UAE Team Emirates-XRG confirms squad for the Lloyds Tour of Britain

Ready to make its second appearance in as many years, UAE Team Emirates-XRG is pleased to announce its six-rider lineup for the Lloyds Tour of Britain. The five-day stage race begins in Lincoln on Wednesday, 2 September and draws to a close in Earlston on Sunday, 6 September.

Along the way, there are stage finishes in Skegness, Beverley and Leyburn, as the 22nd Tour of Britain makes its way across Lincolnshire, Yorkshire and the Scottish Borders.

For UAE Team Emirates-XRG, Sports Directors Fabrizio Guidi and Aner Moreno will take the reins, with the six-rider roster including Mikkel Bjerg, Benoît Cosnefroy, Felix Großschartner, Nils Politt, Florian Vermeersch and Tim Wellens.

Politt will bring the experience of five previous appearances in Britain, whilst Cosnefroy will look forward with confidence towards the race’s punchy parcours. Sprint finishes may be expected on stages 2 and 3, but otherwise there is ample terrain for the peloton’s puncheurs to contest the overall victory.

For the Emirati squad, Wellens looks ahead to five exciting stages between England and Scotland.

Wellens: “This will be my first time at the Tour of Britain, so I do not quite know what to expect. I hear the weather will be unpredictable and the parcours can be spicy, so this suits my characteristics. I think, as a team this suits us as well. We arrive here with a strong squad and the atmosphere will be nice all week, so we can enjoy these moments together.

“For me personally, I struggled after the Tour and unfortunately had to miss one of my favourite races, the Renewi Tour. But now, I am mentally fresh from the break and it is the beginning of the closing part of the season. I have a lot of motivation to finish the season on the front foot, and I know we can attack this race together as a team.”

Last year’s title was decided by just a matter of seconds, something not out of keeping with recent history at the Tour of Britain. As such, bonus seconds will naturally be important this week, and the rolling parcours offers a little something for everybody over the five stages.

First up, the race gets underway in Lincoln on Wednesday. This will be the first time that the city will host the Tour of Britain in its modern incarnation, but of course bike racing is nothing new around these parts.

Stage 1 will take place on the city-centre circuit, which has been used time and time again in the Lincoln Grand Prix, with the Michaelgate climb front and centre. Standing at 9.3% for 400m, this cobbled climb will be the major feature of the five-lap circuit. The first green leader’s jersey of the race will be settled in Lincoln after an attritional day in the saddle.

After that demanding start, the sprinters in the peloton will look to stage 2 with delight. At 180km in length, the stage from Boston to Skegness has under 1,000m of elevation gain, marking it out as the easiest of the race.

For both Boston and Skegness, the Tour of Britain will visit for the first time, and the Grand Parade in Skegness will play host to a bunch sprint in all likelihood.

Both stages 1 and 2 will chart a course through the Lincolnshire Wolds, but on Friday, the Tour of Britain heads into Yorkshire.

Starting out in Hull, stage 3 is the longest of the race, stretching out for 194.1km to Beverley. Along the way, Withernsea, Hornsea and Skipsea will all watch the race speed through their town centres, before four laps of a 16km circuit will mark the race in Beverley.

Once more, it is tough to see past a sprint finish for the day’s honours at the Beverley Racecourse.

The same can’t be said for the following day, with the Tour of Britain visiting the Yorkshire Dales for the toughest outing of the week.

Stage 4 squeezes 2,699m of climbing into the 165.8km route from Helmsley to Leyburn. Any riders familiar with the Dales will recognise the tough climbing tests that await the peloton, and the general classification contenders will have this day firmly circled in the road book.

Their eyes will turn squarely to Greenhow Bank (3.5km at 8%), Kidstones (2.1km at 6.9%), and the ascent to Redmire (3.7km at 8.2%), before the undulating roads that lead to the historic Wensleydale market town of Leyburn. The riders will be on the pedals all the way to the line on Market Place, with the battle for the green jersey set to rage in the Dales.

On Sunday, 6 September, the 2026 Tour of Britain will draw to a close in the Scottish Borders. Earlston in Scotland will host the start and finish of stage 5, and reach into the nearby Lammermuir Hills. In the 156.1km-long stage, some 2,236m of climbing awaits the peloton, as the fight for the overall win heads into the last day of racing.

Much of the climbing falls in the middle of the stage, before the race returns to Earlston for two laps of a 19km-long circuit. There is every possibility the race comes back together in this phase, with the resilient sprinters determined to leave one final mark on the 22nd edition.

But with bonus seconds and the Tour of Britain title on the line, expect the unexpected in Berwickshire. The 2026 Tour of Britain has all the ingredients to be a blockbuster.