UAE squad confirmed

This team should accompany Pogacar to Tour victory

One day after last year's winner Jonas Vingegaard's Team Visma, the team of top favorite and Giro winner Tadej Pogacar, UAE, has also announced its definitive squad for the Tour de France starting on June 29. 

In addition to Tour de Suisse winner Adam Yates (GBR) and Joao Almeida (POR), Spaniards Juan Ayuso and Marc Soler, Pavel Sivakov (FRA), Tim Wellens (BEL) and Nils Politt (GER) will also support Pogacar in the fight for overall victory.

Death in the family
Those responsible at UAE did not deviate from the pre-selection made in December when selecting the eight riders. Last week, Pogacar ended his altitude training camp in the French Alps three days earlier than planned due to the death of his grandfather. After his triumph at the Giro d'Italia, the Slovenian is aiming for his third overall victory after 2020 and 2021 at the 111th Tour of France starting in Florence. The last time the Italian Marco Pantani achieved the double of Giro and Tour was in 1998.

Felix Großschartner, one of Pogacar's noble helpers in his Giro triumph, will be at the start of the Tour of Austria, which overlaps with the first week of the TdF. From an Austrian perspective, Felix Gall (Decathlon), Gregor Mühlberger (Movistar) and Marco Haller (Bora) currently appear on the provisional start list. Patrick Konrad (Lidl) also has hopes of a Tour jersey.