UAE team Emirates is having a great season. Led by the unstoppable Tadej Pogačar, they had already fallen behind in every competition in June and now have an astonishing 77 wins with 20 out of 30 of their riders being professional. It is contained. The depth of the team is something that Patrick Lefebvre’s Soudal Quick-Step once boasted, but the Belgian is realistic about competing with UAE money when it comes to attracting new promising riders. He admits that he is no longer the target.
“Of course, the power of money plays a role in the UAE’s dominance. It is no secret that their domestics are the leaders of most other teams,” Lefere wrote in a column for Het Nieuwsblad. are. “At the same time, I don’t want to downplay the benefits. The UAE team is also smartly structured and has a lot of young talent.”
Lefebvre can empathize with the UAE’s tactics of investing money wisely in young talent rather than overpaying to acquire stars from other teams (even though they sometimes do that too). too…). “Their list of 20 winners includes names such as Isaac del Toro, Jan Kristen and Antonio Morgado, all of whom are 20 years old. Along with Tadej Pogačar, they will be in the Pyramid’s We have the best talent at the top, but we also have a lot of investment” on base. ”
“That makes it difficult for the rest of the teams to compete. I honestly don’t mean any harm in saying that most of these talented players are attracting the attention of other teams. We’re not giving it away. Josean Matosin, the UAE sports manager, is a good scout, but we also spoke to Antonio Morgado, if he wasn’t already signed. Kristen was very close to them. It just wasn’t possible from a budget standpoint.”
“You can have the best staff and the best climate, but that is often not the deciding factor,” Lefevere says. “In the end, money is often what determines the rider’s choice. It’s not ridiculous. For example, a family with 70,000 euros in the bank would naturally accept a contract offer that would suddenly sign their 16-year-old son. “I understand that winning multiples is possible, but at the same time I think it’s a shame that the romantic idea of ’discovering a rider’ is gradually disappearing,” Soudal team principal Quickstep concluded. Ta.