Criticism of UAE selection: "They’re taking a risk again" and "Why do you even need him?"

“I might not be objective because I raced with him in the Tour of Switzerland and got my ass handed to me,” said Sam Oomen in the Live Slow Ride Fast podcast by Laurens ten Dam. Oomen is referring to Joao Almeida, one of Pogacar’s helpers, who impressed him greatly. “I think he’s made another step forward and is better than last year. Also, if you look at his results in the races he’s done this year, he’s been very successful.”

Indeed, Almeida won the Tour of Switzerland, Tour of Romandie and Tour of the Basque Country this year, finished sixth overall in Paris-Nice, and second in both the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and the Volta ao Algarve. “Imagine you get a race situation where only a small group remains, and Almeida hasn’t had to work yet. If he still has something left and hasn’t had to ride because Visma has made the race hard, he’s not just going to drop off voluntarily. I’m really curious.”

The 29-year-old Oomen isn’t in France himself, but saw Almeida do remarkable things in training leading up to the Tour. “I don’t know exactly how good he is, but he took the KOM (fastest time on Strava, ed.) on the Monachil, in the heat. That’s a really relevant climb. It’s on the side of the Sierra Nevada. It’s permanently warm there and you’re sweating. It’s a climb that doesn’t flow: steep, flat, steep, flat… He uploaded that ride to Strava for about an hour and then deleted it. Florian Vermeersch did a lead-out there. And Joao just flew past. If you take a KOM there, you’re really a serious player.”

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Vermeersch’s name came up. Thijs Zonneveld also mentioned him in his podcast In de Waaier when discussing UAE’s Tour squad. “What a fantastic team for the whole Tour,” was his conclusion. “But a lot will fall on the shoulders of Nils Politt and Tim Wellens. Who do I miss? Florian Vermeersch! I wouldn’t take Marc Soler.”

He then explains why he wouldn’t choose Soler, one of the climbers in the defending champion’s team. “They need an extra person to position Pogacar in the first eleven days. They’re taking this risk again. They’ve gotten away with it often in recent years. But they systematically and structurally take a big risk, which wasn’t necessary. They already have Sivakov, Almeida, Wellens, Yates. They already have guys who are good in the mountains. Even Politt has done climbs where only thirty riders were left. Why do you even need Soler?”

That question remains unanswered. “It’s not like he’s riding amazingly either. I really don’t get it. It’s just one climber too many. They’re really taking a risk here. And if you look at Visma’s team, it’s more balanced. They have Yates, Kuss and Jorgenson as very strong climbers, but also guys who can handle all the intermediate stages really well, with Affini and Campenaerts for initial positioning, and then Benoot, Jorgenson and Van Aert for later in the race. In the first eleven days, they will be able to support Vingegaard better than UAE can support Pogacar. So I think Visma made the more logical choice.”