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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.