UAE Team Emirates Manager Mauro Gianetti sat in the back of the conference room as Tadej Pogačar talked about his hopes and ambitions for the Road World Championships in Zürich for Slovenia, quietly convinced his team leader could win the rainbow jersey on Sunday.
Gianetti signed Pogačar when he was still a teenager and has helped him develop into the generational talent that he is today. The veteran Swiss team manager helped plan and prepare Pogačar's incredible 2024 season and his Giro d'Italia-Tour de France double victory.
Now cycling's triple crown is within reach.
"If Tadej wins the triple crown it'd be amazing but the first goal has to be to win the race," Gianni warned to Cyclingnews and Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, cautious but also confident that Pogačar could soon race in a rainbow-striped UAE Team Emirates jersey.
"He's been thinking about the world title for a long time but this year is perhaps the first time the course really suits him," Gianetti pointed out. "Tadej is in very good shape. He worked so hard after the Tour, it was really impressive to see.
"He sacrificed so much in his life this year. He spent time at altitude in the spring, raced the Giro and won it, then went to altitude again. He won the Tour but only had a few days holiday. He then dived back into training with incredible passion and determination to be at his best for the World Championships."
Gianetti went close to a world title victory himself in Lugano in 1996, losing a two-rider sprint to Johan Museeuw of Belgium. Pogačar would perhaps prefer to win alone and avoid the risk of losing a sprint finish in Zürich on Sunday but Gianetti is convinced he can also win from a small group.
"Tadej is fast in a sprint too, it depends who he is with," Gianetti suggested. "Tadej can win a sprint against anyone after a hard 273km race, that's a big advantage he has."
The race and the five laps of the hilly and twisting 27-kilometre circuit in Zürich will ultimately decide if Pogačar becomes world champion.
"A lot of riders can, in theory, be up there, but how they race will decide how many riders fight for victory," Gianetti warned.
"Mathieu van der Poel can be up there if he's in good shape, there's Remco Evenepoel too, maybe a rider like Michael Matthews and others."
UAE Team Emirates will have multiple riders in Sunday's race but they will race for their national teams and so, in theory, against Pogačar, who has Primož Roglič and Jan Tratnik as key teammates in the Slovenian squad.
Marc Hirschi leads the Swiss team. He rides for UAE Team Emirates but will leave for Tudor in 2025. Gianetti is torn between cheering for Pogačar and his fellow countryman Hirschi, but both could give UAE Team Emirates the world title.
"We'd have preferred if Marc had stayed with us [UAE Team Emirates] but I can understand he wanted to team up with his good friend and mentor Fabian Cancellara at Tudor. But I'd honestly be happy if Marc won the world title because he rides for us this year and would win the rainbow jersey for us."
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