Eagle-eyed viewers watching Tadej Pogačar’s numerous victories this year and other seasons may have noticed the same face cropping up after the finish line, congratulating the Slovenian after yet another win and guiding him either towards the podium or to innumerable media interviews.
Luke Maguire has been working with the double Tour de France winner for several seasons. The 30-year-old - who raced in Ireland for his local club - is the UAE Team Emirates media officer and spoke to stickybottle at length about the team’s big star, giving an insight into his personality, his drive, his method of interacting with his teammates and the person who keeps him grounded and is fundamental to his success.
By Shane Stokes
Stickybottle: Luke, you’ve been in close proximity to Tadej Pogačar for several seasons now, gaining a behind the scenes perspective due to your role with the team. How would you sum him up as a person?
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Luke Maguire: Tadej is very calm, very confident. He is very serene. If he fell into a river, he’d come out dry. He seems to have a natural knack for being in the right place at the right time. He is obviously immensely talented - genetically, as an athlete, but also in terms of his personality. I think it’s also a Slovenian thing. He is very relaxed, very calm.
And that motivates his teammates. He brings everyone along with him. He is like the guy in the playground on the football team…the kid who will pick the kids who aren’t maybe as good and he will make them play better. He is very observant. Everyone wants to do good by Tadej. He appreciates that and gives it all back.
SB: You say he’s very calm, but also very driven. So how is his day to day interaction with his teammates? Is he someone who drives them on by shouting at them when the pressure is on, or does that easygoing nature remain?
LM: No, that wouldn’t be his style. I’ve never seen him raise his voice to anybody. I would say he lets his actions speak more than his words. He is very tactically astute. He watches a lot of cycling. He’s a big fan of the sport. When he’s not in the race he’s watching it at home. We have a team WhatsApp with all the riders and all the staff. He is the first one to put in, ‘oh well done, Trentin,’ or whoever. He watches everything. He’s a big fan of the sport. I think that he really appreciate what everyone’s going through, even the guys who aren’t perhaps as naturally talented.
And being a fan of the sport also translates to his other big motivation, which is Urška [Žigart, professional cyclist with Team BikeExchange Jayco], his girlfriend. I remember his second Tour, when he was in yellow. He had crossed the line at one of the biggest stages in the Tour, Hautacam or one of the other top finishes, he sunk his head on the bars crossing the line, but then he lifted up his head and said, ‘how did Urška get on?’ That was the first thing he said. And that was after he was fighting it out in the yellow jersey.
She was racing in the Czech Republic at the same time. That’s all he cared about at that moment. He was literally out of breath, he was dead, but he said, ‘how did Urška get on today?’ His ability to place himself elsewhere is remarkable. He’ll say a lot, ‘this is just cycling. I have a great life. I’m lucky. I get to go out on my bike.’ That is probably is what keeps him calm and cool. That and looking out for other people, I would say.
SB: When it’s not in the middle of the Tour, or these big races, what’s he like away from competition?
LM: He likes to switch off. He likes to go home and just be at home and cook with his girlfriend and watch telly or go for spins or go for a walk. Reading…
SB: What sort of books?
LM: He was reading the Godfather in the Vuelta a couple of years ago, I remember. But I walked into his room there a few weeks ago, and he had a book open. What was it? [He thinks for a moment] A lot of it is fantasy novels, suspense, that kind of stuff. He sometimes uses reading to get to sleep, he uses that way to nod off.
SB: You mentioned Urška and the relationship he has with her. Do you think that’s a fundamental part of his success and being grounded? Does this ongoing relationship give him stability and a sense of perspective?
LM: Absolutely, yeah. And her character helps him a lot as well. She’s a very clever girl. He’s in touch with her 24/7. I’d say she is fundamental to Tadej’s success.
He is more worried about her career, her results, than his own, in some respects. And about seeing her doing well.
SB: Can you think of anything interesting or unusual from your time working with him? Is there anything that stands out?
LM: Well, when he won the Tour de France in 2021 he bought all his teammates yellow mopeds. Yellow vespas [laughs].
