{"id":620422,"date":"2026-06-04T08:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T08:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/620422\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T08:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T08:12:10","slug":"we-will-wait-until-the-last-moment-to-choose-those-who-are-truly-best-prepared-uae-team-emirates-manages-injury-concerns-ahead-of-tadej-pogacars-tour-de-france-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/620422\/","title":{"rendered":"“We will wait until the last moment to choose those who are truly best prepared”: UAE Team Emirates manages injury concerns ahead of Tadej Pogacar’s Tour de France bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have to wait and see how the recovery of some riders progresses, and we will wait until the last moment to choose those who are truly best prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n

The selection complications follow a difficult Giro d’Italia for the team, where overall hopes ended early when Adam Yates, Marc Soler, and Jay Vine suffered injuries and were forced to abandon. \u201cAfter that second stage, the dreams of a high overall placing disappeared,\u201d Hauptman admitted. \u201cAll three riders who could have been high in the general classification were injured, and I hope they recover quickly because we will really need them later in the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite losing their general classification options, the remaining riders still secured four stage victories (3 with Narv\u00e1ez and 1 with Arrieta). However, the team faced further setbacks later in the race when Jhonatan Narv\u00e1ez<\/a> was forced to abandon as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end we also lost Narv\u00e1ez, who had to abandon after hitting a bus, when he was still in contention for the ciclamino jersey,\u201d Hauptman noted. \u201cI think that, given all the drama that happened to us, we have to be quite satisfied.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite these setbacks, the wealth of talent within the squad means that finalizing the Tour de France lineup will leave some quality riders off the list. \u201cWe are the best team in the world, and there will be quite a few riders who, in their own way, would deserve to go to the Tour, but will stay at home,\u201d Hauptman said.<\/p>\n

Pogacar is currently training at altitude in the Sierra Nevada and will return to competition at the Tour de Suisse from June 17 to 21 to test his form. \u201cIt will be a very important indicator of whether we have done the preparations well,\u201d he added regarding the upcoming Swiss race. \u201cAnd whether perhaps in the final week before the race we can still change something or fine tune some details.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tadej<\/p>\n

Will Pogacar win his fifth Tour de France in July?<\/p>\n

Tracking Vingegaard and preparing for the opening TTTThe team also closely watched Jonas Vingegaard<\/a>‘s dominant performance at the Giro d’Italia, where the Visma | Lease a Bike rider secured the overall title. \u201cOf course we followed him, but on the other hand we are mainly focused on ourselves,\u201d Hauptman stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know what we have to do to arrive at the Tour as well prepared as possible. As for Jonas, we already knew he was a top level rider, and I personally had no doubt that he would be back at the highest level.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2026 Tour de France opens in Barcelona on July 4 with a team time trial. Hauptman expects the unusual discipline to create immediate gaps in the standings, warning that the team cannot afford to ease into the three-week race.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first stage is the team time trial, and we will immediately have to go full gas,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery stage in a three week race can be decisive, and if you underestimate one, it can punish you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pogacar won the 2024 edition of the Tour by 6:17 over Vingegaard and the 2025 edition by 4:24. Despite those margins, Hauptman expects another close battle this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know very well that it will again be very, very difficult,\u201d Hauptman concluded. \u201cThe Tour de France is the biggest race in the world, and again this year the best riders will arrive there in top condition.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cWe still have to wait and see how the recovery of some riders progresses, and we will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[187230,4985,9046,101,8782,6549,12183,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-620422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-andrej-hauptman","tag-cycling","tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tour-de-france","tag-uae-team-emirates-xrg","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620422","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=620422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}