Questions remain for Evenepoel, Del Toro the real deal, and a new brutal climb that's here to stay – What we learned from the 2026 UAE Tour

As WorldTour racing resumed in February, the eighth edition of the men's UAE Tour brought a mix of shocks and expected performances from some of the biggest names in the sport, with UAE Team Emirates-XRG coming out on top again at their home race.

UAE's Isaac del Toro emerged as the top rider to claim his first WorldTour stage race win overall. But the Mexican's expected main rival, Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was well off the pace on the two climbing days, despite making a flying start to the season and winning the UAE stage 2 time trial.

While Del Toro ultimately lived up to the hype and took red, other general classification hopefuls also took important steps in their overall riding, most notably Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) who put together an impressive race and won the toughest stage and new summit finish at Jebel Mobrah.

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Typically billed as the unofficial sprinters' World Championships, the fast men once again battled it out on some rapid desert days. But there was one standout rider in the field, Lidl-Trek's Jonathan Milan, who bounced back from a day one crash to net an impressive hat-trick of stage wins.

Cyclingnews was on the ground for the men's UAE Tour as the seven days of exciting racing played out, and with that in mind, here are the key points to take away from the first big WorldTour GC clash of the season.

Isaac del Toro is only going to get stronger

Yes, he almost won the Giro d'Italia at the first attempt as a 21-year-old last year, but in the Middle East Isaac Del Toro has nonetheless also continued to take steps and add strings to his bow, both as a climber and GC hopeful.

The Mexican's incredible close to the 2025 season saw him win so much that only Tadej Pogačar and Paul Magnier ended the year with more victories. But it was punchy routes and more short and sharp clubs where he excelled.

With Jebel Mobrah's 15km and Jebel Hafeet's 11km, Del Toro had the perfect test of his ability on a one-hit effort up a long climb, and he passed both tests with flying colours, pacing his effort well to finish second on the former, and scorching away from everyone on the latter with two brutal attacks.

He's set to rejoin team leader Pogačar for some racing at the Italian Classics, Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo, but at Tirreno-Adriatico and Itzulia Basque Country, we'll get to see how he stacks up against the likes of Primož Roglič and Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) in two highly anticipated GC battles.

For the moment, in any case, Del Toro looks every bit like the long-term future of cycling's top team, UAE Team Emirates-XRG.

Long climbs remain a question mark for Remco Evenepoel

While Remco Evenepoel remains the men's rider with the most wins so far in 2026, the UAE Tour has halted his flying momentum from early-season racing in Mallorca and Valencia. He won the time trial, but on the two climbing days, he finished 18th and 15th, behind several riders whom he "should" be beating on a regular basis.

There were explanations given, from his lack of altitude training so far this year, the air conditioning not working in his room the night before Jebel Mobrah, and the 68t chainring he pushed on the time trial then hampering his recovery before stage 3.

Even if all of these are true and negatively affected the Belgian, losing 2:04 to Tiberi on one climb and then 52 more seconds to Del Toro on the next is nowhere near where he wants to be.

It is February, enough time to stay calm for now, but Evenepoel's next test in Catalunya in March – after which time he will have been to altitude camp – becomes even more important, as the UAE showed he was anything but ready to tackle the longest, steepest climbs.

Evenepoel has proved he is an elite stage racer, of course, winning the Vuelta a España in 2022, finishing third at his debut Tour de France and looking like the favourite to win the 2023 Giro d'Italia before COVID-19 forced him out. But it's been a long time since he's shown his climbing talents fully across a week, let alone three weeks, so he really has to up his game on the biggest days in the mountains.

New climb to Jebel Mobrah was a real highlight

Jebel Jais and Jebel Hafeet have long been the climbing combination used to decide GC at the UAE Tour, but the decision to add in the brutal Jebel Mobrah ascent and its vicious final 6km at 12% average gradient was a great one.

Speaking to Cyclingnews, UAE Tour race director Fabrizio D'Amico wasn't certain on how Jais and Mobrah would be used in future, possibly alternating by year. However, he did confirm that the overwhelming response had been what they'd hoped for.

It also changed the GC dynamics, with bigger gaps heading into the final Jebel Hafeet climbing day that the race had perhaps been used to. But this didn't lessen the excitement of the final stage.

Tiberi, after his stunning win on Mobrah, had to defend 21 seconds on Del Toro, but the Mexican ultimately had too much power on the less steep and shorter climb, showing how the two climbs in combination can suit two different GC riders, making for good racing. Hopefully it will in the race route in years to come.

Sprinting needs Milan, Merlier, Philipsen and Kooij

Sprinting dominance in cycling has been mostly shared by four men across the past five years, with Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep), Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Olav Kooij Decathlon CMA CGM) all able to beat each other on any given day.

While most sprinters would normally flock to the UAE to start their seasons, of the biggest names Milan was present at the 2026 edition, and it showed. He won all three of the bunch sprints he competed in – crashing on the first day, which was taken by Del Toro on an uphill finish – and never really looked like he was going to get passed.

For the UAE to maintain its usual status at the unofficial sprinters' World Championships, the best fast men have to all be there fighting for the victories.

Of course, lingering injury issues for Merlier and illness for Kooij is what kept them out, so in 2027, the all-out battle between the fastest riders in the world can be expected to resume. Given the World Championships in 2028 in Abu Dhabi will be a day for the sprinters, something Belgian UCI director Peter Van den Abeele confirmed to Sporza while at the race, that's even more likely.

Tiberi's Tour de France debut should be closely watched

Del Toro is rightly getting a lot of the spotlight for his overall victory, but it was anything but a rout, with Antonio Tiberi giving him a real good fight right to the end, losing only by 20 seconds overall.

The day to Jebel Mobrah also brought him the biggest victory of his career so far, conquering a WorldTour mountaintop finish, and a real brutal one at that, pacing his effort with maturity to drop everyone and hold off a late charge from the Mexican.

While he couldn't match the vicious double move Del Toro put into him on Hafeet, Tiberi chose the right course, trying to follow and really testing if he could live with the UAE man on a day he was flying. The answer was that no, he couldn't - but Tiberi nonetheless still beat all of the remaining stacked GC field bar Plapp by more than a minute too.

He's due to make his Tour de France debut this season, having finished fifth at the Giro in the past, and according to Bahrain's performance director, Rod Ellingworth, "turned a corner in his life," Tiberi will be one to watch come July. Maybe Italy do have their new GC man.