Adam Yates and Jay Vine lead UAE Team Emirates - XRG at Tour of Oman
Cycling
UAE Team Emirates - XRG have been piling up the wins and UCI points in recent weeks at the start of the 2025 season, and this is likely to continue this week in the Middle East. At the Tour of Oman, this will be the team to beat, as Adam Yates and Jay Vine form a formidable duo that will be aiming for the overall win.
Adam Yates is the reigning champion after in 2024 Finn Fisher-Black dominated the early stages, but on the famous 'Green Mountain' the Briton took over and had a comfortable win. He will be the main favourite to once again win the overall classification, even if this time around this race isn't preparation for the UAE Tour - he will instead travel back to Europe to do some more races and then prepare for the Giro d'Italia.
The likes of David Gaudu, Valentin Paret-Peintre and Wout Poels will be the main competition for the Emirati team, who will have also very capable weapons in the mountains in the form of Jay Vine who just came off the Tour Down Under, and also Rafal Majka who was one of the favourites to win the AlUla Tour but was severely affected by a fall on the first day of the race. Both should be luxury domestiques for the Briton in the key days.
There will be the debut of Belgian Florian Vermeersch in Oman as well, as he begins his serious preparation for the spring classics, and he will be joined by the very experienced Vegard Stake Laengen who is used to long stints working in the front of the peloton. The team is completed by two riders from the development team in Luca Giaimi and Tadej Pogacar's compatriot Anze Ravbar.
UAE Team Emirates - XRG for Tour of Oman 2024:
Vegard Stake Laengen
Rafal Majka
Florian Vermeersch
Jay Vine
Adam Yates
Luca Giaimi
Anze Ravbar
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We're excited to head to Oman as defending champions. Here is our lineup for the #TourofOman 🇴🇲:
— @UAE-TeamEmirates (@TeamEmiratesUAE) February 4, 2025
🇳🇴 @VSLaengen
🇵🇱 @majkaformal
🇧🇪 @FlorianVermeers
🇦🇺 @JayVine3
🇬🇧 @AdamYates7
🇮🇹 #LucaGiaimi (Gen-Z)
🇸🇮 #AnzeRavbar (Gen-Z)#WeAreUAE pic.twitter.com/5Geqo1fudj
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- If we're playing the "what if" game - I'd go further back to Mads getting a puncture and possibly being a favourite to win the race. He would have likely beat Tadej and MVDP in a sprint at the Velodrome. He appeared to be one of the stronger riders who faced some bad luck. But, that's just cycling. Wout could have very well won Paris-Roubaix in 2023 if he hadn't punctured in the last 10km. I wish Tadej hadn't crashed or would've caught up so all these stories of how Tadej should have won wouldn't exist, I think MVDP was the stronger rider in this particular race.JBlake16-04-2025
- There might be some truth to Visma's psychology being hurt by last year's crashes. But, definitely - Itzulia was a boycott because of the Organizer's and comments made by them this year again proves it is necessary. The crash profoundly changed the course of the season for several of the top riders, yet they got blamed for not being careful, going too fast, or. not knowing the roads enough.JBlake16-04-2025
- Someone else may be able to give better local context, but I don't think these type of incidents only happen to MVDP - although, it does seem to happen more often to him. Eli Iserbyt had beer thrown at him earlier this year, or Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard had chips thrown in their face during last year's Tour de France. The common theme is alcohol between most incidents, combined with being outdoors for a prolonged period of time. MVDP is also not very well-liked by many Belgian fans for his success, particularly against a rider like Wout. It's likely a combination of today's society, alcohol, some dislike towards the rider, and just being stupid. Hopefully real consequences might dissuade others from doing similar things.JBlake16-04-2025
- Yeah, but MVDP actually isn't. If Pog goes up the road, it is his responsibility to run it down, and everyone knows he has the most to lose. It's just rare that anyone calls him on it.acem8216-04-2025
- In almost any other sport the culprit would be banished and banned from the event venue, either temporarily or permanently.. Giving the perpetrators of this terrible behavior a mere verbal warning accomplishes absolutely nothing, and is insulting to the riders subjected to these type of abuses as well.
santiagobenites16-04-2025 - Itzulia? Are you sure it wasn’t more a boycott? Didn’t see many others going who crashed last year, out of the dozen of the crash only Cras I think.Mistermaumau16-04-2025
- MVDP also had a late bike change, so in theory a chance for Pogi to reel some time back. But by that point MvdP was strongermobk16-04-2025
- l don’t live in europe, i live in southern california. can someone explain why this stuff happens to van der poel and seemingly ONLY van der poel? i don’t need anyone to say it’s wrong or awful or whatever. i’m looking for a real cultural explanation of this phenomenon from someone who has a much deeper understanding of the forces at play than i do. thanks in advance.OCexile15-04-2025
- A MVDP victory certainly did not seem "inevitable" before the crash, with TP, MVDP and Philipsen leaving the peloton behind.. Pogi attacked to drop Philipsen, with Mathieu understandably unwilling to help, and he was surely attempting to put MVDP on the limit later by attacking again, until the crash derailed his efforts. Still the gap was manageable, and he was slowly trimming it down, but then a mechanical forced him to change bikes and that was the final straw. Kudos to TP for making it exciting, rather than just a walk in the park for MVDP.FredMan15-04-2025
- nice idea, but as analysis point out over and over, mvdp is more willing than anyone to lose a race in order to win it. why do you think smart riders like wout, ganna and mads end up doing his dirty work over and over? because he’s almost impossible to manipulate.OCexile15-04-2025