<\/p>\n 2025 podium: You may like<\/p>\n Five things to know about the race<\/p>\n The absence of Poga\u010dar<\/p>\n There will be no defending champion at the UAE Tour this year as Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a> has decided to forego his home team\u2019s race, which opens it up for everyone else. Interestingly, his UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad has never won the event without the Slovenian, so Isaac del Toro has big shoes to fill as the team will be chasing yet more wins on their quest to 100.<\/p>\n Post-Remco Quick-Step<\/p>\n In all the excitement of Remco Evenepoel<\/a>\u2019s move to Red Bull the future, well present, of Soudal Quick-Step<\/a> has been under-discussed. The team are yet to win in 2026, not that they have had many opportunities, but in Ilan Van Wilder they have a Belgian GC hope, and in Ethan Hayter they have stage-hunting power.<\/p>\n Evenepoel\u2019s great record<\/p>\n With no Poga\u010dar or Jonas Vingegaard<\/a>, the latter due to illness, all eyes will be on Evenepoel. He is the rider here most likely to finish on the podium at the Tour de France, and so the UAE Tour will be ripe for speculation \u2013 while July is far off, the hype starts here.<\/p>\n Focus on: Jebel Hafeet<\/p>\n \n (Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n This climb has become an icon of the UAE Tour, being included every year since the race\u2019s inception; it\u2019s the Middle East\u2019s answer to Willunga Hill. It\u2019s located near the border with Oman, and the road climbs one of the UAE\u2019s highest mountains. Jebel Hafeet means \u201cempty mountain\u201d in Arabic. It\u2019s 9.2km at 7.2%, which might not compare with the long climbs of the Alps and Pyrenees, but is still a serious test, especially in February. Most years the winner atop the climb wins the whole race, and it is likely to be the same in 2026.<\/p>\n Who will be sprinting?<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n Two-time stage winner last year Tim Merlier will be absent, so therefore the favourite for the many bunch sprints will likely be Lidl-Trek<\/a>\u2019s Jonathan Milan. It will be interesting to see who his rivals will be, setting the narrative for bunch finishes this year \u2013 so far, Sam Welsford, Tobias Lund Andresen and Biniam Girmay<\/a> have been the picks elsewhere.<\/p>\n American dreaming<\/p>\n The UAE Tour will be Modern Adventure Pro Cycling<\/a>\u2019s first ever WorldTour race, with the ProTeam run by George Hincapie in its debut year. Fresh out of the blocks, not much is expected by way of results, but a new American team on the world stage is something to be celebrated.<\/p>\n Five riders to watch<\/p>\n Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) <\/p>\n \n (Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n Leading the home squad\u2019s charge for glory will be the young Mexican, the breakout star of last season. The 22-year-old is yet to race this year, but finished 2026 with nine wins from September onwards, so shouldn\u2019t be too rusty.<\/p>\n Remco Evenepoel<\/a> (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe<\/a>)<\/p>\n \n (Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n It has been a dream start for Remco Evenepoel at Red Bull, with four wins in his first five days racing, but the UAE Tour will be a step up. It might not mean the toughest climbs, but the level of opposition will be the highest he has faced so far. A statement win will get people talking.<\/p>\n Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek)<\/p>\n \n (Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n Two wins at the AlUla Tour suggest that Milan has started the year in flying form, and who would bet against more success for the 25-year-old in the Middle East? He won two stages here last year, so knows what he is doing.<\/p>\n Ethan Hayter (Soudal Quick-Step) <\/p>\n \n (Image credit: SWpix.com)<\/p>\n Eyes will be on Evenepoel for the time trial on stage two of the UAE Tour, but the British champion is always impressive against the clock. With the ITT being 12.2km, his experience in the team pursuit could come in very handy.<\/p>\n Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) <\/p>\n \n (Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n The brand new age at Decathlon CMA CGM has been a little delayed by injury to Olav Kooij, so taking up the mantle for wins at the UAE Tour will be Felix Gall. The Austrian finished in the top 10 at both the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dates: Monday 16 – Sunday 22 February 2026Distance: 978.2km Swipe to scroll horizontallyUAE Tour 2026 stages Stage Start…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-429828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
1. Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a> (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)
2. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek)
3. Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious)<\/p>\n![\"Riders](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GKL9XL26mDAVp72VZgPMbZ.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n![\"Isaac](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/G9LrU92UAYHZP7JQnv92SA.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n![\"Remco](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/kaSzm5CWLGmGnhCGXKo9JW.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n![\"Jonathan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/X55eQqEhvBJJeAud9AUbS6.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n![\"Ethan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/cupmFeDHLMUXVEFVjbg9JU.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n![\"Felix](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Vc4hqqznA2Vtf5CA6jfV7B.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n