In the seven times the UAE Tour has been run up to now, the home team, UAE Team Emirates-XRG, has managed to win three of them. All three were taken by their big star and cycling's number one rider, Tadej Pogačar, but without him, their GC results read: ninth in 2019, third in 2023 and 15th in 2024, with the world champion losing the 2020 race to now teammate Adam Yates.
But this Sunday, barring any bizarre incident, Isaac del Toro will take over the responsibility of winning what is an important race for the UAE team, after he produced a crushing performance on stage 6 of the 2026 edition to win on Jebel Hafeet and wrest back control of the red jersey from Antonio Tiberi.
The Mexican set a new climbing record on the 10.8km ascent of 25:15, which had previously been held by Yates at 25:53, and he did it with big help from the Briton himself, before launching an initial massive attack at 4.2km to go, which distance everyone except Tiberi, and finally landing the killer blow with 2.7km remaining.
"I saw him by his shadow during the whole attack in the beginning, and then I decided that it was a little bit early, because then the next corner will be headwind," said Del Toro to Cyclingnews after the stage.
"I just tried to take as much confidence as I could when Plapp was coming and then tried again before Felix [Gall], and Antonio [Tiberi] could take a breath and try to change the situation of the race."
Del Toro has often been compared to Pogačar, perhaps due to his style on the bike, but also his versatility, as someone able to win stage races – this was his first at WorldTour-level – but also one-day races, with heaps of climbing talent and punchy power at his disposal.
As Del Toro continued to rock his bike and forth and attack out of the saddle with vigour, which Tiberi left grimacing as he tried to follow, it felt like one of Pogačar's moves where the poor soul left trying to match him is certainly going to get too close to the sun and burn.
And that was the case for Tiberi on stage 6, with the Italian dropping to fourth on the road by the finish, but while still maintaining second on GC. Having had so much buffer on everyone that wasn't Del Toro due to his stunning stage 3 victory, Tiberi was right to follow the tactic he did, too; he just wasn't strong enough in the face of a giant.
Before the start of the race, it was almost billed as a two-horse race, between the Mexican and Remco Evenepoel, with the UAE and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe riders trading stage wins and the red jersey on the opening two days.
But on the aforementioned brutal third stage, Evenepoel had an off-day and was nowhere to be seen, as his rivals went up the road. That was the case once more on stage 6, with Evenepoel – although in slightly better form – losing almost another minute to Del Toro and all but finishing the race 2:25 down on GC. A real shock, given how their respective stocks looked before the start.
But the scariest part, for UAE's rivals at least, is that when asked if this was one of his best career performances on a long climb, Del Toro was simple in response: "I will say no." So, in theory, it must have been at the Giro he finished second at on debut? "No," he said again, "honestly, it comes on strange days, not even when I want."
Del Toro is still only 22 and has lots more room to unlock his high ceiling, but he's already looking like a podium contender for his upcoming Tour de France debut, even if his main job will be to support Pogačar in pursuit of a fifth yellow jersey.
It was already clear that the Mexican was going to be a star – his Tour de l'Avenir victory and winning on his second ever WorldTour stage showed that – but Del Toro has the makings of something really special, and the maturity to back it up too.
Even still, while performance-wise, he knows there is lots more to come, Del Toro did note the importance of winning the Jebel Hafeet career in the context of his career, and how it's a belief in himself that he needs more of to keep winning like this.
"I think today is one of the top 3 victories in my career. It's so special," he said. "Now it's time to realise that I'm working for it, and I need to believe in myself more day by day."
Before the race, Del Toro stayed quiet when it came to what advice Pogačar had given him before defending the team's title, but he revealed it after stage 6.
"No, it was not this kind of advice [for how to tackle the climb]. He just told me to enjoy this, not put a lot of pressure on myself, and of course, try it, but never look back," Del Toro said. "He said to just give it my all, and that if I was empty in the legs, I need to be proud and happy with the effort that we did as a team."
But he was far from empty in the legs as he scorched up the 10.8 kilometres, and after hopefully getting through the final Abu Dhabi sprint stage unscathed, Del Toro can take stock of his first WorldTour stage race win, and start preparing to link up with Pogačar for Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo.
