Time was that Tadej Pogačar's UAE Team Emirates squad were his Achilles heel at the Tour de France – hardly rubbish, but nowhere near the strength in depth of, say, Visma-Lease a bike or Ineos Grenadiers.
That excuse is not going to fly this July, for the Middle-Eastern team has just presented an eight-man squad for the Tour with such depth of strength that you risk the bends if you click off this page too quickly.
In the best traditions of all-for-one GC-focused teams who are out to dominate, half of these riders could challenge for a Grand Tour podium themselves, and indeed three have achieved that. Others have impressive palmarès in major Classics. The first lot will be as invaluable to Pogačar in the mountains as the second lot will be on the flat, and who knows, perhaps one of them might even be let off the leash to win a stage if everything is working out.
However the race goes, this line-up will quietly scare the pants off perennial nemesis Visma-Lease a bike before a pedal is turned.
Pogačar on the way to winning this year's Giro d'Italia
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Tadej Pogačar (Slo, 25) Best result in 2024: 1st overall, Giro d'Italia
Not much can be said about the team's talismanic super-talent that hasn't been said already. For Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a bike) – the man who has beaten him at the Tour for the past two years – this will be his first race since a very nasty crash in April, and Pogačar has to be the leading favourite to win. Did you see how he won the Giro d'Italia? But the Giro-Tour double has eluded the most determined riders for nearly 30 years. Can he really do it?
Juan Ayuso (Spa, 21) Best result in 2024: 1st overall, Itzulia Basque Country
A superb young all-rounder for whom the future likely holds a Grand Tour victory, Ayuso's above-mentioned Itzulia win wasn't hurt by the fact that a crash took most of his rivals out of the game in one fell swoop. His last race ended less than ideally though – he abandoned the Critérium du Dauphiné with "deep abrasions" after a crash on stage five.
(Image credit: Getty Images / Tim De Waele)
Joāo Almeida (Por, 25) Best result in 2024: 2nd overall, Tour de Suisse
Another potential GC victor (indeed, he was third at the Giro d'Italia last year), Almeida has been improving as the year wears on, most recently shadowing co-leader Adam Yates to a comprehensively-taken one-two at the Tour de Suisse. At times he looked the strongest of the pair and finished the race with two stage wins and two second places.
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Adam Yates (GBr, 31) Best result in 2024: 1st overall, Tour de Suisse
The Brit can look back on a second excellent first half the season in which he has won two stage races, the WorldTour-ranked Tour de Suisse included. It's not dissimilar to last year, when he ended up in the podium at the Tour de France, just one spot down from Pogi. He'll be hoping for more of the same in July and, by the look of it, the form is there.
Pavel Sivakov (Fra, 26) Best result in 2024: 2nd overall, Giro d'Abruzzo
A frequent flyer atop the GC standings in short stage races, Sivakov doubles well as a strong climbing domestique in the Grand Tours. A key fixture at Ineos Grenadiers from 2018, he moved to UAE last year and has had a consistent season up to stage five in the Critérium du Dauphiné when he crashed alongside team-mate Ayuso, pulling out three days later.
Marc Soler
(Image credit: Getty)
Marc Soler (Spa, 30) Best result in 2024: 4th overall, Itzulia Basque Country
Soler is a fine climber who is capable of riding for a high placing in a Grand Tour when allowed to do so. But with so many great riders at UAE, the Spaniard has found his niche as a mountains domestique at the team. His early season has been stolid and consistent, with Itzulia very much a standout result as he supported Ayuso to the win.
Tim Wellens (Bel, 33) Best result in 2024: 4th, E3 Saxo Classic
One of two big engines in the team who will be looking forward to the job of setting a high pace on the front between major climbs, keeping breakaways in check or preventing them altogether. Wellens, who excels in lumpy, Classics-type terrain, joined UAE last season and seems to have found his feet there now, with an early-season that has seen top-15s at Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders, and top-fives at three smaller Classics including E3.
Nils Politt (Ger, 30) Best result in 2024: 3rd, Tour of Flanders
As well as that third in De Ronde, Politt registered fourth at Paris-Roubaix, giving you some idea of the form this powerful rider has enjoyed so far this year. He'll hope to carry that into the Tour, where he'll accompany Wellens at the front of the bunch when things get grippy, smashing out big watts and, he'll hope, scaring the rest of the peloton into submission.
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After cutting his teeth on local and national newspapers, James began at Cycling Weekly as a sub-editor in 2000 when the current office was literally all fields.
Eventually becoming chief sub-editor, in 2016 he switched to the job of full-time writer, and covers news, racing and features.
A lifelong cyclist and cycling fan, James's racing days (and most of his fitness) are now behind him. But he still rides regularly, both on the road and on the gravelly stuff.
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