UAE Team Emirates-XRG all set for double-header of Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico

UAE Team Emirates-XRG are all set to fight for the win on two fronts over the coming week, with Brandon McNulty leading the team’s hopes in Paris-Nice, and Isaac del Toro all set to do the same at Tirreno-Adriatico.

Beginning on Sunday, 8 March, Paris-Nice will be contested over eight stages and includes an all-important team time trial. Tirreno-Adriatico, on the other hand, will also come to a close on Sunday, 15 March, but begins a day later, with the opening stage in Lido di Camaiore on Monday, 9 March.

Taking each race as they come, UAE Team Emirates-XRG will line up at Paris-Nice with a strong combination of climbers and rouleurs, ready to attack both the mountains and the TTT. Alongside McNulty, the engine room will be well stocked by Rune Herregodts, Ivo Oliveira, and Nils Politt, whilst support on the hills will come from Igor Arrieta, Pavel Sivakov and Marc Soler.

As for McNulty, the American finished on the podium at this race in 2024, just a year after the Emirati squad won the race through Tadej Pogačar.

A stage victory in the TTT helped McNulty towards that podium spot two seasons ago, with the American also producing a notable display on the mountain stage to La Colle-sur-Loup. Those memories will give the 27-year-old confidence heading into his third stage race of the season.

A series of punctures and crashes prevented McNulty from showing his true form at the Volta ao Algarve, but the American had begun his season in good touch with top-10 placings at both the Volta Comunitat Valenciana and the Figueira Champions Classic. At the latter, he was instrumental in helping teammate António Morgado to the victory.

With six stage wins in the last four years at Paris-Nice, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad will be ready to race on the front foot once more, led in the team cars by Sports Directors Fabio Baldato, Marco Marcato, and Simone Pedrazzini.

This year’s Paris-Nice totals 1,229.9km of racing, packing in some 15,926m of climbing. On the surface, the route contains two summit finishes, one team time trial and eight days of racing between Achères and Nice.

It is not the hardest route in Paris-Nice history, not on paper at least, but a mixture of inclement weather, early-season nerves and a strong start list always ensures this race is well fought.

That is not to mention the stage designs themselves, which often favour bold, attacking riding. For such an example, look no further than stage 1, with its ode to the old Polymultipliée de Chanteloup race.

Beginning north-west of Paris, the opening stage looks harmless through its first half, but packs a punch in the final 70km of racing. The Côte de Gargenville (2.5km at 4.8%) and the Côte de Vaux-sur-Seine (1.4km at 7%) kick off the climbing action for this year’s Paris-Nice, before two loops of a challenging circuit around Carrières-sous-Poissy await.

The peloton will twice climb the Côte de Chanteloupe-les-Vignes (1.1km at 8.3%), with the last ascent falling just 11km from the finish line. This quartet of category 3 climbs lends itself to explosive racing, and makes stage 1 on Sunday, 8 March, must-see television.

Stage 2 will bring the first showdown between the sprinters, before stage 3 will see the top squads battle it out in the team time trial (TTT). At 23.5km in length and as one of the most high-profile TTT opportunities ahead of the Tour de France, all the teams will have this one firmly circled in the road books.

There will be no let-up for the GC contenders on stage 4, with the first summit finish of the race in order. 2,574m of climbing is packed into this 195.3km route, finishing up with the 8km climb to Uchon. An average gradient of 4.5% may not appear too difficult, but the maximum ramps reach 16% and come at the end of a tough final 65km, which contains all the day’s climbing.

Stage 5 in the Ardéche region will take the riders from Cormoranche-Sur-Saône to Colombier-Le-Vieux, and 2,957m of climbing lies in wait. This is the most elevation gain of any stage in this year’s Paris-Nice, and comes courtesy of five categorised climbs along the way.

The first category one of the race will fall 20km from the finish, standing at 11% for 2.2 km. The Côte de Saint-Barthélemy-le-Plain (3.2 km at 7.6%) is the last climb of the day and tops out with less than 10km to ride.

It is another up-and-down day on stage 6 between Barbentane and Apt – the Côte de Saignon (4km at 5%) ending just 4.5km from the finish line – before the race reaches Nice for the start of stage 7.

The penultimate stage of the race features the last summit finish, seeing the riders battle it out for the honours at Auron. On a day that features 2,591m of elevation gain across 138.7km, the last climb stretches out for 7.3km at 7.2%.

It will come as no surprise that the eighth and final stage of Paris-Nice is perhaps the most intriguing of the lot, squeezing in five categorised climbs to just 129.5km of racing. It is the shortest stage of the race but looks ripe for a late ambush in the general classification.

