UAE Team Emirates-XRG to make race debut at the Sibiu Cycling Tour

UAE Team Emirates-XRG is pleased to reveal its squad for its first appearance at the Sibiu Cycling Tour. Held in central Romania, the five-day stage race will enjoy its 16th edition this year, and will be held between Saturday, 4 July and Tuesday, 7 July.

Ready to make its debut outing in Romania, UAE Team Emirates-XRG will be led by Sports Directors Fabio Baldato and Jan Polanc in the team car, with a six-strong squad at their disposal.

Spanish climbers Adrià Pericas and Pablo Torres will be joined by Filippo Baroncini, Julius Johansen, Ivo Oliveira, and Gen Z talent Enea Sambinello. The latter will be making his welcome return to stage racing after suffering a knee injury at Trofeo Piva in April.

For the WorldTour contingent, all five riders will head into the Sibiu Cycling Tour full of confidence from a successful National Championships campaign. Torres and Oliveira finished on the podium at the Spanish and Portuguese National Time Trial Championships, respectively, with Torres also enjoying a huge solo escapade in the subsequent road race.

Baroncini and Johansen, meanwhile, each claimed top-10 spots in their respective National Time Trial Championships, with Pericas riding well to eighth place in the Spanish Road Race.

Together, the squad will hope to leave a positive impression on the race won by the likes of Egan Bernal, Florian Lipowitz and Matthew Riccitello in recent years. Dating back to 2011, the Sibiu Cycling Tour is a 2.1 race, as ranked by the UCI, and will get underway on Saturday, 4 July.

All four stages of this year’s race begin in the former European Capital of Culture, with the opening and closing stages raced to and from Sibiu. Stages 1 and 4 are sandwiched by finishes in Păltiniș and Bâlea Lac on stages 2 and 3, respectively.

The Sibiu Cycling Tour is one of a dwindling number of races that actually features a split stage. Once common across professional cycling races, the days of having two stages in one day are few and far between in this era. As such, this coming Saturday will present a fresh challenge for the UAE Team Emirates-XRG riders.

Stage 1a will begin on Saturday morning and take the form of a 110.5km-long road stage, in which there are three ascents of the same 8km climb. This ascent is no big test, but the final 2km average 5% and will give the legs a shakeout before an expected sprint finish in the city centre.

Later in the same day, there will be a short 3.2km individual time trial, known in the roadbook as stage 1b. This is a prologue in all but name, and consists of a technical course within the historic centre of Sibiu. The stage favourites will have to nail every bend should they have eyes on the victory.

On Sunday and Monday, all eyes should turn to the general classification contenders, with two successive uphill finishes on a pair of 157km-long stages. First up, the peloton will head to Păltiniș Arena on stage 2. The first 144km from Sibiu are all relatively flat, before a final 13km-long climb at 5.7%. With steepest pitches of around 10%, the length of the approach to Păltiniș should be enough to cause time gaps between the big contenders.

Stage 3 between Sibiu and Bâlea Lac follows a similar unipuerto pattern, with a flat approach followed by a single, long climb to the finish line. This time out, the final climb stretches out for 24km at 6%, offering an even tougher challenge to the peloton. A series of hairpins within the final 5km will make for a great spectacle as the winner of this year’s race is likely to be decided.

The 2026 Sibiu Tour will draw to a close on Tuesday, 7 July, with stage 4. Raced across 181km, the final stage will head north to Mediaș and Dumbrăveni, before returning to Sibiu for an expected bunch sprint.