'We’re rewarded when Pogacar wins' - Pavel Sivakov on life inside UAE

Sivakov ended 2025 late, racing through until Il Lombardia, where he helped Tadej Pogačar to a fifth victory, and then switched off. “It was good,” Sivakov told La Dépêche. “I stopped after that long season, travelled a bit, I was in the Dolomites, in London too, and then we had appointments with the team like the Cycling Festival in Abu Dhabi, and the camps that started in December near Benidorm.”

Racing starts early again in 2026, with the week's Challenge Mallorca first on the list. “Only the first two races, Trofeo Calvia and Ses Salines on Wednesday and Thursday, then I’ll ride again in Spain, in Andalucía, at the Ruta del Sol,” Sivakov said.

He won there in 2025, but he is not expecting a repeat this time out. “I don’t think so,” Sivakov said. “They really changed the entire route and this year it should be more favourable to sprinters and puncheurs. We’ll see, but it won’t be the same Ruta as last year.”

From Andalucía, it is close to a copy of last year: the Drôme-Ardèche classics, Paris-Nice, Catalunya and the full Ardennes block of Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, before moving on to the Tour de Romandie, the Dauphiné and, if all goes smoothly, the Tour.

The Frenchman already knows he is pencilled in again around Tadej Pogačar as he chases a fifth title, and he explains what that does to a rider’s headspace.

“It’s clear that knowing that at the start of the season reassures you, and it’s a sign of trust to know we’re counted on for these big objectives. We know we are part of the team around Tadej and that he’ll be happy to have us with him.”

When the conversation turns to his switch from Ineos Grenadiers to UAE Team Emirates-XRG in 2024, Sivakov has no doubts. “No, honestly, I don’t regret it at all and I’m convinced my choice was the right one. I think being part of this team is the dream of many riders,” he said. “We’re rewarded when Tadej wins and he wins often, but we also have the possibility to target races we can win ourselves…”

That is the pull. Pogačar’s success lifts the people around him, and Sivakov said the feeling runs through the entire setup, not just the eight riders in the race. 

“It makes you proud to belong to this collective and it’s not only the riders,” he said. “The staff and all the members of the team feel it the same way. You see the race, the moment of success, the visible part, but we live entire months for these objectives and we live them all together, in meetings, camps, altitude blocks. It’s rewarding work that suits us.”