UAE reportedly wanted Tadej Pogacar until 2034 before agreeing 2032 extension

The two sides ultimately agreed on a contract through 2032, adding two years to Pogačar's previous deal and keeping the five time Tour de France winner with UAE well into the next decade.

Neither Pogačar nor the team has confirmed the reported 2034 proposal, but if accurate, it offers an indication of just how far UAE were prepared to go to secure the future of their biggest star.

The Slovenian joined UAE in 2019 and has since become the defining rider of the team’s rise, winning five Tours de France, the Giro d'Italia, the World Championships and multiple Monuments.

His 2026 season further underlined that status, with victories at Strade Bianche, Milan-Sanremo, the Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Tour de Romandie and the Tour de Suisse before a record equalling fifth Tour title.

His campaign ended abruptly at the Vuelta a España, where a stage 8 crash left him with a concussion, a C7 fracture and a broken collarbone. UAE later confirmed that he would not race again this season.

Pogačar's previous contract ran until the end of 2030, meaning the new agreement already takes him deep into the latter part of his career. He will be 34 when the deal expires.

Had UAE got their reported original wish, that commitment would have stretched until 2034, when Pogačar will be 36.

That is significant because Pogačar has never given the impression that he intends to race indefinitely. Despite everything he has already achieved, the Slovenian has remained deliberately vague whenever the subject of retirement has come up.

At various points, the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles have been floated as a moment when he could take stock of his career. Pogačar later played down suggestions that this amounted to a retirement plan and stressed that he intended to honour his contract with UAE.

The extension to 2032 has now pushed that conversation further down the road. The reported talks over 2034 suggest UAE were willing to push it further still.

Asked about Pogačar committing his future to UAE through 2032, Matxin joked that too much should not be read into the speculation that had surrounded the Slovenian's long term plans.

“This is probably the wrong thing to say to the media, but don't believe everything you read in the press,” he said.

For Matxin, the extension was instead about reinforcing the relationship between Pogačar and the team.

“That the best cyclist in the world continues to make history with the best team in the world, and that this connection is consolidated in the form of a contract until 2032, I think means a lot to both sides,” Matxin said.

“It says a lot about that connection, that affection, that commitment and, above all, the work that has been done over a long period of time, since he was starting out in professional cycling.”

That relationship has become central to UAE's long term project, with Matxin stressing that Pogačar's importance to the team goes beyond what he delivers on the bike.

“I think about the connection there is with Tadej, and the connection Tadej has with his teammates, with the team and with the staff,” he said.

“Personally, I am grateful to him, not only on the professional side, which I think is obvious, but also on the human side.”

Whether 2034 was ever realistic is unclear. What is certain is that Pogačar remains central to UAE’s plans for as long as the Slovenian himself wants to continue.