UAE boss doesn't mince words: 'I won't lie: the goal is to achieve what Visma has achieved'

Matxin once again finished the year in the No. 1 spot in the UCI rankings, with 78 victories. “Ultimately, you end up in the position that many teams and cyclists would love to be in. It’s a privileged and coveted position, and I understand why they’re trying to strengthen their teams and surpass us,” he said.

"I think what we were missing was that little obsession with Milan-San Remo; we never seemed to get it. And then, when you least expected it—because this year, after the crash, things were looking grim—we finally won,” he says, looking back on the most memorable moment of 2026.

"What am I longing for right now? "I won't lie—what Visma has achieved: winning the Giro, the Tour, and the Vuelta in the same year," he says, referring to the team's extremely successful 2023 season, in which they won all three Grand Tours with Primož Roglič, Jonas Vingegaard, and Sepp Kuss.

Matxin isn't ready to reveal exactly what that plan will look like. Rumour has it that Isaac del Toro will head to the Giro d'Italia as team leader, while Tadej Pogačar is said to be aiming for his sixth Tour de France victory and his first Vuelta a España win.

“Riders like Del Toro and Pogačar will be contenders for the win in every race. What I can guarantee is that we’ll have a balanced team—a season in which everyone gets their chance.”

"I hope that dream can come true next year. I think it could happen any year, but I don't know why it hasn't happened yet. This year, we've really had some bad luck with crashes," said Matxin. "We’ve had 78 crashes. 18 of the 30 riders were injured. I think all those circumstances have made us stronger and helped us improve."

The idea that this might be an “anti-Pogačar” Tour de France doesn’t quite sit right with the Spaniard. “What the organisers have in mind—and I understand their point of view—is to prevent the Tour from being decided on the fourth stage. I get that. Last year, they explained to me that they had included the Tourmalet stage with the intention of keeping the Tour open, and I understood that from a different perspective,” he notes.

"I mean, if you've just completed a tough climb followed by a climb with a 3% gradient, no one is going to drop anyone on that 3% stretch, and whoever crosses the finish line half a minute late will end up losing three. I’m no fortune-teller, but I do understand that the organisers are looking for formats that keep the race as open as possible,” Matxin explains.

Who does he see as Pogačar's biggest competitor in the Tour? “I would never say who the main rival is. Because just as Seixas has stepped into the spotlight this year, someone else could do the same. And just as Jonas Vingegaard was the usual rival, he wasn’t this year because of a crash. And just as Tadej didn’t win the Vuelta a España because of a crash.”

"In cycling, everything changes very quickly. Last year we were talking about Jonas being the rival, but it turned out to be Remco. We shouldn’t rule out Remco. We shouldn’t rule out Jonas. And of course, we shouldn’t rule out Paul Seixas either, because he’s made a brilliant entrance onto the scene,” he says, naming them one by one.