{"id":656925,"date":"2026-05-08T03:58:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T03:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/656925\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T03:58:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T03:58:16","slug":"is-jan-christen-the-new-isaac-del-toro-at-this-giro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/656925\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Jan Christen the new Isaac del Toro at this Giro?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In recent years, Visma | Lease a Bike and UAE Team Emirates-XRG have consistently been the main rivals in the Grand Tour general classifications. But with the Giro d’Italia 2026 about to begin, all the attention is on the former. How are the cards stacked at the Emirates-based squad, who are still bringing serious quality to the start line? IDL Pro Cycling caught up with rising talent Jan Christen<\/a> and Adam Yates<\/a> at the team presentation.<\/p>\n

Yates knows all too well how unpredictably things can unfold in Italy. Last year, he and Juan Ayuso began the race as joint team leaders, only for Isaac del Toro to ultimately overshadow both of them. Jay Vine, who at the time was rated on a par with del Toro, faded from contention back in Albania.<\/p>\n

For now, the Briton wants to avoid a repeat. “It’s going to be a stressful trip through Bulgaria \u2014 our main priority is to get through it without any damage,” Yates says. “We have a strong team, but we don’t have the clear-cut favourite.”<\/p>\n

“But I actually see that as an advantage \u2014 not least because we can assume I’ll lose time on certain stages. The time trial is the first one that springs to mind,” he adds, keeping his cards close to his chest. Alongside Yates and Vine \u2014 who told Cyclingnews<\/a> he won’t be targeting the GC \u2014 the team also features Marc Soler, Mikkel Bjerg, Ant\u00f3nio Morgado, Igor Arrieta, the injury-returning Jhonatan Narv\u00e1ez (who impressed greatly at last year’s Tour de France) and Jan Christen.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"uae-emirates-xrg-giro-d-italia\"\/<\/p>\n

The strong UAE team for this Giro d’Italia.<\/p>\n

Jan Christen on his road to the Giro d’Italia<\/p>\n

It is those last two riders who particularly stand out \u2014 but how are they heading into the race? “I’m doing well,” Christen tells us. “After my crash at Milan\u2013Sanremo, I went back to Switzerland to recover as best I could. I was able to get back into training fairly quickly and then headed to an altitude camp, where I rejoined the rest of the team.”<\/p>\n

Christen’s last race was therefore in mid-March, despite a promising start to his season. “When I crashed at Milan\u2013Sanremo, I immediately knew I wouldn’t be able to ride the Ardennes Classics. That was painful to accept, because that was originally my target for this spring.”<\/p>\n

“At first you don’t know whether you’ll be able to make the Giro either \u2014 but fortunately, after two weeks I was already fairly sure it was going to be possible,” he continues. “That gave me the motivation to work my way back to top form, which has gone reasonably well,” says Christen, who has been able to pick up his training without any major setbacks.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo. <\/p>\n

\"jan-christen\"\/<\/p>\n

Jan Christen won this year’s AlUla Tour.<\/p>\n

Christen not targeting the GC at the Giro d’Italia<\/p>\n

The Swiss rider has long been considered one of the peloton’s great young talents, and in the absence of Jo\u00e3o Almeida he could easily slot into something like an Isaac del Toro role. He himself is measured about that comparison \u2014 much as the whole UAE camp seems to be managing expectations going into this Giro d’Italia.<\/p>\n

“What’s my role? We have a good GC squad here, and I certainly want to help them in the decisive stages. But in some stages I’ll also be given the freedom to chase my own chances,” he says. Stage 2, a puncheurs’ stage, could even present an opportunity to go for the pink jersey from the off. “That stage is definitely in my head \u2014 but it’s obviously still to be decided what the team’s plan will be for that day.”<\/p>\n

“I’m definitely not going for the GC, but if the team allows it, I’d love to go for some stage wins and also test myself in the real mountains,” the 21-year-old Grand Tour debutant continues. “Stage 16 is a special one regardless \u2014 it finishes in Switzerland. And it’s also really beautiful that in my first Grand Tour I get to race alongside \u2014 and against \u2014 my brother Fabio, who is also riding the Giro with Pinarello-Q36.5<\/a>,” the proud Swiss rider concludes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In recent years, Visma | Lease a Bike and UAE Team Emirates-XRG have consistently been the main rivals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":["post-656925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}