Tadej Pogacar forced to say goodbye to confidant after 6 years at UAE Emirates-XRG

UAE Emirates-XRG was able to keep its rider roster for 2026 largely intact, but in the framing of Tadej Pogacar, the Emirates-based team did lose a permanent staff member. Indeed, according to Spain's El Correo, the Slovenian glutton's regular masseur, Joseba Elguezabal, is moving on to another sport.

Elguezabal has been the regular since 2019, Pogacar's first pro year, when he was allowed to take care of the oh-so-strong body of the world champion after races. In conversation with El Corrreo , the caregiver, who hails from the Basque Country, recalled the first encounter with the talent.

'The team was starting to get big and had recruited cyclists like Fabio Aru, Dan Martin, Fernando Gaviria, Alexander Kristoff and Sergio Henao. I knew Pogacar by name because he had won the 2018 Tour de l'Avenir. In the beginning, we didn't see much of each other. I was responsible for Martin's massages. Only during the Vuelta a Espana did I start treating him and it clicked between us.'

Elguezabal describes the relationship between him and Pogacar as "one that goes beyond work" and was always there for the Slovenian. 'Wherever he went, I was there.' Together, among other things, they won the Tour de France four times. Yet Elguezabel is now leaving, as he will be employed by Basque soccer club Athletic Bilbao from 2025. He also worked there for a year in youth in the previous decade.

The masseur is not the first to make that move. At the end of 2023, Inigo San Millan, Pogacar's trainer at the time, already left UAE-Team Emirates for Athletic Bilbao. Initially, he combined that new position with coaching Pogacar, but in the end the Slovenian did switch to Javier Sola as the new coach.

Pogacar recently shared another sneer at San Millan in La Gazzetta dello Sport, who has thus now managed to entice Elguezabel to join his department at Athletic Bilbao. "My former coach pointed out to me, for example, that footballers often have a private chef, someone who does the shopping, someone who takes care of the house... Well, that's nothing for me, for Urska and me."

'Sometimes it's not easy, with a messy house and suitcases everywhere, but we prefer to take care of it ourselves,' Pogacar told the Italian sports newspaper. 'I like to go to the supermarket and buy what I need myself. Or I clean the room, the windows. Or I just go for a walk. I'm not a superhero, I'm just an ordinary guy.'