{"id":477017,"date":"2026-02-15T19:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T19:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/477017\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T19:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T19:03:09","slug":"matxin-reveals-jhonatan-narvaez-to-be-uaes-last-giro-ditalia-rider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/477017\/","title":{"rendered":"Matxin reveals Jhonatan Narv\u00e1ez to be UAE’s last Giro d’Italia rider"},"content":{"rendered":"

UAE Team Emirates – XRG<\/a> manager Joxean Matxin<\/a> has provided an update on the health status of Ecuadorian national champion Jhonatan Narv\u00e1ez<\/a> and has revealed that the classics specialist is the last missing piece in the team’s Giro d’Italia<\/a> lineup.<\/p>\n

Narv\u00e1ez was the defending champion at the Tour Down Under and made the trip to Australia to start off the season in the familiar southern hemisphere. His form was undeniably great, with him matching teammate Jay Vine on the race-winning attack in the Corkscrew on stage 2.<\/p>\n

The Emirati team had the race fully under control, but then crashes began taking a toll. Narv\u00e1ez crashed on stage 4 and suffered with compression fractures in the vertebrae. Vegard Stake Laengen and Mikkel Bjerg also crashed out of the race, and winner Jay Vine ended the race with a broken wrist after crashing into a kangaroo.<\/p>\n


\nNarv\u00e1ez is set to miss out on Milano-Sanremo and the Tour of Flanders where he was set to be a key support rider for Tadej Pogacar. \u201cI think \u2014 within the limits of my optimism \u2014 he should be able to make the start of the Giro d\u2019Italia,” the Spaniard said in words to Marca<\/a>.UAE’s Giro lineup completeThis reveals the Ecuadorian as the missing piece. Back in early December, CyclingUpToDate was able to understand that the lineup included Jo\u00e3o Almeida, Adam Yates, Jay Vine, Igor Arrieta, Florian Vermeersch, Jan Christen and Ant\u00f3nio Morgado<\/a>. Matxin at the time stated he did not want to share the riders’ schedule publicly. But only now comes the confirmation that it is Narv\u00e1ez the eighth man.<\/p>\n

As to his return to the peloton, it will still take at the very least two months. \u201cIt was, and still is, a terrible situation in terms of the outlook. Jhonatan can\u2019t take part in the cobbled Classics, and that was the plan,” he adds. “Let\u2019s first focus on whether he can make the Giro \u2014 that would already be perfect. But maybe he\u2019ll also make the Ardennes Classics.\u201d<\/p>\n

After last year’s incredible support at Sanremo, Criterium du Dauphin\u00e9 and Tour de France, it is possible that Narv\u00e1ez will not be taken back in a domestique role, but instead have it at the Giro d’Italia, with freedom to also chase stage wins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UAE Team Emirates – XRG manager Joxean Matxin has provided an update on the health status of Ecuadorian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,43199,163716,159824,82,129545],"class_list":{"0":"post-477017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-giro-ditalia","12":"tag-jhonatan-narvaez","13":"tag-joxean-matxin","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uae-team-emirates-xrg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}