UAE Team Emirates-XRG target title defenses in Suisse and Belgium

Already a winner of five of cycling’s most prestigious ‘big seven’ week-long stage races, Tadej Pogačar will lead UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s title defence at the upcoming Tour de Suisse. Raced for five days between Wednesday, 17 June, and Sunday, 21 June, this year’s race in Switzerland will mark its 89th edition.

For the Emirati squad, the historic stage race conjures happy memories from recent times.

The team has won the last two editions through Adam Yates (2024) and João Almeida (2025), with the pair taking seven stage victories between them. Three years ago, Juan Ayuso picked off two stage victories on his way to second overall, whilst Diego Ulissi claimed the team’s first Tour de Suisse stage win in 2018.

As for Pogačar, the world champion won the Tour de Romandie in Switzerland last month, before enjoying a recent spell of altitude training in Sierra Nevada. Preparing to make his race debut at the Tour de Suisse, the Slovenian is looking forward to the challenge of defending the team’s title.

Pogačar: “Training has gone very well, both individually and as a team, and I’m arriving at the Tour de Suisse feeling strong and motivated. It’s my first time racing here, which makes it even more exciting.

“We’ve had a good block of training done at altitude over the past few weeks, and after watching our teammates racing and doing well at other races, we can’t wait to put our race numbers on and put that work into action.”

With four stage wins along the way, Pogačar’s victory at the Tour de Romandie marked his fifth title of the ‘big seven’ stage races. These week-long races are the most valued outside of the Grand Tours, and the 27-year-old now only needs the Tour de Suisse and Itzulia Basque Country to complete the set.

There will be no sense of complacency ahead of the coming five days of racing, however, with the Tour de Suisse regularly attracting a star-studded startlist in anticipation of the Tour de France. Adding to the race’s difficulty, the route is often a hilly affair, and this year’s event marks a slightly altered format.

Down from eight stages to five, this year’s Tour de Suisse has been shortened to coincide the men’s race with the women’s. For the convenience of the roadside spectators and the race organisers, each stage will begin and end in the same village, town or city.

Ready to commandeer Pogačar and his teammates through the challenge, UAE Team Emirates-XRG will be headed up by Sports Directors Andrej Hauptman, Marco Marcato, and Simone Pedrazzini.

As for the seven-man lineup, Pogačar will be joined in Switzerland by Felix Großschartner, Brandon McNulty, Jhonatan Narváez, Domen Novak, Nils Politt, and Tim Wellens.

The powerful and experienced team could prove pivotal to Pogačar’s ambitions across the five days of racing, which will take the Tour de Suisse from the start of stage 1 in Sondrio to the conclusion of the final day in Villars-sur-Ollon. Along the way, we can expect to watch three days of battles between the general classification contenders, an individual time trial, and a potential bunch sprint on stage 3.

First up, the Tour de Suisse will actually start out from Sondrio in Italy.

The first 50km of stage 1 may look relatively tranquil, but then the climbing begins, with the race organisers saving the hardest until last. With less than 20km to go, there are a pair of category three ascents that will surely draw out attacks. First up is the Ponte in Valtellina (1.6km at 8.9%), before the Bordighi (1.2km at 9.8%) tops out with just 4.7km to ride to Sondrio.

Stage 2 is much like the opening day, with a series of short but sharp climbs in the finale. Once more, there are a pair of category three climbs within the closing 20km to break up the field and create gaps between those hoping to win this year’s race.

This explosive run to home in Locano begins with the Fanghi (3.6km at 7%), and then follows on to the brutish Via Consiglio Mezzano (1.4km at 8.9%), which peaks with just 8km left to the finish line.

After the tough first two stages, the peloton’s sprinters may get a reprieve on stage 3. Ridden out and back to Bad Ragaz, the 157.4km-long stage does include a pair of category one ascents in the middle of the day, but the flat final 60km should offer enough time for the fast men to regroup at the head of the race.

With the sprinters likely given their chance on Friday, all attention will swing back towards the general classification contenders over the weekend. Stage 4 will pit the race hopefuls against one another in a 23.7km-long individual time trial in Aarburg, where every second may prove vital in the battle for the leader’s jersey.

This stage is the flattest of the race, naturally, but includes enough corners to make this out-and-back parcours a technical challenge. The specialists against the clock should thrive in this ITT.