From Wexford to the World Tour
Maguire first got on a racing bike when he was 12 years of age. His father David had bought the bike to do a charity cycle. The family were on holidays and Maguire took the bike on a spin around a French campsite, getting hooked.
He joined the Wexford Wheelers, raced up to under 23 level, and has remained immersed in the sport since then. His family is likewise immersed. His father is a Cycling Ireland commissaire and chairman of Wexford Wheelers, while his brothers Andy (Team Stafford Bonded), the 2020 national critierium champion, and Hugh (UCD) compete.
Maguire studied Spanish in Maynooth, graduating in 2015, and applied for a government grant to go teaching abroad. He headed to Bilbao for a year while also doing some under 23 racing there. He also began dabbling in journalism, going on training rides with local professionals and then interviewing them on café stops. One of those interviewed was the Spanish pro Pello Bilbao. He put Maguire in touch with his-then Caja Rural team, who interviewed him, offered him a job and flew him to the Tour of Utah two weeks later.
Maguire subsequently moved to Girona and worked with the Velon organisation for two years before changing to where he is now.
SB: Luke, how did your work with UAE Team Emirates come about?
LM: From Velon I got to make a lot of contacts through all the teams and one of those teams was UAE Team Emirates. They invited me to come along and take care of their press. The first race I did with them, which was a kind of a trial, was the 2019 Vuelta. And that race happened to coincide with where Pogačar rose [finishing third overall – ed.] and made his name in the World Tour. I had a good connection from the start with him.
From there I signed a full contract with UAE and have been there now a few years.
LM: So what does your work involve in a given year?
My role is press officer, and that involves taking care of all aspects of communication for the team. Apart from myself we have a videographer, a social media manager and a marketing manager. So there’s four of us in total. My principal function is to handle all requests from the world media, as well as drafting press releases, which could be a race report, new rider signing, contract extensions, team news, all that. And then strategizing for social media, organizing press conferences, heading up the big events. Those would be the main functions.
SB: How are your interactions with Tadej Pogačar?
LM: I’d say we have a very good professional relationship. I feel like his uncool older brother badgering him to be interviewed by old journalists [laughs]. But he takes it all very well. I explain to him why we’re doing it and he understands the media are important, and that the show doesn’t go on without that media to broadcast it, without journalists.
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He takes it all very much in his stride. He knows no other way either, he’s had success since he was young so he’s used to it. I remember once in the Tour, he was in the yellow jersey and this particular day no-one had requested to interview him. I think they thought he was too busy. He instinctively went into the mixed zone anyway. We said, ‘Tadej, you are all right [i.e don’t worry – ed.]….’ He went back to the bus [laughs].
My own relationship with him is good. But he’s good with everybody, from the nutritionist to the soigneur. He knows everyone is doing their best. And he looks really into all the details and into what work everyone’s doing. He doesn’t take anything for granted. He knows all the logistics behind what goes into a team and what goes into making a team great.
I wouldn’t say he’s a perfectionist, but he likes things to be done well. He likes things to be done the right way.
SB: You say he doesn’t shout at teammates, but have you seen him lose his temper outside the team?
LM: Yeah, for sure. We all saw it the day where he lost his head with Dylan Van Baarle at the finish line in Flanders. That was out of pure frustration… As people said, he was the only man in history to finish fourth in a two man sprint [smiles] but it is very rarely like that. He can be a bit prickly at times, but you can neutralize it very, very quickly. And he comes back down, he understands straightaway. He’s very smart guy. Very bright.
SB: Looking from a distance, he doesn’t come across as a rider with a big ego…
LM: Not at all. No, no, no. He’s totally grounded. He has no airs or graces about him. There’s no ego whatsoever.
Bouncing back from Tour disappointment
Pogačar has a long history as a winner, but last summer he had a rare taste of defeat. After being the strongest rider in the opening days of the Tour de France, he wilted on stage 11 and lost time, slipping out of the yellow jersey. Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) took over at the top and though Pogačar fired off numerous attacks, he was unable to wrest back the Maillot Jaune. Maguire gives an insight into that defeat and what Pogačar has done since.
