Isaac del Toro won his first stage race of the season at the UAE Tour this weekend, ahead of Bahrain Victorious’s Antonio Tiberi, who put in a career best performance, and Jayco-AlUla’s Luke Plapp, who just loves Jebel Hafeet.
After a great week of racing that had a bit of everything there are plenty of takeaways, we’ve picked out the six biggest as well as a rider to keep an eye on as the season progresses.
Pacing was the name of the game for Isaac del Toro
Isaac del Toro immediately impressed on his first race out for 2026. The UAE Tour was billed as a showdown between Del Toro and Remco Evenepoel, and while this wouldn’t truly come to fruition, the GC race was entertaining from start to finish, and began much earlier than expected when the Mexican spoiled the predicted sprinters’ stage by jumping clear on the slight incline at the end of Stage 1 and holding on for victory.
After Evenepoel took the lead as expected on the time-trial, the leader’s jersey then found its way to Bahrain Victorious’s Antonio Tiberi for a few days, but Del Toro was biding his time, and on the final mountain stage up Jebel Haffet the 22-year-old dropped everyone to win the stage, blitzing the climbing record set by teammate Adam Yates by 40 seconds (albeit assisted by a tailwind) and reclaiming the overall lead of the race.
Despite that emphatic victory, Del Toro’s finest moment perhaps came on Stage 3 on the monstrous new climb Jebel Mobrah. As the peloton was powering its way up the 14.9km climb’s first half, he was pictured towards the back of the group dousing himself with water for relief from the desert heat. Then once the steepest section came and the other contenders began to play their cards, he began to fall back.
However, with the final 6km averaging 12%, he had plenty of time to play it cool and started to claw his way back, picking off rider by rider, including Evenepoel who’d gone over his limit, until it was only Tiberi left up the road. By the summit Del Toro had come from more than a minute back to get within 15 seconds of the Italian, leaving the door open for that Jebel Hafeet attack.
That steady, calculated climb drew many comparisons to his teammate João Almeida, and showed immense maturity for a young and hungry rider.
The bull became the matador when the pressure was on.
Loading …Remco Evenepoel’s inconsistency rears its head
Remco Evenepoel started his Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe career hot, with three consecutive one-day victories and a stage race to his name in the Volta a Comunitat Valenciana. This trend looked to be continuing at the UAE Tour as he flew to victory on the Stage 2 time-trial, putting half a minute into his nearest GC competitors.
However the following day he crumbled on the first GC challenge of Jebel Mobrah, crossing the line over two minutes in arrears to Tiberi. And that trend continued on Jebel Hafeet as he lost a further 52 seconds to winner Del Toro. Following his big money transfer, Red Bull will be hoping this is just an early season blip and not a sign of things to come as he aims for a second Tour de France podium in the summer.
Loading …Podium potentials heating up
The UAE Tour was the first race of the season for several GC riders, including Decathlon-CMA CGM’s Felix Gall, who is coming off a big year that saw him finish fifth at the Tour and eighth at the Vuelta. He was one of the main protagonists in the mountains of the UAE, climbing to fifth and third on the two summit finishes at UAE and had a particularly strong finish on Jebel Hafeet. The Austrian is building towards a run at the Giro this year, and looks in a good palce to improve on last year’s results.
Antonio Tiberi, meanwhile, had the most impressive race of his career so far, winning Stage 3 on the super-steep Jebel Mobrah and almost holding onto the race lead on Jebel Hafeet, finishing up in second 20 seconds behind Del Toro after riding past his limit trying to hold the Mexican’s wheel. The Italian’s three-week form took a hit last season, only managing 17th at the Giro despite a good start and 41st at the Vuelta, but the 24-year-old remains Bahrain’s best GC rider and will be at the Tour de France this July alongside Lenny Martinez.
Loading …Luke Plapp takes a step forward
Jayco-AlUla’s Luke Plapp scored his first stage race podium of the season with third place overall. A strong climber, the Australian has a Giro stage win and proven time-trial ability, but has never quite managed to prove his stage race capabilities.
He has top ten finishes in races like Paris-Nice and the Tour de Romandie, but it feels as though he is yet to tap into his full potential at 25 years of age. This is his second UAE Tour podium, and he’s shown how good he can be on single-climb stages – just look at his mountain TT performance at last year’s Tour de France – but his consistency across longer races and ons stages with multiple big climbs is lacking. Hopefully that’s something he’s developing in 2026.
Loading …Jonathan Milan is top dog
There was no doubt at the unofficial sprinters’ world championships, Jonathan Milan continues to top the sprinting hierarchy. It was a tricky start after the Lidl-Trek man was taken down in a crash in the final kilometres of Stage 1, but he made up for it by claiming three wins across the race.
It was a shame to be denied a showdown between the Italian giant and Soudal-QuickStep’s Tim Merlier, who is out with a knee injury, but you can only beat what’s in front of you and Milan was untouchable.
Ethan Vernon was often one of the closest in sprint finishes for NSN Cycling, so too was Matteo Malucelli for XDS-Astana, while Sam Welford and Ineos Grenadiers couldn’t replicate his stage win from the Tour Down Under, his best result a third place on Stage 7.
One of the more interesting takeaways from the three flat bunch finishes in the UAE was Stage 4, when Milan went head to head with his younger brother, Groupama-FDJ United’s Matteo Milan, who finished third on the day. One Milan is frightening enough, it would be quite the sight if Matteo can develop like Jonathan.
Loading …Derek Gee-West finding feet at Lidl-Trek
Derek Gee-West hasn’t participated in a stage race since the Giro last season, following his early exit from Israel-Premier Tech. The Canadian is now set to be one of Lidl-Trek’s two GC hopes, alongside fellow new signing Juan Ayuso, and in his first race for the team, it was the story of the lucky number seven as he rode to two seventh places on the mountain stages, taking him to seventh place overall.
Loading …Rider to watch out for: Erlend Blikra (Uno-X Mobility)
Milan was far and away the best sprinter at the UAE Tour but it was Erlend Blikra of Uno-X Mobility that proved best of the rest, coming into the race off a stage win in the Tour of Oman and scoring a second on stages 5 and 7 in the UAE.
The 29-year-old Norwegian has been with the team since 2020 and has so far only been deployed in one-day and smaller stage races, never participating in a Grand Tour. But that is set to change this year as he eyes the Vuelta, and given his form behind Milan so far, don’t be surprised to see him in the mix.
