'It's nice to have some advice from him' – Isaac del Toro looks to defend Tadej Pogačar's UAE Tour title as UAE Team Emirates-XRG's leader on 2026 season debut

He narrowly lost to Wout van Aert in the end, but ultimately moved into the race on that day – a lead which he defended almost all the way until the final day in Rome, only coming unstuck on the penultimate mountain stage to Sestriere, where Simon Yates soared to an iconic GC win.

They then picked up this partnership together in the latter part of the season, with Del Toro dominating much of the Italian Autumn racing season, before supporting Pogačar to victories in Tre Valli Varesine and Il Lombardia.

"I spoke to him [Pogačar] about this race, not in this [recent] time, but yes, during the training camps and all this I did, so it's nice to have some advice from him," said Del Toro at the pre-race press conference.

Race commentator for the organisation, Anthony McCrossan, followed that up and asked what the advice given was, but Del Toro kept his lips sealed. The information may be something which he only unveils after the final mountain stage to Jebel Hafeet on stage 6.

Standing in his way of claiming the red jersey will be Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), whom the Mexican was full of praise for. But at 22, Del Toro is, in theory, only going to get stronger, and could well have made the necessary steps to compete with the Belgian on the two mountaintop finishes.

"I will say that for the palmarès here and to everybody, Evenepoel is one of the most complete riders in the new cycling, so he's one of the main favourites, of course," said Del Toro, ahead of his 2026 season debut.

"I'm excited to battle everybody. I hope to be at the level. We will see during the week, and hopefully we are up there."

On paper, UAE have the stronger starting roster than Red Bull, with former winner Adam Yates acting as Del Toro's domestique de luxe, so Evenepoel is expecting a big charge from them to try and slow down his flying start to the year.

Del Toro has the advantage of having checked out the brutal, new Jebel Mobrah climb, which had been added to the route and looks set to shake up the GC battle earlier than usual, with its 14.9 kilometres and average gradient of 8.6% set to provide a real sting on stage 3.

"Isaac's been there, so he'll know it more than me, but yeah, on paper, it looks like a really, really hard climb. I think it's like 7km at 12% on the last bit. Also, you have the run-in as well. Which has another 4 or 5kms at 8%, but that bit looks quite easy compared to the rest of it," Yates told Cyclingnews on Saturday.

"Actually, for me personally, I think it's a good climb, for us featherweights, let's call us. Also, this kind of climb, in this kind of heat, is going to be a real of a challenge. Normally, you feel the heat more too because it's a bit steeper. So this one, I think, is going to be a real challenge.

"We'll see. I think it's new, and when something is new, you never really know what to expect, but I think if Isaac's in good shape, then we'll give it a good crack."

For Del Toro, there is pressure mounting on him to perform against a red-hot Evenepoel, but internally, he's placing it more down to it being his first race of the season, having had no proper way to check his race form yet.

"I will say that I'm feeling the pressure a little bit, but it's more because it's my first race, not much because it's the home race. I know it is a responsibility, but it's more like the start of this season," said the young Mexican.

"It's something really big [to lead the team], all the confidence of the team that they put in me is something really special, and I feel privileged to be in this position now.

"I'm glad to have had a year like last year, and hopefully we can continue with that line. But of course, we still have some things to fix to be better, but for sure, we are hungry to try to be up there."