{"id":394140,"date":"2026-01-28T01:31:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T01:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/394140\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T01:31:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T01:31:11","slug":"my-choice-was-the-right-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/394140\/","title":{"rendered":"My choice was the right one"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sivakov will soon begin his 2026 season at the Challenge Mallorca where his aggressive racing style can bring him a victory, and he will use it as preparation towards the many races he is doing this coming spring. The first of which will be the Vuelta a Andalucia<\/a> where he is the defending champion, however defending it successfully is a more difficult request. \u201cI don\u2019t think so. They really changed the entire route and this year it should be more favourable to sprinters and puncheurs,” Sivakov said to La Depeche<\/a>. “We\u2019ll see, but it won\u2019t be the same Ruta as last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

He will then race the Ard\u00e8che classics, Paris-Nice, the Volta a Catalunya, all three Ardennes classics and lastly the Tour de Romandie where he will team up with the World Champion for the first time this year. A very busy schedule which will include opportunities for himself but also domestique work, as has been the case since he’s been signed.<\/p>\n


\nLater in the year he will race the Tour Auvergne Rh\u00f4ne Alpes and the Tour de France<\/a> once again. His versatile role and changing set of ambitions make a perfect fit for the Emirati team, who have achieved unheard amounts of success last year. \u201cIt\u2019s clear that knowing that at the start of the season reassures you, and it\u2019s a sign of trust to know we\u2019re counted on for these big objectives. We know we are part of the team around Tadej and that he\u2019ll be happy to have us with him.\u201dSwitching from INEOS to UAE<\/p>\n

He doesn’t have as many leadership opportunities as he’s had back at INEOS, where he won races such as the Tour of the Alps, Tour de Pologne and Vuelta a Burgos; but he believes his current balance is pretty ideal.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, honestly, I don\u2019t regret it at all and I\u2019m convinced my choice was the right one. I think being part of this team is the dream of many riders. We\u2019re rewarded when Tadej wins and he wins often, but we also have the possibility to target races we can win ourselves,” he explains. Now part of two Tour de France-winning teams<\/a>, Sivakov can be happy to share the success as a French rider. This year, he can be part of a record-matching achievement if Pogacar is able to do it again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes you proud to belong to this collective and it\u2019s not only the riders. The staff and all the members of the team feel it the same way. You see the race, the moment of success, the visible part, but we live entire months for these objectives and we live them all together in meetings, camps, altitude blocks. It\u2019s rewarding work that suits us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sivakov will soon begin his 2026 season at the Challenge Mallorca where his aggressive racing style can bring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,148146,101,8782,6549,12183,56,54,55,145449],"class_list":["post-394140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-pavel-sivakov","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tour-de-france","tag-uae-team-emirates-xrg","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-vuelta-a-andalucia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}