Johan Bruyneel critical of UAE Emirates’ blast urge with Tadej Pogacar: “This is not the right strategy” | Cycling

That Lance Armstrong would never have started the season like this twenty years ago under his care. Johan Bruyneel is in the podcast ‘The Move’ on Youtube with some question marks. Our compatriot does not understand very well why Tadej Pogacar is already raging so much. “When I was a rider, everything had to fall into place to win a race. I had to be in top form and take advantage of the race situation. Nowadays the top riders are so good that they can always strike. Be it February, July or October. It is super nice to see, but I wonder why.”

“The Johan Bruyneel of twenty years ago would think the same as Pogacar and his team: ‘all to hell, we want to win’. It is great fun to finish off your opponents, but in the meantime I can advise that it is not the best tactic in the long term”, says Bruyneel enthusiastically. “Not only politically, because it is always good to keep friends with certain riders and teams, but also physically for his team. Pogacar could have won all stages, even with ease, but his teammates drove themselves to pieces to put him in that position. Some of them now have to recuperate for two weeks.”

According to Bruyneel, they are doing it wrong at UAE Emirates. “I see a rider who enjoys racing and who likes to win races. When you have such a champion in your team, the main goal of a sports director is to keep him in check. Compare it to a race horse that you can only let go when it really matters. All those rates in February are unimportant. It means nothing in July. I go even further: UAE is sponsored by the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi. The UAE Tour is an important race for them. One Remco Evenepoel also drives there. If UAE loses that course, Pogacar’s victories in Spain are meaningless.”

The former team leader made another observation to make his point. Jumbo-Visma, the major competitor of UAE Emirates and Pogacar in the Tour, is currently in 28th place in the UCI team classification. Bruyneel: “14 Jumbo-Visma riders have not yet ridden a single race this year (including Van Aert, Vingegaard, Roglic, Benoot and Laporte ed.). At Jumbo-Visma they have a different approach, which is more gradual in the longer term. They work progressively.”

“It is different at Pogacar. He is already top and then has to slow down a bit to be top again in July. I think he is also surprised by his current level of form and how he compares to the opposition”, says Bruyneel. “It’s nice to have such an enthusiastic rider, but I think that should be tempered with less enthusiasm in the support car. It must be cold and calculated there. The way I see it now there is too much passion there and that reinforces the urge for Pogacar to show itself in this way. I’m afraid it’s not a good strategy in the longer term.”