News | Team • July 23, 2026
Igor Arrieta sets out to defend Clásica de Ordizia – Ordiziako Klasikoa title
UAE Team Emirates-XRG names it squads for the Spanish one-day race, with the Emirati team aiming to win the race for the fourth time in succession
On Saturday, 25 July, UAE Team Emirates-XRG will go in search of a fourth victory on the bounce at the Clásica de Ordizia – Ordiziako Klasikoa. Winners of the past three editions, the Emirati squad will line up with the defending champion, Igor Arrieta.
In Spain, the 2025 winner will be joined on the start line by last year’s third-place finisher António Morgado, alongside their UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates Filippo Baroncini, Vegard Stake Laengen, and Kevin Vermaerke. The seven-man squad will be completed by the Gen Z talents Abdulla Jasim Al-Ali and Marcos Freire.
Led by Sports Director Tomas Gil from the team car, UAE Team Emirates-XRG will hope to continue its remarkable recent record at the race.
The Emirati team first won the Clásica de Ordizia – Ordiziako Klasikoa in 2023 through Marc Hirschi, before Jan Christen took the crown a year later, and Arrieta made it three on the bounce last time out. 2025 was a particularly memorable edition for UAE Team Emirates-XRG, with Arrieta claiming his maiden professional win, and the team securing all three spots on the podium.
Arrieta crossed the line alongside his teammate Isaac del Toro, with Morgado winning the sprint from behind to take third. That 1-2-3 finish was a highlight of the squad’s record-breaking 2025 campaign, which yielded 97 victories.
This time out, the peloton will face the usual course for Clásica de Ordizia – Ordiziako Klasikoa, with the route beginning and ending in Ordizia. Along the way, the riders will face 2,418m of elevation gain across 167.5km, with that climbing coming courtesy of five ascents of the Abaltzisketa climb (2.9km at 7.3%).
The last of these ascents tops out with a little under 12km to ride. From the top of the plateau, there are 5km of descending before a flat final 2km to the line, meaning that any move will be hard to bring back at this point of proceedings.
Five laps of the Abaltzisketa course always make for difficult and exciting racing, with Saturday’s 103rd instalment of the Clásica de Ordizia – Ordiziako Klasikoa likely to prove no different. UAE Team Emirates-XRG will hope that its stellar run in Spain continues come Saturday evening.
