UAE Team Emirates-XRG begins Tour de France title defence in Barcelona

On stage 1 of the 2026 Tour de France, UAE Team Emirates-XRG produced a united effort to ride to third place in the team time trial.

The result sees the Emirati squad begin its title defence with the four-time defending champion, Tadej Pogačar. Leading the team, the Slovenian crossed the line first and was shortly followed by teammate Isaac del Toro.

The pair came towards the final climb together, before Pogačar sought to make the most of the new TTT rules to post the quickest possible time for UAE Team Emirates-XRG. In the end, the world champion crossed the line just 12 seconds shy of the stage-winning time set by Visma-Lease a Bike.

The Dutch squad’s efforts place Jonas Vingegaard, the two-time Tour de France champion, in the first Yellow Jersey of the race, whilst Pogačar clocked the fastest time of any rider up the day’s final climb.

That display has earned the 27-year-old the polka dot jersey for stage 2, as the leader of the King of the Mountains Classification. The green jersey, meanwhile, was taken by Egan Bernal of Netcompany Ineos, another former Tour de France champion. A star-studded front row will be completed by Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) on Sunday, with the latter earning the white jersey as the best young rider.

As for the stage 1 team time trial, Pogačar and his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates were the last down the start ramp in Barcelona, and quickly put their months of preparation to good use. Thanks to the power laid down by recent national championship winners Nils Politt and Felix Großschartner, along with Adam Yates, Brandon McNulty, Tim Wellens, and Florian Vermeersch, the squad went through the first two time checks in provisional fourth place.

This impressive start was capitalised on by Del Toro and Pogačar in the finale.

The pair went in tandem towards the final 3km, before Pogačar darted away with just 700m to ride. Of course, the new rules stated that the time of the fastest rider would count for the team, doing away with the old regulation of requiring four riders to reach the line to set a benchmark.

For his part, Del Toro continued a strong pace to the line, ensuring that both he and Pogačar would sit in the top 10 of the general classification come the end of the opening stage. With Vingegaard taking yellow into stage 2, Pogačar now sits third overall, just 12 seconds down, with Del Toro healthily placed in sixth, a further 14 seconds shy.

Reflecting on the team’s performance, Pogačar heaped the praise on his teammates at the finish and looked forward to pulling on the polka dot jersey.

Pogačar: “It was a super good performance. Of course, you always aim for the victory, but I think we did a really good, super team time trial. I am super happy that the day is over because it is really hard to do this day. It is long and you prepare for just these 20 minutes with the team. It is really stressful, but I enjoyed it today because it has been a long time since I did a team time trial, and actually, it was a really good performance. We can be happy with today and be really motivated for the next days.

“Good news that I have climbing legs [and the polka dot jersey], but it was quite a short climb, and Isaac did a really amazing job. He is such a good kid, and all the team did super good today. Everybody went over the limit and also thanks to the team I have this polka dot jersey.”

Tour de France 2026 stage 1 (TTT) results:

1. Visma-Lease a Bike 21:47

2. Netcompany INEOS +8″

3. UAE Team Emirates-XRG +12″

Tour de France 2026 general classification after stage 1:

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) 21:47

2. Filippo Ganna (Netcompany Ineos) +8″

3. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +12″

6. Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +26″

Meanwhile, over in Romania, UAE Team Emirates-XRG made a faultless start to racing at the Sibiu Cycling Tour, with Julius Johansen powering to victory in the individual time trial.

The big Dane produced the fastest ride of any in the 3.2km-long effort that made up stage 1b. That lung-bursting effort was enough to put Johansen into the race leader’s jersey, previously held by his compatriot and stage 1a winner, Matias Malmberg (Swatt Club).

Behind Johansen, the second-fastest time in the ITT was set by his teammate Ivo Oliveira, rounding off a fantastic day for UAE Team Emirates-XRG in Sibiu. After safely negotiating the road stage in the morning, the Emirati squad flourished against the clock on Saturday afternoon.

With the split stage behind them, UAE Team Emirates-XRG will look ahead to the three further stages that make up this year’s race. On Sunday morning, it will be Johansen who begins the day in the yellow jersey.

Sibiu Cycling Tour 2026 stage 1b (ITT) results:

1. Julius Johansen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 4:16

2. Ivo Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +2″

3. Michiel Mouris (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +6″

Sibiu Cycling Tour 2026 general classification after stage 1b:

1. Julius Johansen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 2:36:18

2. Ivo Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +2″

3. Matias Malmberg (Swatt Club) +3″