MADRID, 19 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The director of the UAE Team Emirates, the Spanish Joxean Fernández Matxin, considered next year's Vuelta a España route “a nice bet”, a race to which they will go with “five or six options” to fight for everything, although without the presence of its main leader, the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar.
“The truth is that it is a nice bet with an initial time of 12 kilometers, with a final time of 22, with a brutal penultimate stage, which I think is around 5,000 meters and where the race can change,” said Matxin. after knowing the route of the 'great' Spanish.
For the Basque, “combining a day of rest with two mountain stages” such as “Ancares, Lagos and especially the stage of La Vega del Pas that ends in Picón Blanco.” “That route is really brutal. I think stage 20 will decide much more than stage 21, I think the final time trial will be a little more about maintaining what has been achieved in stage 20,” he indicated.
The Basque pointed out that they will go to this 'big one' with “approximately five or six options” for the final victory despite the fact that it seems unlikely that the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar or the Spanish Juan Ayuso will be there, and with the Portuguese Joao Almeida and the British Adam Yates as presumed leaders. “Obviously, leaving Portugal, it is an appointment for Joao that will give him special motivation and he leaves with a time that he defends there, even if it is a little short. It is a nice race where I think we can be protagonists,” he remarked. .
“It is clear that right now on paper there are certain riders who, if they participate, are above the rest. Tadej, Vingegaard, Roglic, all those who ride the Tour, we are going to see who we are who repeat in the Vuelta,” he added. “Tadej is always good, he is always calm, he is always smiling, he is never nervous,” he responded when asked about the Slovenian.