Before the overall winner of this year’s Paris-Nice is crowned on the Mediterranean seafront, there will be a succession of tough climbs to be conquered: the Côte de la Loubière (5km at 6,4%), the Côte de Levens (3.9km at 5%), the Col de la Porte (7km at 7.2%), the Côte de Châteauneuf-Villevieille (6.6 km at 6.6%), and the Côte du Linguador (3.3km at 8.8%).

The latter climb has ramps up to 14%, and its summit lies just 20km from the finish in Nice, promising an enticing finale to the 84th edition of ‘La Course au Soleil.’

Over at Tirreno-Adriatico, Isaac del Toro is relishing the chance to add to UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s recent success at the Race of the Two Seas.

Del Toro: “This is already my third time coming to Tirreno-Adriatico and I’m excited for it. Racing in Italy is always a pleasure. The shape is good, and after winning UAE Tour, in the country of our sponsor, the team’s confidence is high.

“We’ve had a great start to the season with plenty of wins. We have quite a few guys out due to injuries, too, unfortunately, but the mood in the team is still good and we’re hungry for more results.”

Indeed, this is a race that Del Toro has shown prior form. Back in his neo-pro year, the Mexican rode to an impressive fourth place overall, just three months into his first season as a professional.

Now the UCI’s second-ranked rider in the world, Del Toro will head into the race as one of the top favourites. The 22-year-old won the UAE Tour in February and will line up for Strade Bianche this coming Saturday.

Alongside Del Toro, the Emirati squad will be filled by Jan Christen, Benoît Cosnefroy, Luca Giaimi, Felix Großschartner, Domen Novak, and Kevin Vermaerke. Together, they will surely be confident of writing another happy chapter at Tirreno-Adriatico.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG has taken five stage wins in the last five years at this race, with overall victories achieved by Tadej Pogačar in 2021 and 2022, followed up by runner-up spots from João Almeida and Juan Ayuso in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

The team will head into this year’s edition with a title to defend, after Ayuso’s triumph in last season’s edition. As such, the experience of Sports Directors Tomas Gil, Fabrizio Guidi, and Manuele Mori will be crucial.

Together, the trio will hope to lead UAE Team Emirates-XRG to a successful seven days of racing from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Adriatic.

There is no major summit finish in this year’s Tirreno-Adriatico route, but that does not mean an easy edition awaits UAE Team Emirates-XRG and the rest. Instead, 17,133m of climbing is squeezed into seven days of racing, exceeding that on offer at the eight-day Paris-Nice.

The headline features of this year’s route are three days that exceed 200km, all back-to-back, and two stages that include over 4,000m of elevation gain. Before the general classification contenders butt heads, however, the now-traditional 11.4km individual time trial in Lido di Camaiore will fire the starting gun on stage 1.

After that out-and-back test along the Tyrrhenian coast, Tuscany will deliver what looks to be an entertaining finish to stage 2. There, a 5.3km gravel climb will take the riders to the finish in San Gimignano. A combination of the sterrato and 15% ramps should ensure a selective look to the front of the field.

There should be no such difficulties on stage 3, where the sprinters will get their chance on a flat stage between Cortona and Magliano de’ Marsi. It is worth mentioning that stages 2, 3 and 4 all clock in at over 200km in length, an increasing rarity in modern stage design.

The Apennines rear their head on that fourth day of racing, as the peloton cruises over the passes of Ovindoli and the Valico della Capannelle to settle into the stage. It is in the final 50km that tougher tests will appear, in the shape of several unclassified and yet gnarly climbs, the last of which tops out with 13km to ride.

It would be unfair to say that stages 5 and 6 are yet more examples of an undulating parcours. Indeed, both days contain over 4,000m of climbing across a 180km route, making them the hardest stages of racing thus far in 2026.

First up on stage 5, the Tirreno-Adriatico peloton will cross the Monte delle Cesane, the Monte della Mattera, and the ascent to Santuario Beato Sante between Marotta-Mondolfo and Mombaroccio.

That last ascent tops out just 1.6km from the finish line, whilst stage 6 has a true uphill finish atop the Muro della Madonna delle Carceri.

With its ramps of almost 20%, the race will tackle this climb three times in the final 30km of stage 6. It is on the third and final approach that the finish line will be positioned at the end of a testing day between San Severino Marche and Camerino. The overall winner of Tirreno-Adriatico will likely be decided on this day.

That is because the seventh and final day of racing is almost certain to end in a bunch sprint in San Benedetto del Tronto. There, the race will draw to a close for another year, and the victor of the 61st Tirreno-Adriatico will be crowned.