UAE Team Emirates has been at the top of the UCI World Rankings since February, and there is no doubt that they are the number one team in the world. But the team of world champion, Tour de France and Giro d’Italia winner Tadej Pogačar appears to have broken the record, which dates back to 2000 when they won their 76th race with 20 riders.
Juan Sebastian Molano won stage two of the CRO race on Wednesday, becoming the 20th rider from UAE Team Emirates’ 30-rider roster to win this year.
According to a press release from UAE Team Emirates, the previous record for individual wins in a professional team was 19, held by Mapei Quick-Step since 2000.
In recent memory, HTC Columbia had the most wins by a team in a single year with 85 wins in 2009, but they were won by 16 different riders.
This year, 22 of the team’s wins have come from Pogačar, who has been the world’s number one rider since mid-2021. He started the season with a win at Strade Bianche and then went on to win four stages at Volta a Catalunya. He continued his winning streak at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and then won the Giro d’Italia by nearly 10 minutes, winning six stages along the way.
After winning the Tour de France overall and winning six stages, he took a well-deserved break. He returned with a win at the Montreal Grand Prix, then ran solo for almost 100km en route to winning the elite men’s road race at the UCI Road World Championships.
Marc Hirschi has the next most wins, with eight wins to date, including the San Sebastian Classic, while Brandon McNulty has seven wins, including the opening time trial of the Vuelta a España. Adam Yates won six races and Juan Ayuso won four races.
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The three races were won by Isaac del Toro, Finn Fisher-Black, Antonio Morgado, Diego Ulissi and Tim Wellens. Joao Almeida won twice, and single winners include Morano, Nils Pollitt, Domen Novak, Marc Soler, Pavel Sivakov and Jay Vine.
The team isn’t done with the season yet. Pogačar is set to debut his new rainbow jersey at the Giro dell’Emilia on Saturday, and will continue to compete in Tre Valli Varesine on October 8th and Il Lombardia on October 12th.
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