Tadej Pogačar to race Tre Valli Varesine in anticipation of Il Lombardia

With the World Championships in the rearview mirror and the European Championships drawing to a close, all eyes will soon turn to the one-day races that primarily take place in Italy through the month of October. In turn, UAE Team Emirates-XRG is ready to announce its squads for the handful of races to come in the next seven days.

The final WorldTour one-day race of the season will be Il Lombardia, where Tadej Pogačar will look to chase a record-breaking fifth straight title a week on Saturday, but first, the freshly-crowned two-time world champion will enjoy one final tune-up at Tre Valli Varesine on Tuesday, 7 October.

There, Pogačar will lead a UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad that also includes Isaac del Toro and Jay Vine, both of whom will head to Italy on the back of an impressive World Championships campaign. For Pogačar, the race has been his favoured final outing before Il Lombardia for each of his last three victories.

In 2022, Pogačar won Tre Valli Varesine and, in doing so, claimed UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s first victory in the event that dates back to 1919.

Pogačar: “Kigali was an amazing experience and obviously I’m thrilled with the result and the performance of the team. It’s an honour to wear the rainbow jersey and I’ll continue to wear it with pride. It’s been an amazing season for me personally and the whole UAE team, so we can say that anything that comes after this is a bonus.

“After the Europeans, Il Lombardia will be the last target of the season, and we decided to also do Tre Valli Varesine as a warm-up. As we all know, it was unfortunately cancelled last year so it will be nice to come back and honour the race.”

Beginning in Busto Arsizio and taking in 3,171m of climbing on the 198.5km route to Varese, Tre Valli Varesine was forced to be cancelled last season as a result of heavy rain. Back for its 105th edition in 2025, the Italian semi-Classic will see the peloton’s best climbers do battle once more for the overall title.

Up and down throughout, the race is likely to be decided in the final 50km, where two ascents apiece of the Montello climb (2km at 5.1%) and the Barasso (900m at 7.9%) will see the cream rise to the top. For Sports Directors Fabio Baldato and Marco Marzano, a strong UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad lies in wait:
– Alessandro Covi (Ita)
– Isaac del Toro (Mex)
– Rafał Majka (Pol)
– Tadej Pogačar (Slo)
– Pablo Torres (Spa)
– Jay Vine (Aus)
– Enea Sambinello (Ita) (Gen Z)

Although Il Lombardia is perhaps the most hotly anticipated race of the late season – sitting as the final Monument of the year – there are plenty of one-day races for the fans to enjoy as the leaves start to fall in Italy. Each with its own storied history, challenging climbs and passionate locals, these races have carved their own corner of the calendar and regularly produce some of the most exciting action of the season.

First up for UAE Team Emirates-XRG on Saturday, 4 October, will be the Giro dell’Emilia, which was won by Pogačar last season after spending two years as the runner-up. Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates will be back to defend the title for the Emirati squad, with Isaac del Toro ready to make his race debut.

Del Toro: “The experience at the World Championships was one I’ll never forget. I learned a lot from it and I hope the experience can stand me well in the future. Tadej showed again just how good he is and he fully deserved the victory.

“I’m excited to be back racing in Italy now, and the Giro Dell’Emilia could be a nice race for us. We are the defending champions there after Tadej’s win last year, so we will try to defend that title. I’m looking forward to this last block of racing to finish off what has been a special season.”

Known as one of the most beautiful races of the year, the Giro dell’Emilia draws to an explosive close at the top of the San Luca climb after five lung-bursting ascents. The winner will be crowned in style beside the Basilica of Bologna on Saturday afternoon, and Del Toro will be joined by the same teammates who will also race the Coppa Agostini on Sunday:
– Alessandro Covi (Ita)
– Isaac del Toro (Mex)
– Vegard Stake Laengen (Nor)
– Rafał Majka (Pol)
– Ivo Oliveira (Por)
– Jay Vine (Aus)
– Adam Yates (GBR)

Coming hot on the heels of the Giro dell’Emilia, the Coppa Agostini is a race that UAE Team Emirates-XRG has won three times in the last six years, through Alexandr Riabushenko (2019), Davide Formolo (2023) and Marc Hirschi (2024).

