With the 2025 season over, preparations for 2026 are already underway. The cycling market continues to make major moves for the future. At UAE Team Emirates – XRG, in addition to focusing on the present, they are always thinking about the long term. For this reason, the Emirati team has announced the 5 riders that will join its U23 squad (UAE Gen Z).UAE Team Emirates Gen Z will consist of 13 riders who will be trained over the next year as possible future stars of the “first team”. The name of one of the newcomers will sound more familiar than others. And for a reason. The 18-year-old Spanish cyclist Jaime Torres is a younger brother of none other than UAE’s big climbing prospect Pablo Torres who has already made the step up to WorldTour before this season.
Along with Jaime Torres, UAE’s other four Gen Z signings are Heimo Fugger (Austria), Daan Dijkman (Netherlands), Matteo Vanden Wijngaert (Belgium) and Moritz Mauss (Germany). All five new faces will come straight from the junior category.
Dijkman and Mauss in particular have proven to be two of the best riders in the 2007 class with Mauss 9th at the World Championships in Rwanda while Dijkman was one step better and arrived 8th on the challenging course. Dijkman performed even better on the mountainous course of European Championships where he sprinted to a 5th place in a small group.
The 8 riders who continue with UAE Team Emirates – XRG in its development team for another year are: Mohammad Almutaiwei, Abdulla Jasim Al-Ali, Ugo Fabries, Marcos Freire, Luca Giaimi, Mateo Ramirez, Enea Sambinello and Davide Stella.
Pablo Torres could soon share team with brother Jaime Torres in UAE
The projection of Jaime Torres
The younger brother of Pablo Torres signs for UAE Team Emirates Gen Z after a very exciting junior stage in the Sanse team. Between 2024 and 2025, Jaime Torres achieved some outstanding results, which caught the attention of MatxÃn’s team, such as the following:
5th in the Spanish Junior Time Trial Championship 20251st in the Trofeo Fiestas del Ausente 20251st in Beasaingo Proba 20243rd in Urkiola Igoera 20254th in the overall classification of the Vuelta Ciclista a Sevilla 20256th in the overall classification of the Vuelta Ciclista Gran Canaria Júnior 2025
Obviously, the youngest of the Torres brothers is still very young. But in the UAE, talent is growing by leaps and bounds. You only have to look at how quickly the great talents such as Isaac del Toro and Juan Ayuso, among others, have established themselves in the last few years. Moreover, with Ayuso out of the team, MatxÃn will surely want to look for his successor in one of the Spaniards. Why not Jaime Torres?