DISCUSSION | UAE 3, Algarve 1, Andalucia 1 - Did Remco’s legs fail? Will UAE snatch the lead from Tiberi? Magnier and Laporte smile

One day, three races, many nuances, expectations and perspectives. In the United Arab Emirates, in Spain and in Portugal, we had routes, profiles and victories to suit every taste. But let’s take a closer look at each of them to understand what led to these outcomes.

At the UAE Tour, we saw a breakaway of two riders from Alpecin–Premier Tech who carried their adventure all the way to the final climb to Jebel Mobrah. The first rider to attack the race was Chris Harper (Q36.5), but the group of favourites kept him within sight.

Felix Gall, Antonio Tiberi, Luke Plapp and Harold Tejada began to animate the second half of the climb. As the gradient started to bite again, we saw Isaac del Toro struggling.

With around 4 km to go, Antonio Tiberi launched an attack and dropped his breakaway companions, while behind him Isaac del Toro made it back to the group that included Remco Evenepoel.

Shortly afterwards, Adam Yates moved to the front of the group to set the pace and Remco Evenepoel was dropped. The Belgian rider was hitting his leg, a sign that something was not right physically.

Del Toro attacked and took Lennert Van Eetvelt with him. He bridged across to the group chasing Antonio Tiberi, recovered for a few moments, then attacked again, stealthily setting off in pursuit of the Bahrain-Victorious youngster.

All the young Mexican managed to do was reduce the gap, but he could not prevent Bahrain and Antonio Tiberi from claiming their first victories of the year.

In Spain, things were decided in the sprint. However, the rolling terrain of the day could have brought some surprises. Midway through the stage, the peloton had to go all out to prevent a breakaway from forming that included five riders from Team Visma | Lease a Bike and three riders from UAE Team Emirates – XRG, among others.

We witnessed a few tense moments, with narrow and somewhat technical roads. The peloton managed to neutralise the group’s intentions and caught them a few kilometres later.

After that, it was a matter of waiting for the final sprint. Up until the final 5 km, we saw several lead-out trains being formed, but no specific team was truly taking control of the race.

As the finish line approached, the tension for positioning increased. There was the usual fight for space and some contact between riders, but Laporte was clinical. He launched his sprint at exactly the right moment and managed to hold the lead, raising his arms to take the stage victory.

In the Algarve, the breakaway of the day had nine riders. At one point they built a maximum lead of around two minutes over the peloton, which never allowed them to gain much of a margin.

As the kilometres went by and fatigue set in, the front of the race began to lose riders, but they never stopped fighting. With about 50 kilometres to go, they could feel the peloton breathing down their necks… but then they managed to increase their advantage again, which rose to about one minute for several more tens of kilometres.

With Tavira in sight, the speed increased dramatically. Chaos broke out in the fight for position. Entering the final kilometre, Alpecin had Philipsen perfectly sheltered in the wheels, and many would have thought Jasper only needed to finish off the work of his teammates.

But when Philipsen launched his sprint, it was already too late, as Paul Magnier was determined to win the stage and powered away to take the victory. Jordi Meeus and Pavel Bittner completed the podium, while the Alpecin rider had to settle for fourth place on the day.

Today, did we have a surprise in the Middle East? I don’t think so. For many, Remco Evenepoel’s failure on the final climb was something that caught them off guard, as they expected a performance from the Belgian rider in line with what he has shown at the start of this season.

But today’s climb was a profile Remco had not yet faced in competition this year. Expectations should not have been too high, so that the final disappointment would be smaller.

Isaac del Toro even lost contact with the favourites’ group. He then settled, bridged across to the fugitives, who in the meantime had not responded to Antonio Tiberi’s attack, and once there the young Mexican asserted himself and attacked again, stealthily, in search of Tiberi and the stage win.

Antonio Tiberi won the stage, gained time on the road and took the leader’s jersey. To achieve that, Tiberi delivered a very high-level final climb. He saw Felix Gall attack and responded along with Tejada and Plapp.

Together they built an advantage, and then the Italian from Bahrain attacked for the win. No doubts about it. The first victory of the season for both him and his team in 2026. The race is still open in the general classification. It will be interesting to see the responses that will be given on the road.

In the Algarve we had a high-speed sprint finish. Amid the chaos, Paul Magnier emerged, showing who will be in charge of the sprint stages in Portugal. Alpecin delivered Philipsen in perfect condition, but he mistimed his launch. It was impossible to ask more from the team, he just had to finish the job. But Jasper wasn’t able to do it…

In Spain, Visma with five riders and UAE with three animated the stage midway through the route, creating some tension within the peloton. But it didn’t last long and the peloton quickly shut down the move. The sprint was calmer than in the Portuguese race. One kilometre from the finish, already alone, I would have put all my chips on Christophe Laporte.

Visma did a good job in the run-in to the final kilometre, but then left Laporte on his own. Sitting on the sofa at home, Wout van Aert must have cracked a huge smile, because a major asset for Visma is back ahead of the Spring Classics season.

At the Algarve and Andalucia not much to add. Jasper Philipsen and Alpecin were not connected in that final sprint, and we ended up with a chaotic situation, in which Paul Magnier took the win. A strong one, this is no modest sprinter field, and the stage didn't really have any climbing either.

In Andalucia Visma showed themselves strong, and Christophe Laporte's win is much needed good news, the Frenchman might for the first time in years make it to the spring in good form, Visma and Wout van Aert need that quite a lot.

At the UAE we had the Evenepoel implosion, he cracked once more, not recovering from the prior day and also suffering with the heat. Sure, it can be prevented in a Grand Tour, as it has been before, but this is a worrying sign.

The spotless season start is now a distant memory, and the flashbacks of his occasional bad days returned. He will not win the GC, although I don't doubt he may potentially recover in time for Jebel Hafeet and fight for the victory there.

But the question isn't on whether he is a good climber or not, he absolutely is, but consistency lacks sometimes. Only one day is necessary to derail a race, and that's what happened here.The victory of Antonio Tiberi isn't a full surprise, he looked good in Valencia, and the first two stages definitely showed a great Tiberi.

But winning like this on a pure mountain top finish, and with a sizeable gap over the rest, is impressive and cannot be underestimated. If he has the same legs on Jebel Hafeet he will win this race, the biggest win of his career.

But this was already a W/Kg display that was quite good. Isaac del Toro was second, pacing his way up the climb instead of going in with the shock, and I think he should be the main favourite to win in Jebel Hafeet which will not have the ramps of today's climb. But he will want the GC win and so he will need to attack. We have an exciting climb ahead still with many variables.