with where we are now, it’s clear we’re still a long way off. The Vuelta is still a long way off but we mainly want to get more stage wins,” he told Lerebo.
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Matosin on Tour: “Egos are hard to manage in this team”
With Tadej Pogačar out, the team was without a big star. There was also a lot of fuss about the genius Juan Ayuso. But the Spaniard doesn’t want to say too much about it. He says that most of what people read in the media are “comments”. “Comments should be taken as comments too. It’s like when I say I prefer soda to soda. It’s just an opinion, nothing more,” he said dryly.
So, despite rumours that Ayuso and the UAE were on a collision course, it was no deliberate arrogance. Matosin emphasises the human side; he thinks it’s natural for a young climber to have ambition and show it. “Look, I always give a clear example: if you have a rider like Tadej, with such a clear leader, who wants to win the Tour de France, you need the best possible team around him. And to have the best possible team, you need the best cyclists in the world.”
“Often these are riders who can challenge for the podium,” he continues, “and it’s not easy to manage the egos of such riders. As in Juan Ayuso’s case, when you’re 21 you want to take on a better role, maybe a leadership role, but of course you accept that Tadej Pogacar is the best rider in the world and you adapt to that,” says the team manager on duty.