(Paris) The UAE team confirmed its eight riders for the Tour de France on Friday with Tadej Pogacar surrounded by an impressive Praetorian Guard to reconquer the Grande Boucle.
The Briton Adam Yates, the Spaniards Juan Ayuso and Marc Soler, the French Pavel Sivakov, the Portuguese Joao Almeida, the Belgian Tim Wellens and the German Nils Politt will accompany the Slovenian in his double quest from June 29 to July 21.
Crowned in 2020 and 2021, Pogacar arrives with the objective of renewing with the final victory after two places of runner-up behind Jonas Vingegaard who himself confirmed his participation on Thursday. He also wants to achieve the Giro-Tour double, a titanic challenge that has not been achieved since Marco Pantani in 1998.
“This will already be my fifth Tour de France and I can’t wait. The preparation has gone very well since my victory at the Giro. We spent a lot of time at altitude training together. We can’t wait to get started and fight for victory,” he said in a statement.
The Emirates team announced its starters for the Tour de France in December and has not deviated since.
Yates’ victory ahead of Almeida at the Tour de Suisse confirmed the excellent dispositions of the team which has prepared for the Tour de France at Isola 2000 in recent weeks.
“We know what we have to do to support Tadej and aim for victory,” commented Yates, Pogacar’s first lieutenant who finished third in the last Tour de France.
Ayuso, winner of the Tour of the Basque Country and third in the Vuelta in 2022, and Almeida, third in the Giro last year, will compete in their first Grande Boucle.