SB: He went into last year’s Tour as the top favourite, being a two-time Tour winner, the defending champion, and having had a fantastic season. Then things didn’t quite work out. What was the mood like at last year’s Tour when he was trying to win it and ultimately finished second?
LM: I remember sitting behind the podium just after the time trial. He was really tired. He was looking off into the distance and he was disappointed. But then we went back to the hotel and he perked up again. He took it with a lot of philosophy, we will say.
If anything it’s going to make them hungrier to come back next time. He’s changed a few things this year in the build-up. He didn’t do altitude in January. He took it a lot easier, much more gentle…well, gentle by his standards. He still won a lot of races.
He didn’t the UAE Tour, he didn’t do altitude training. He already had a lot more rest. So he is going back to try to win it this year. If he hadn’t finished second last year, maybe we would have been looking at him going to the Giro or the Vuelta this season. Whereas not winning last year has refocused things on the Tour.
SB: Tour de France aside, there has been talk about winning all five Monuments as a goal. He has three so far. What are your thoughts on this?
LM: I think the last two Monuments [Roubaix and Milan San Remo] would be by far the most difficult to tick off. Especially Roubaix. He’s never done it before. But he’s still just 24. I can’t speak for him on that stuff, really, but it definitely wouldn’t be impossible to see him winning all five.
It wouldn’t be out of the ordinary. Well, it would be out of the ordinary…
And finally…
For fans of the sport, Maguire has what might seem like the ideal job. He’s immersed in pro cycling, is working with arguably the biggest name in the sport, and spends his time at the top races and in a multitude of foreign countries. We asked him about the highs and lows of the job, plus what he’d advise to anyone who’d like to be working in the same environment.
SB: For the people reading this, what would you say the best thing about your job is?
LM: Getting to travel the world doing what you love. It is a bit of a cliche, but getting to meet people from all walks of life, from all over the world. And in my case, getting to see things that I would have only seen on television before and being part of it. It’s still a bit surreal. You never really get used to it. I am now working with guys I grew up watching on the television, like Matteo Trentin. I remember watching him on television, and now I’m coordinating all their interviews and all their press. If you had told me when I was 12 I’d be doing this, I wouldn’t have believed you.
SB: Do you think you’ve been lucky, or do you think there’s something about your character that’s led you to where you are?
LM: A bit of both, I’d say. Picking up language is probably the best thing I ever did, both personally and for work. I think languages in professional sport and cycling in particular just gets you a long way. It helps a lot.
SB: What do you speak?
English, Spanish and then a certain level of Italian. All the our staff on the team are Italian, almost. I did Italian lessons last winter. So I’m kind of trying to improve that. And I can speak as Gaeilge as well!
SB: What is the hardest thing about your job?
LM: Also the travel. Establishing routines. It can be quite stressful at times, I guess, particularly in the Tour. It’s exhausting. You could be up at six or seven in the morning and you keep going until midnight. There’s no nine to five, there’s no Monday to Friday. Weekends are often your busiest time because that’s when the races are on. You are constantly online, constantly. As a press officer, you have to be available to chat to the press.
It is quite demanding in that sense. You are never fully on, you are never fully off.
SB: Do you get tired of the travelling? Are there points in the year where you just want to stay at home and be in one place for a few months?
LM: Not yet. I’m still 30. I’m in no rush to settle down. But then again, I don’t think I’d be doing the same thing in ten years, twenty years.
I could see myself staying in the cycling world down the road. But maybe in a role which requires less travel. I’d like to have my own family in the future. This year I will be away from home probably 140 days, which is on the upper limit of things. But some of the guys do 200 days.
SB: What advice would you give to someone looking at the sport and saying ‘wow, it would be great to work with a team.’ What would you say to them?
LM: Try to learn a language if you can. Be prepared to work for nothing at first. Take any opportunity you can. Put yourself out there. Be nice to people, be friendly.
