Can UAE Team Emirates keep all their GC leaders happy under Pogačar's reign?

There's peace for now but Ayuso, Yates, Almeida and the younger generation may want more opportunities in the future

Tadej Pogačar is the best male rider in the world, but that tide will one day fall. Photo courtesy of SWpix.

With only three Grand Tours on the racing calendar and Tadej Pogačar set to embark on another two-pronged assault in 2025, the reality is that only one three-week race is open for leadership within the UAE Team Emirates camp.

At this point, it looks as though co-captaincy will handed to Adam Yates and Juan Auyso, but with the likes of João Almeida, and, eventually, Isaac del Toro and Pablo Torres waiting in the wings, the likelihood is that some of that talent will either need to be broken and disbanded or retained at super domestique level if Pogačar remains at the pinnacle of the sport for the next five to ten years.

Of course, money counts. US Postal and Team Sky paid potential Grand Tour winners handsomely to sacrifice their chances of personal success and form part of established mountain trains, while UAE Team Emirates have the biggest WorldTour budget in the modern era, with a reported €55 million at their disposal in 2024.

According to Ineos Grenadiers’ Geraint Thomas, the team from the Gulf have such financial clout underlining their team that the wage expenditure for their eight-rider squad at the Tour de France this year was greater than Ineos’ entire outlay on 30 riders in 2024.