Brandon McNulty to lead UAE Team Emirates-XRG at Paris-Nice after João Almeida's surprise late non-inclusion in lineup

UAE Team Emirates-XRG have confirmed their line-ups for both Tirreno-Adriatico and Paris-Nice, naming Brandon McNulty their lead GC contender in the French WorldTour stage race after João Almeida was surprisingly not included in the roster.

Almeida had been expected to take part in Paris-Nice after his trademark strong start to the year, with a third place on home soil in the Volta ao Algarve and a runner-up spot in the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana his second set of podium finishes in those races in as many years.

An uphill stage winner in Paris-Nice in 2025 and sixth overall after briefly looking as if he could challenge for the overall mid-race, no official reason was given for Almeida's absence. MARCA reported later, without naming their sources, that he had apparently gone down with 'flu. Meanwhile McNulty will be stepping up to the plate instead as team leader.

The 27-year-old finally ticked off a long-sought victory in a week-long WorldTour race last summer at the Tour de Pologne, but he already had a podium finish overall in the 2024 edition of Paris-Nice, as well as taking a memorable breakthrough solo stage win in the same race back in a now-distant 2022.

This year, the man from Arizona has already finished fifth in Valenciana. However, he was beset by crashes and punctures during Algarve and couldn't show his real form.

In further near-last-minute withdrawals from the Paris-Nice provisional start list, Lidl-Trek announced that Mattias Skjelmose, fourth in 2024 and a stage winner, will not be taking part due to tenosynovitis of the right wrist.

Equally, Picnic-PostNL's Max Poole, whose series of promising results in GCs would have made the 23-year-old Briton an interesting rider to watch, will also not now be taking part.

Amongst the top names backing McNulty in the Race to the Sun are French allrounder Pavel Sivakov, former Paris-Nice winner Marc Soler and Germany's former Paris-Roubaix podium finisher Nils Politt.

Meanwhile, Isaac del Toro will, as expected, fly the flag for UAE at Tirreno-Adriatico for the third time, in a race where he finished fourth as a neo-pro in 2024.

"Racing in Italy is always a pleasure. The shape is good, and after winning the UAE Tour, in the country of our sponsor, the team’s confidence is high," Del Toro, also racing at Strade Bianche this weekend, said in a team press release.

“We’ve had a great start to the season with plenty of wins. We have quite a few guys out due to injuries, too, unfortunately, but the mood in the team is still good and we’re hungry for more results.”

Other riders to watch in the UAE line-up for Tirreno include the USA racer Kevin Vermaerke, French allrounder Benoît Cosnefroy and Austrian climber Felix Großschartner.

Paris-Nice starts on Sunday, March 8, at Carrières-sous-Poissy just outside the French capital, while Tirreno-Adriatico begins on Lido di Camaiore on the Italian coast on Monday, March 9.