João Almeida to lead UAE Team Emirates-XRG at mountainous Volta a Catalunya

Ahead of the 105th Volta a Catalunya, UAE Team Emirates-XRG is pleased to announce its lineup, led by the returning João Almeida.

Forced to skip the recent Paris-Nice due to a small illness, a healthy Almeida will be back to lead the line for the Emirati squad at the race where he finished third in both 2022 and 2023. For Almeida and company, three summit finishes await at this year’s race, offering plenty of opportunities to impress.

The Volta a Catalunya will also mark a special comeback for Almeida’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammate, Filippo Baroncini. The seven-day stage race will be the Italian’s first competitive outing in 230 days, marking an end to his extensive period of rehabilitation from injuries suffered at last year’s Tour de Pologne.

There, the 25-year-old experienced a high-speed crash which left him with numerous facial injuries, a fractured collarbone and a fractured vertebrae. The Emirati squad quickly rallied around the fallen Italian, with Baroncini penning a two-year contract extension with the team, and his progress since the crash has been remarkable.

First returning to the bike in advance of the UAE Team Emirates-XRG October camp in Abu Dhabi, Baroncini has been tireless in his quest to return to the peloton, and will be welcomed back with the well wishes of the whole team on Monday morning. The Italian is fit and firing to impress, as he has so often done in the past.

In a similar vein, Jay Vine will be on the start line for UAE Team Emirates-XRG, ready to make his European debut for 2026. The Australian began his season in exceptional condition at the Santos Tour Down Under, winning both a stage and the overall title (for the second time), but ended the race with injuries suffered from a collision with a kangaroo.

Undergoing his rehab period at his home in Andorra, the 30-year-old has enjoyed his training kilometres in all manner of conditions. A week in the Catalonian sun will present a great opportunity to get back to racing for the Emirati squad.

In the Volta a Catalunya, Almeida, Baroncini and Vine will be joined by Brandon McNulty, Ivo Oliveira, Adrià Pericas, and Marc Soler, with Sports Directors Tomas Gil and Fabrizio Guidi in charge from the team car.

It is a race that the team knows how to win, with Tadej Pogačar storming to an impressive victory in 2024, before Juan Ayuso took the runner-up spot for the team last season. Stage wins have come from Pogačar, Ayuso and Almeida in the last four years.

This time out, there are three mountaintop finishes in the Volta a Catalunya, bringing the race to a total of 20,553m of elevation gain across its seven stages.

Those three summit finishes come on back-to-back-to-back days with around 4,000m of climbing, all of which precede the usual Alt de Montjuïc circuit race on the final stage in Barcelona.

Stage 1 begins and ends in Sant Feliu de Guíxols for the sixth year in a row. Despite a couple of climbs along the route, the pan-flat finale should suit a bunch sprint. The same can be said for stage 2 between Figueres and Banyoles, before a rolling stage from Mont Roig del Camp to Vila Seca looks suited to the more versatile sprinters on day three.

Stages 4, 5 and 6 are the toughest of the race, with three successive summit finishes in order. First up, the riders will travel from Mataró to Vallter for a finish at 2,110m of altitude. If that weren’t hard enough already, the final climb of stage 4 itself stretches out for 11.4km at 7.6%.

Stage 5 has the most elevation gain of the race, packing in a whopping 4,522m of climbing across its 155.6km. Five classified climbs precede another finish at altitude at La Molina. To end the succession of stages in the mountains, the sixth day of racing concludes with two category 1 climbs and a repeat of the stage between Berga and Queralt, last won by UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s Tadej Pogačar.

The last day of the race runs along the traditional circuit in Barcelona, with no less than seven ascents of the Alt del Castell de Montjuïc to tackle. All in all, this year’s Volta a Catalunya looks to be the toughest edition in many years, promising a thrilling week of action.