Isaac del Toro and Adam Yates to lead UAE Team Emirates-XRG at the UAE Tour

UAE Team Emirates-XRG will soon be back on home roads in the United Arab Emirates, with the eighth edition of the UAE Tour set to take place from Monday, 16 February, to Sunday, 22 February. As the only WorldTour stage race in the Middle East, this week-long stage race is one of the most hotly-anticipated events of the early season.

In turn, the Emirati squad is ready to come to the start line with a team full of ambition. Led by race debutant Isaac del Toro and former race winner Adam Yates, the seven-man squad has plenty of firepower to leave its mark on the big climbs.

On Jebel Mobrah and the iconic Jebel Hafeet, both Del Toro and Yates will be confident of racing on the front foot and making a bid for the final podium. For UAE Team Emirates-XRG, this is a race where home really does draw out the best.

The Emirati team has won three of the race’s seven editions through Tadej Pogačar and taken 10 stage victories along the way. In fact, of the one race that Pogačar finished as the runner-up, it was his future teammate Yates who claimed the title.

Winner of the 2020 edition, the British climber will be back at the UAE Tour for his sixth appearance. In his previous outings for UAE Team Emirates-XRG, Yates has contributed to those 10 stage victories, as has Colombian sprinter Sebastián Molano. Both men will be lining up for the first stage at Madinat Zayed Majlis.

Molano will head up UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s sprinting ambitions, and heads into this year’s race full of confidence, after having taken his first win of the season at the recent Tour of Oman.

Del Toro, Yates and Molano will each be supported by an experienced collection of riders, with the seven-man squad rounded out by Rune Herregodts, Nils Politt, Kevin Vermaerke, and Florian Vermeersch. Both Vermeersch and Herregodts helped Pogačar to his third UAE Tour crown this time last year, and will be hoping to offer up the same impeccable help to Del Toro in his first crack at the race.

Perhaps the big breakthrough star of 2025, Del Toro heads into the new season as the Mexican National Champion, both on the road and in the time trial discipline. The UAE Tour will offer the 21-year-old the chance to debut his kit in both disciplines, and the young sensation is looking forward to what will be his first appearance at the Emirati stage race.

Del Toro: “I’m really excited to line up for my first UAE Tour. It’s a special race for me, not only because it’s my debut, but because it’s a home race for the team, and you really feel that sense of pride and responsibility.

I’ve spent some time reconning some of the main stages, getting familiar with the roads and the key moments, and that’s given me a lot of confidence. The level here will be very high, with some of the best riders in the world on the start line, but we’ve prepared really well as a group and we’re ready to give our best and race aggressively.

I hope for a good performance but we also have the class and experience of someone like Yates and then Molano for the sprints, so we have lots of options.”

With two summit finishes and plenty of sprint opportunities on offer, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad will be led in the team car by Sports Directors Andrej Hauptman (Slo), Marco Marzano (Ita) and Yousif Mirza (UAE).

As for the route, this year’s UAE Tour has a classic feel with one major twist: the addition of the new Jebel Mobrah climb on stage 3. Before that fearsome test, however, two interesting stages will set the tone for the rest of the week.

First up, the sprinters will get the opportunity to test their speed against one another on stage 1. Raced from Madinat Zayed Majlis to Liwa Palace, the opening day will be a repeat of last year’s finish, which even drew Pogačar into the thick of the action, such was the unexpected difficulty of the final straight.

On that day, Molano had been caught in a crash, and in his absence, the Slovenian burst from the pack and launched a vicious acceleration in the final few hundred metres. His move did not ultimately upset the sprinters, but it did emphasise the drag which leads to the line by Liwa Palace. The sprinters will certainly have their eyes on this one, but they would be wise not to unleash their efforts too soon.

Stage 2, meanwhile, will see the general classification contenders set their marks for the week, with a 12.3km-long individual time trial planned on Al Hudayriyat Island. The course is neither long nor overly technical, but it should draw out a few precious gaps between those looking to win the 2026 UAE Tour.

For fans looking with intrigue at the new summit finish in this year’s UAE Tour, stage 3 is the one to watch. Starting out in Umm al Qwain and stretching out for 182.9km, stage 3 to Jebel Mobrah is the longest of the race, and will bring the riders to a brand-new 14km-long climb.

The first 5.7km are relatively ‘timid,’ averaging a solid 6% gradient, but after a short downhill of 1.4km, the true challenge stands ahead of the riders. With ramps up towards 20%, the final 6.9km of the Jebel Mobrah average a whopping 11.7%. It is on this terrain that the true contenders for the final podium will show face, and the pretenders will fall to the wayside.

After this showdown, the sprinters will face a welcome reprieve in the form of a somewhat gentler day out to and from Fujairah on stage 4. However, the desert region of the Hajar Mountains bring their own challenges, and we have seen plenty of sprint stages ripped apart by crosswinds in days of UAE Tours gone by.

A more mundane affair awaits on stage 5 from Dubai Al Mamzar to Dubai Hamdan bin Mohammed Smart University, where only 566m of climbing is due on the 165.8km-long course. For reference, the flat finish on stage 4 contains some 2,022m of elevation. The sprinters will have this fifth day circled emphatically in their road books.

In the wake of two likely sprint finishes, the general classification contenders will come back out to play on stage 6, with the second and final summit finish of the race. This day, of course, ends on the slopes of the Jebel Hafeet mountain, which has become synonymous with the UAE Tour.

Starting out at Al Ain Museum, the last 11km of stage 6 average 6.6%, with past winners on this mountain including both Adam Yates and Tadej Pogačar. Winner in both 2020 and 2023, Yates will surely relish a return to Jebel Hafeet this time around.

Finally, the UAE Tour will draw to a close with a pan-flat stage from Abu Dhabi Zayed National Museum to Abu Dhabi Breakwater on stage 7. Before all eyes turn to the last sprint of the race, landmarks on the route will include the city landscape of Abu Dhabi, Yas Island, and the Yas Marina Formula One Circuit.