UAE Team Emirates-XRG take home five National Championship victories

Beginning the week on 50 victories for the 2025 season, UAE Team Emirates-XRG enjoyed a brilliant few days of action across the National Championships that were taking place at the back-end of June. With three road race wins and two in the individual time trial discipline, the Emirati squad has scored victories across five different events.

In their respective countries, Felix Großschartner, António Morgado, Rafał Majka, Tim Wellens and Ivo Oliveira have all become national champions, ensuring that they will soon wear the colours of their nation on their PISSEI-supplied UAE Team Emirates-XRG kits.

Representing the UAE Team Emirates Gen Z squad with distinction, Matthias Schwarzbacher sealed a dominant victory in the Slovakian National Time Trial Championships, with the 19-year-old besting the second-best time by over a minute. It is the youngster’s first elite national title, and comes just weeks after his stage victory at the Giro d’Italia Next Gen.

On Friday, it was Großschartner and Morgado who first tasted victory for the WorldTour squad. Both riders won the time trial title, across Austria and Portugal, respectively. For the Austrian Großschartner, the ride marked the third occasion he has won this particular event, and the 31-year-old followed the success up with second place in the road race on Sunday afternoon.

As for Morgado, the young Portuguese star claimed his second successive title, with UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammate Ivo Oliveira riding strongly to the bronze medal on the day. For Oliveira, the best was yet to come.

Over in Poland, Rafał Majka got Sunday off to a great start, with a solo victory at the Polish National Championships Road Race. The 35-year-old has been enjoying an impressive season to date, with plenty of memorable performances as a dependable teammate in the Giro d’Italia, but victory on Sunday marked his first opportunity to get his hands in the air since 2023.

Taking his solo attack all the way to the line, Majka claimed his second national title, some nine years after his first. His victory was just the start for the Emirati squad, who would claim two more titles by the day’s end.

Next up was Tim Wellens, who produced a stunning 40km-long attack which held off the likes of Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) in a hotly anticipated Belgian National Championship Road Race. The 34-year-old had achieved his first national title in the TT discipline last year, but his road race win on Sunday will perhaps taste even sweeter. He will now wear his national colours with pride at the Tour de France, where UAE Team Emirates-XRG will be in search of a fourth title through Tadej Pogačar.

Putting the icing on a fantastic week for the squad, Ivo Oliveira followed up his bronze medal from Friday with victory in the Portuguese National Championships Road Race on Sunday afternoon. The 28-year-old is enjoying the best season of his career to date, and following up recent victories at the Giro d’Abruzzo and the Tour of Slovenia, Oliveira sealed his second national title on the road.

Coming to the line over a minute ahead of their nearest competitors, Oliveira out-sprinted Pedro Silva (Anicolor-Tien 21) in a two-up showdown for the honours. With the victory, Oliveira adds to his first success in the road race in 2023.

With their wins across the week, the respective national champions have taken UAE Team Emirates-XRG up to 55 victories for the 2025 campaign. Hear their thoughts as they took to the podium and received their gold medals.

Majka: “This was one of the most beautiful victories of my career. The circuit suited me well, on roads close to home.

“To have my family here on the finish made it all the more special. I will never forget today.”

Wellens: “It is a race that is always an open race. I wasn’t originally scheduled to race the Belgian National Championships but on Wednesday I made the decision after feeling really good at altitude at Isola 2000. But not only me, I saw also my teammates flying up the mountain, so the Tour de France will be nice.

“If this route would have been during a WorldTour race, of course it would have been a bunch sprint, but the National Championships is always a very open, hard race. In the end, we had a 47.5km/h average speed and my tactic was to stay calm, because I cannot decide the race with two of us from UAE and other teams that had 20 riders.

“I was in a good move, I had really good legs. The plan was to take it easy until 20km to go and then ride the final, but my moment came and I went 42km before the finish.

“In the beginning, everything was fine and under control because I knew 40km would mean I need to keep it easy, especially in 30-degree heat. But then the last 20km were horrible, super hot. I slowed down a little bit because I could not go faster but luckily behind me they were also tired, so they also slowed down, which meant I could make it to the finish line.

“I am super proud to be the national champion. In Belgium, it is a very important thing and it will be a super nice jersey that I am going to wear in the Tour de France. I will be very proud, and it is also nice confirmation to know that the legs are good and that I am looking forward to the Tour to show the good legs to help the team.”

Oliveira: “I am super happy, I crashed with 2km done on the race with two or three guys. I slipped and I crashed. I stayed on the ground for a bit but I got back on the bike and came back to the peloton.

“I got into a breakaway which proved to the breakaway that got to the end, and then it was like 42-degree heat. I was struggling a lot with the heat but we kept drinking and kept hydrated. In the end, it was me and Silva alone on the last climb to the castle.

“I never pulled because I knew I had a fast sprint and I could leave it to the line. Fortunately, it was the right decision and I won the sprint.

“Man, I am without words. This is my best season ever and to finish off the first part of the season with the jersey, and wearing it for the year ahead, it is so so special. Thank you to the team – António Morgado, my brother Rui, and the staff – chapeau to them. They were amazing.”

Image credits: Getty/Sprint/Federação Portuguesa de Ciclismo/Dariusz Krzywański DkpSport&Life