‘Voll auf die Fresse’: UAE riders already have to lay it all on the line in December, says Politt

December is here again, which means that in the coming weeks the pro teams, with their 2026 rosters, will once more be flocking to Spain. That also goes for UAE Emirates-XRG, the team of world champion Tadej Pogacar, which according to loyal domestique Nils Politt uses a slightly different training approach than most other teams.

Politt was a guest on the Ulle & Rick podcast from former pros Jan Ullrich and Rick Zabel, where he talked about the way his team trains. “We ride a lot in zone 2, and that’s no secret anymore. Tadej does that as well, but the problem is that his zone-2 level is different to mine. We differ by twenty kilos,” he says with a big grin.

UAE Emirates-XRG will also be based at the Costa Blanca in the coming weeks, where Politt and co already have to get through some very tough days on the bike. “During the December camp we basically ride without a plan. You see that at many teams, in recent years, more and more training is done on things like team time trials, lead-outs and the like. With us it’s more ‘voll auf die Fresse’.”

“If you get dropped, you get dropped,” is how Politt sums up that approach at his team. “We only see those guys again at the hotel. It’s full gas. Last year we had a training ride where I hit the same wattages as in the Tour of Flanders, where I’d finished third earlier that year. That’s how hard we were riding in training,” the rouleur explains.

“I have to say that even then I was still hanging at the back,” adds the man who is also a fixture in the Tour. “With my eighty-plus kilos I had to go really deep on the climbs just to follow. I really had to fight, and still needed some luck to still be there at the coffee stop. Otherwise I’d only see the guys again back at the hotel.”