Beginning and ending in Lissone, the route remains the same as last year, which drew a two-up sprint for the top honours between Hirschi and Romain Grégoire. There will be four laps of a local circuit, which contains the trifecta of climbs to Sirtori (1.5km at 5.7%), Colle Brianza (3.6km at 6.4%), and Lissolo (2km at 6.7%).

Once off the local circuit, the final 30km are not so difficult but contain two climbs, the Cassina de’Bracchi (1.5km at 3.2%) and Albiate (740m at 3.8%).

The following day, Covi, Laengen, Oliveira and Vine will continue on for the Coppa Bernocchi, with the quartet joined by Gen Z riders Enea Sambinello and Davide Stella to complete UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s six-rider lineup.

The Emirati squad has not won Coppa Bernocchi to date, but UAE Team Emirates-XRG has taken a top 10 finish on each occasion, with Covi faring best with second in 2021.

The race begins and ends in Legnano in the province of Milan, Lombardy, with the toughest portion of the route falling in the middle of the day. With the final climb topping out some 30km from the finish line, a small group sprint often decides the day’s winner.

Gran Piemonte will be the last assignment in Italy for UAE Team Emirates-XRG ahead of Il Lombardia, and will see Del Toro continue to lead the line for the Emirati outfit. The Mexican comes into the Italian one-days in a rich vein of form, and with many happy memories from his last outings in the country.

Prior to the World Championships, where he impressed in both the road race and the time trial, Del Toro won four races in a week from the GP Industria & Artigianato to the Trofeo Matteotti.

With the Giro della Toscana and Coppa Sabatini completing his haul in September, the 21-year-old will be raring to go on his return to Italy.

A winner of 13 races across 2025 so far, Del Toro has put his name firmly amongst the elite and will head to Italy with the support of his teammates, both from the UAE WorldTour and Gen Z ranks. At Gran Piemonte, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG lineup is as follows:
– Alessandro Covi (Ita)
– Isaac del Toro (Mex)
– Vegard Stake Laengen (Nor)
– Domen Novak (Slo)
– Pavel Sivakov (Fra)
– Enea Sambinello (Ita) (Gen Z)
– Davide Stella (Ita) (Gen Z)

Led by Marco Marzano from the team car, the Emirati squad will be hoping to take a first win in Gran Piemonte, having come close through Diego Ulissi in 2020 and Marc Hirschi in 2023.

The 109th edition will begin in Dogliani and end in Acqui Terme, which last hosted Gran Piemonte in 2003. Across 179.4km of rolling terrain, eight categorised climbs lay in wait, with 2,749m of climbing to be dealt with. It is a profile that suits opportunistic attacks and front-foot racing, promising an exciting affair across the hills of the Langhe and Monferrato.

As the racing unfolds in Italy, UAE Team Emirates-XRG will also field a strong squad at Binche-Chimay-Binche on Tuesday, 7 October. Also known as the Mémorial Frank Vandenbroucke, the Belgian one-day race will see Marco Marcato as the lead Sports Director for UAE Team Emirates-XRG.

For the Emirati squad, it will be a fourth participation in the race, with both Matteo Trentin and Rui Oliveira taking top-10 finishes over the past two editions.

Hoping to go podium-hunting this time around, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad will be made up of both WorldTour riders and Gen Z talents:
– Mikkel Bjerg (Den)
– Rune Herregodts (Belgium)
– António Morgado (Por)
– Nils Politt (Ger)
– Florian Vermeersch (Bel)
– Luca Giaimi (Ita) (Gen Z)
– Gibbe Staes (Bel) (Gen Z)

Raced across Wallonia, Binche-Chimay-Binche offers one of the last opportunities of the season for the peloton’s sprinters and Classics specialists.