{"id":770828,"date":"2026-09-14T22:52:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T22:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/770828\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T22:52:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T22:52:13","slug":"visma-remarkably-edge-past-uae-in-the-2026-grand-tours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/770828\/","title":{"rendered":"Visma remarkably edge past UAE in the 2026 Grand Tours"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nAnd here we find the factor that changes<\/a> the picture entirely: Tadej Poga\u010dar could not finish the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a. The Slovenian, race leader and winner of three stages, suffered a heavy crash on stage 8 and had to abandon. UAE later confirmed that the injury forced him to end his season.The Tour propped up UAE, but the Vuelta decided the ranking<\/p>\n

UAE\u2019s dominance at the Tour was unanswerable in this comparison. The 5,565 points earned in France account for almost three quarters of their total Grand Tour haul. Poga\u010dar was pivotal in reaching that figure, and the team capitalised on his huge capacity to stack results over the three weeks.<\/p>\n

Visma, by contrast, added only 1,463.75 points at the Tour. The more than 4,100-point difference between the two teams in France looked enough to all but settle any annual comparison. However, the Giro and especially the Vuelta ended up overturning that vast deficit.<\/p>\n

In Italy, Visma had already started building their advantage thanks to 3,287 points against UAE\u2019s 1,045. The Dutch team more than tripled their rival\u2019s output, laying a first stone for a comeback that seemed unlikely after the Tour.<\/p>\n

The situation changed radically in Spain. Visma\u2019s 3,230 points versus UAE\u2019s 1,100 meant a 2,130-point swing in a single race, enough to claw back more than half the hole the Dutch had dug in France. And the explanation doesn\u2019t lie solely in on-the-road performance.<\/p>\n

\"Tadej<\/p>\n

Tadej Pogacar en la s\u00e9ptima etapa de la Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a 2026<\/p>\n

The Vuelta that changed everything<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar\u2019s crash was the turning point. The Slovenian abandoned while wearing the red jersey after winning three stages and standing as the outstanding favourite for the overall. His withdrawal opened the race and allowed Enric Mas to seize definitive control of a Vuelta he would win ahead of Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d and Felix Gall.<\/p>\n

But UAE\u2019s problem didn\u2019t end with their leader. The Emirati squad endured a true attrition of withdrawals during the race, to the point of being left with only four riders in competition. Poga\u010dar was joined on the casualty list by Pablo Torres, Pavel Sivakov, and Jay Vine, leaving the team reduced to half its starting line-up.<\/p>\n

In such a scenario, UAE\u2019s ability to keep banking points was severely limited. The outfit that had steamrollered the Tour found itself in Spain without its primary points engine and with a heavily depleted structure. That contrast explains a large share of those 2,130 points separating them from Visma.<\/p>\n

Visma, by contrast, seized the opportunity and delivered a far more balanced output. Their result at the Vuelta not only won the head-to-head with UAE in Spain, but proved decisive in placing them atop the 2026 Grand Tours ranking.<\/p>\n

A ranking shaped by injuries<\/p>\n

The figure doesn\u2019t necessarily mean Visma were superior to UAE across the entire Grand Tour season. In fact, UAE took 5,565 points at the Tour, a number that alone exceeds Visma\u2019s combined Giro and Vuelta tally. The final difference stems from the Dutch side\u2019s ability to score consistently and, above all, from an unexpected finale in Spain.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar\u2019s injury was decisive. His abandonment altered not only the Vuelta\u2019s general classification but also the distribution of points between teams. UAE lost, in one stroke, the rider who had won three stages and led the race, while the rest of the roster had to face the final two weeks with very limited resources. The organisers themselves confirmed his withdrawal on stage 8.<\/p>\n

The final picture is particularly striking because UAE seemed to have the classification in hand after the Tour. The Emiratis had built a huge lead thanks to their form in France, but the Giro and the Vuelta steadily shifted the trend. Visma capitalised on every opening and closed the three Grand Tours with 270.75 points more.<\/p>\n

Thus, the dominant team in the Grand Tours points classification in 2026 is not UAE, despite their spectacular Tour, but Team Visma | Lease a Bike. Poga\u010dar\u2019s injury, the Emirati team\u2019s numerous absences, and the outcome of the Vuelta ultimately tipped a balance that, before the season\u2019s final Grand Tour, looked clearly favourable to UAE.<\/p>\n

Pos.TeamTotal pointsGiroTourVuelta 1 Team Visma | Lease a Bike 7,980.75 3,287.00 1,463.75 3,230.00 2 UAE Team Emirates-XRG 7,710.00 1,045.00 5,565.00 1,100.00 3 Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe 6,883.00 1,744.00 2,920.00 2,219.00 4 Decathlon CMA CGM Team 6,166.04 2,037.00 2,595.04 1,534.00 5 Lidl-Trek 5,979.00 2,285.00 3,025.00 669.00 6 Bahrain Victorious 4,705.66 1,723.00 1,295.66 1,687.00 7 XDS Astana 3,816.00 1,565.00 715.00 1,536.00 8 Netcompany INEOS Cycling Team 3,669.00 1,772.00 725.00 1,172.00 9 Soudal Quick-Step 3,534.04 1,499.00 1,095.04 940.00 10 Uno-X Mobility 3,512.00 1,015.00 1,170.00 1,327.00 11 EF Education-EasyPost 3,442.00 637.00 1,650.00 1,155.00 12 Movistar Team 3,242.00 857.00 410.00 1,975.00 13 Tudor Pro Cycling Team 2,259.00 1,217.00 500.00 542.00 14 Alpecin-Premier Tech 2,250.04 295.00 1,540.00 415.00 15 NSN Cycling Team 1,965.00 630.00 805.00 530.00 16 Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team 1,891.50 562.00 737.50 592.00 17 Groupama-FDJ United 1,832.00 352.00 450.00 1,020.00 18 Team Jayco-AlUla 1,432.00 337.00 920.00 175.00 19 Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9 1,342.00 332.00 430.00 580.00 20 Cofidis 926.00 0.00 350.00 576.00 21 Team TotalEnergies 690.04 0.00 690.04 0.00 22 Team Polti VisitMalta 597.00 597.00 0.00 0.00 23Equipo Kern Pharma502.000.000.00502.00 24 Unibet Rose Rockets 450.00 450.00 0.00 0.00 25 Bardiani-CSF Faizan\u00e8 252.00 252.00 0.00 0.00 26 Team Picnic PostNL 239.00 67.00 95.00 77.00 27Burgos Burpellet BH222.000.000.00222.0028Caja Rural-Seguros RGA105.000.00105.000.00<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" And here we find the factor that changes the picture entirely: Tadej Poga\u010dar could not finish the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,8782,12183,56,54,55,20998,8783],"class_list":["post-770828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-uae-team-emirates-xrg","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-vuelta-a-espana","tag-wout-van-aert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770828","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=770828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}