Adam Yates leads UAE Team Emirates-XRG at first O Gran Camiño appearance

With Paris-Roubaix marking an end to the spring Classics, attention quickly turns back to the stage racing calendar, an exciting proposition at ‘The Historical Route’ of O Gran Camiño. There, for the fifth edition of this Spanish stage race, UAE Team Emirates-XRG will make its race debut, led by the returning Adam Yates.

The British climber heads to Galicia after a short break following the UAE Tour, with the 33-year-old ready to lead the Emirati squad’s hopes across the five stages.

Despite only having held four editions to date, O Gran Camiño has already built a burgeoning reputation for exciting racing between the sport’s biggest talents. This much is obvious through its roll of honour, with Alejandro Valverde’s victory in the inaugural edition followed by two wins of Jonas Vingegaard and Derek Gee-West’s title in 2025.

Hoping to add his name to this list of winners, Yates will take to the start line in A Coruña backed up by a squad that combines both youth and experience. Direction from the team car will be given by Sports Directors Tomas Gil and Manuele Mori.

Filling out the six-man UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad alongside Yates will be the WorldTour trio, Julius Johansen, Vegard Stake Laengen and Kevin Vermaerke, along with the young Emirati talents, Abdulla Jasim Al-Ali and Mohammad Almutaiwei.

The race comes at a perfect time for both UAE Team Emirates Gen Z riders, with Jasim Al-Ali and Almutaiwei coming into O Gran Camiño as recently-crowned national champions of the United Arab Emirates. It was in the time trial discipline that Jasim Al-Ali triumphed, before Almutaiwei followed suit in the road race on Sunday.

Together, the pair will hope to gain valuable experience in Galicia and provide the necessary support to their teammates. In this endeveour they will be helped by the proven trio of Johansen, Stake Laengen, and Vermaerke.

Johansen returns to stage racing after a mightily impressive debut spring Classica campaign, in which the Danish rouleur produced a number of important rides for his teammates, and even spent nigh on 200km in the breakaway of the day at In Flanders Fields. He will prove quite the double-act with his Scandinavian colleague Stake Laengen in the UAE Team Emirates-XRG engine room.

For Vermaerke, O Gran Camiño presents an opportunity to shine as Yates’ leading climbing support. The American has made a fine start to life in the Emirati squad, with strong outings at the AlUla Tour, the UAE Tour and Tirreno-Adriatico, as well as playing a guiding hand in Tadej Pogačar’s Strade Bianche victory.

Beginning on Tuesday, 14 April, the fifth instalment of O Gran Camiño is marked by a series of rolling parcours, one tough Queen stage, and a short individual time trial on the opening day.

At just 15km in length, the stage 1 ITT will begin in A Coruña, and feature a few lumps and bumps along the way to the finish at the historic lighthouse of Torre de Hércules.

From Vilalba to Barreiros, stage 2 introduces a series of climbs into the final 25km of its 148.6km parcours, which should suit the puncheurs. These same puncheurs will be in contention once more on stage 3 between Carballo and Padrón, before the race hosts its toughest route on stage 4.

Billed as the Queen stage of the race, stage 4 will run for 145.7km between Xinzo de Limia and the Alto Cabeza de Meda. Almost 3,000m of climbing awaits for the peloton on Friday, with most of that crammed into the last 60km of racing. The riders will actually ascend the Alto Cabeza de Meda on two occasions (each from a different side), with an ascent of the Alto de Rodicio (5km at 6.6%) squeezed inbetween.

The final climb to the line on the Queen stage stretches out for 5.1km at a mouthwatering average gradient of 9.4%, promising a true battle between the race’s strongest climbers.

To end the 2026 O Gran Camiño, the race organisers have plotted another uphill finish for the peloton on stage 5. Beginning out from As Neves, Saturday’s finale rolls along for 151.1km, before a 3.6km climb to the finish on Monte Trega. With an average gradient of 7.6%, the race for the overall victory may well prove wide open until the winner of the final stage is crowned.