Into the final day, stage 5 will begin and end in Villars-sur-Ollon, but not before a whopping 4,216m of elevation gain across just 150.4km of racing. This is certainly the Queen stage of the race, and will see the successor to João Almeida crowned as the winner of this year’s Tour de Suisse.

With barely an inch of flat parcours, stage 5 sees the peloton heading either up or down all afternoon long, across three laps of a tough Col de la Croix circuit.

Right out of the blocks, the riders are into the mountains, with the first climb of the Col de la Croix taking the peloton up to 1,800m, before a further two full ascents of the same mountain. The climb itself stretches out for a whopping 19km at an average gradient of 7.1%.

On the third ascent, the riders will not scale the full mountain, but still do battle on the tough slopes to Villars-sur-Ollon. This final ascent averages 7.3% for 11.7km, offering a sting in the tail to the most difficult day of racing. There will be no room to hide as the 89th edition of the Tour de Suisse draws to a close.

As Tadej Pogačar goes in search of the Tour de Suisse title, UAE Team Emirates-XRG will also be mounting a defence of its crown at the Baloise Belgium Tour. Won last year by Filippo Baroncini, the five-day stage race will host its 95th edition this time out.

Winning the race on debut last year, UAE Team Emirates-XRG will return for its second participation in the UCI 2.Pro Event, where 11 WorldTeams are scheduled to compete. Amongst a packed field of sprinters that includes Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step), Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech), and Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM), Sebastián Molano will target the bunch finishes for the Emirat squad.

Last year, the Colombian claimed a trio of runner-up spots en route to winning the points jersey, and he will hope to lift his arms in the air on this occasion. Luca Giaimi, Rune Herregodts and Julius Johansen will all follow Molano from the Copenhagen Sprint to the Baloise Belgium Tour, with the UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad completed by Rui Oliveira, Florian Vermeersch, and Gen Z rider, Heimo Fugger.

For Fugger, the race will mark his debut outing for the WorldTour squad. The 18-year-old’s selection marks another sign of commitment to developing the stars of tomorrow for UAE Team Emirates.

Having also enjoyed a spell of altitude training, Florian Vermeersch will head to his home race in search of bettering his fine results in recent years. The Classics specialist finished seventh overall in 2023, before riding to sixth with UAE Team Emirates-XRG in last year’s race. There, Vermeersch proved a key teammate to Baroncini, as the Italian won his first GC title.

The experience of last year’s route should serve Vermeersch well, with two of this year’s stages a replica of 2025. Before that, however, the peloton will seek new frontiers on stage 1 between Scherpenheuvel and Zichem.

Along this 188.3km route, bonus seconds will be up for grabs at the ‘Golden KM,’ which falls after 146km of action. There are plenty of short climbs scattered across Wednesday’s stage to make things interesting, but it would be no surprise to see a sprint finish in Zichem.

Stage 2 of this year’s Baloise Belgium Tour is a repeat of last year’s opening stage between Merelbeke-Melle and Knokke-Heist. Once more, there is a Golden KM to consider after 173km, before an uphill sprint finish on the coast at Knokke-Heist. Tim Merlier will be a man to watch here, having mastered the finale to great effect in 2025.

The general classification battle will take centre stage on stage 3, with the 173km out-and-back to Durbuy a replica of last year’s penultimate stage. It was here that Baroncini produced a battling performance to ride into the leader’s jersey, and we can expect a grandstand finish on the Mur de Durbuy once again.

Known as the ‘smallest city in the world,’ Durbuy sits right at the heart of the Belgian Ardennes, and these hills will come to define stage 3. There is almost 3,000m of climbing to be had, over more than a dozen climbs on the route. The stage winner will be crowned at the top of the Mur de Durbuy, which stretches out for 600m at an average gradient of more than 10%.

There are more climbs to come on stage 4 between Begijnendijk and Aarschot, but all attackers must beware the flat final 20km. None of the day’s climbs is all that selective, so the fast men will fancy their chances on the penultimate day of racing.

Should the general classification remain tight heading into the final stage, the Golden KM is back to provide some blockbuster entertainment. The bonus seconds are on offer less than 30km before the end of stage 5, which takes the peloton from Gingelom to Hoeilaart.