UAE Tour 2024: UAE Team Emirates embrace pressure of home race expectations

UAE Team Emirates possess such strength in depth nowadays that even without Tadej Pogacar for this year's UAE Tour, the home team are regarded as runaway favourites for the general classification title.

Pogacar, the world's best road cyclist and two-time UAE Tour winner, is preparing for a Giro d'Italia-Tour de France double – not to mention the Paris Olympics – so his schedule is tailored specifically around his Grand Tour ambitions.

That, however, has not left UAE Team Emirates short of options. Far from it, in fact. Team leader Adam Yates is widely considered the man to beat, while teammates Brandon McNulty and Jay Vine are respectively billed second and third among the pre-race favourites.

There are, of course, seven days of competitive racing against a high-quality field before the team can entertain thoughts of triumph. But there is a very real possibility that UAE Team Emirates could lock out the GC podium – and in their home race, too.

Such expectations are in contrast to the team's earlier days in the first edition of the UAE Tour in 2019. Back then, and having only been formed two years earlier, the highest they placed was seventh in the GC. In the five years since, UAE Team Emirates have evolved into a force, becoming the highest-ranked team on the UCI World Tour. Success is no longer hoped for but assumed.

"It’s the home race so a little bit of pressure, a little bit of stress, but it’s not something we’re not used to," Yates told The National. "Hopefully we can work well as a team, stay out of trouble, and try not to make any mistakes. It’s going to be a good race."

Teammate Vegard Stake Laengen agreed that the stakes are higher for UAE Team Emirates than the rest of their rivals in the peloton.

"We feel the