UAE Team Emirates-XRG gear up for Opening Weekend with Tim Wellens and co.

The UAE Tour has been and gone, with UAE Team Emirates-XRG leaving its home race with two memorable stage wins and the overall victory through Isaac del Toro. As such, all eyes now turn to Europe, with opportunities aplenty for both climbers and the Classics men.

While the sprightly climbers will trade blows in France for a pair of one-day races, the peloton’s burly rouleurs will butt heads in Belgium at one of the must-see moments of the calendar, ‘Opening Weekend.’

Dubbed as such because its two races welcome in a period of one-day races across France and Belgium, the Opening Weekend comprises Omloop Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Buurne. The WorldTour Omloop event takes place on Saturday, 28 February, as history dictates, with Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne following up quickly on Sunday, 1 March.

With cobblestones to contend with, narrow country lanes, and plenty of scope for crosswinds, the one-day Classics are a sight to behold for all cycling fans. And for UAE Team Emirates-XRG, the Opening Weekend offers an opportunity to add its name to the long list of storied winners at both races.

In turn, the Emirati squad names an experienced line-up of seven riders for Omloop Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, led by the in-form Belgian national champion, Tim Wellens.

The recent Clasica Jaén winner is a former podium finisher in both races and is looking forward with delight to turning the pedals in his home nation.

Wellens: “For us Belgians, it is where we say that the season really starts, so it is super important. Like every year, I am really looking forward to it. I am always good at the beginning of the season.

“The last race I had, I had a really good feeling, I was really happy to win Jaén, and to continue my 13-year streak of winning at least one race a season. This gives me a lot of motivation to keep aiming for more.

“We have a very strong team. Of course, we will miss Jhony [Narváez] very much after his crash at the Tour Down Under, but for the rest, we have Nils, Florian, and others, so I hope we can continue to do what we do every race. That is using the strength of the team.

“Opening Weekend is always stressful, with the battle for positioning being super important, and sometimes it is an open race. I remember when Dylan Van Baarle won, he went pretty far from the finish. Sometimes, it is a sprint. You just never know with the Flemish Classics, anything can happen!”

Wellens will be joined this coming weekend by fellow Belgians, Rune Herregodts and Florian Vermeersch, with the seven-man squad completed by Julius Johansen, Sebastián Molano, Rui Oliveira and Nils Politt.

Bringing their experience from the team car, Sports Directors Marco Marcato and Simone Pedrazzini will be on hand to lead. For UAE Team Emirates-XRG, the task is clear: to improve upon its best results of second place, through Politt and Wellens in 2024, across both Omloop Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, respectively.

This year’s edition of Omloop Nieuwsblad brings a tougher course than usual for the peloton, with the introduction of two new climbs in the Tenbosse and the Parikeberg. These two join a storied list of climbs which will be included on the route, including the Eikenburg, Holleweg, Wolvenberg, Haaghoek, Leberg and the Berendries.

That is not to mention, of course, the iconic double-act of the Kapelmuur and the Bosberg, which have come to define recent editions of Omloop Nieuwsblad, just as they used to define the Tour of Flanders. It is on these cobblestones and narrow climbs that giants of the sport have been heralded.

Standing at 5.8% for a little under a kilometre, the Bosberg will be the last climb crested, and leave just 11.8km to the finish in Ninove. That finish will likely see riders on their limits after eight cobbled sectors, four cobbled climbs and eight further ascents along the way.

As for Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, the Sunday instalment on Opening Weekend usually lends itself more to the sprinters, with a flat final 60km allowing plenty of time for the fast men to regain connection with the front.

There will be four cobbled sectors, four cobbled climbs and nine more ascents before a fast finish in Kuurne. Many have tried to upset the apple cart in the past, some successfully, but the odds are in favour of a bunch sprint to close out the weekend.

Meanwhile, well across the border in France, for those more at home when the road goes uphill, a pair of difficult tests will see whose form is at the necessary level, and whose is not. Those races are, of course, the Faun-Ardèche Classic and the Faun Drome Classic. A pair of relatively young one-day races, perhaps, but events that draw incredibly strong startlists year in, year out.

As with the Opening Weekend in Belgium, UAE Team Emirates-XRG will field the same seven-man squad for both the Faun-Ardèche Classic and the Faun Drome Classic. Racing on their national roads, Pavel Sivakov, Benoît Cosnefroy and Gen Z rider, Ugo Fabries, will all be present for the Emirati squad.

The French trio will be joined by Igor Arrieta, Jan Christen, António Morgado, and Pablo Torres, with Sports Directors Fabrizio Guidi and Marco Marzano directing things from the team car.

These two hilly races have brought UAE Team Emirates-XRG plenty of success in recent years, with two wins apiece in each. Brandon McNulty and Juan Ayuso won the Faun-Ardèche Classic in 2022 and 2024, respectively, whilst Marc Hirschi and Ayuso have taken out the Faun Drome Classic over the past two seasons.

For that reason, there will be much optimism within the Emirati camps, with each rider more than capable of ensuring the team rides on the front foot.

The harder of the two French tests will be the Faun-Ardèche Classic, packing in some 3,350m of climbing in the hills to the west of Guilherand-Granges. Totalling 187.6km, Saturday’s race is tough until the last, with the final climb (1.4km at 10.9%) topping out with less than 10km to go.

Meanwhile, the Faun Drome Classic is regularly at the behest of the riders who decide to take part. Should those on the start line fancy an attritional day in the saddle, racing can often be quick and intense, forcing a further reduction in the field. For this reason, although Sunday’s race is relatively less arduous, with 2,361m of elevation gain across 185.4km, it must not be underestimated.

Recent editions have often been won by solo winners, testifying to the race’s difficulty.