INTERVIEW | Ivo Oliveira: "I'm no longer that kid who only works and works, I win now too"

Being a World Tour rider quickly points towards a rider's quality, but winning if a different game and two riders who have felt this quite a lot were Rui and Ivo Oliveira. Signed to UAE Team Emirates - XRG since 2019, the Portuguese twins have had long successful years as domestiques, but in 2025 Ivo has put his foot down and took four victories during the season, contributing to the team's record and proving his spot in the world's most competitive team.

In 2026, Oliveira will race the Tour Down Under (potentially Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race too), Figueira Champions Classic, Volta ao Algarve, Milano-Torino, Volta a Catalunya, Tour de Romandie, Gran Camiño, Boucles de la Mayenne, Tour Auverge - Rhône Alpes, National Championships, Vuelta a España, Cro Race and Japan Cup. Impressively, his schedule is already decided until October of next year, if illness or injury does not come in the way.

It was without a doubt a breakthrough year for the 29-year old, one of the about two dozen riders who walked around the team's hotel during the media day this Saturday afternoon. He walked in on a conversation with his brother Rui, and enthusiastically sat down with CyclingUpToDate and TopCycling to discuss what has been his best season so far. "They tell me, you won four, but the Romandie one.... 0.2 [seconds], a blink of an eye..." 

Despite his many triumphs, perhaps what stuck out to him the most was barely missing out on his first World Tour win. At the Tour de Romandie, carrying great form, he finished second to INEOS Grenadiers' Sam Watson in the prologue, with a 0.2 second-margin separating the two. It would've been a career-changing triumph for both, but the coin landed on the Briton's side. "He was a good rider and he could win, but in that way, I was the one that lost it". 

The weeks before however, he stormed to success at the Giro d'Abruzzo, attacking in the hilltop finish in Penne to take a stellar solo win. His level was quite high, and then he backed that up with a second stage win on the fourth and final day of the Italian event - this time joining the breakaway and, in a similar finale, beating former teammate Sjoerd Bax in a sprint.

Later in June, at the Tour of Slovenia, he 'avenged' his brother (who had been relegated days before) to take the win on the final stage of the race, beating Lidl-Trek's Andrea Bagioli in the sprint that decided the final day of the race in Novo Mesto.

In Ourém, which hosted the finale of a stage at the 2024 Vuelta a España, he took a victory at the Portuguese national championships, which means currently he is the holder of the country's colours, in the World Tour team that has the most riders of the Iberic nation. This surge in form saw him get an unexpected call-up to the Vuelta a España, where he assisted compatriot João Almeida to second overall, and finished fifth himself in a highly competitive final time trial won by Filippo Ganna.

"You feel a different aura, a different motivation, I'm no longer that kid who only works and works, I win now too," he states. With no injuries hampering him, he remains in a good position and wants to continue improving in the upcoming season.

"I want to win the prologue at Australia (Tour Down Under, ed.) and Boucles [de la Mayenne]". Down Under, where his season starts, he will be under different conditions as everyone will race the prologue on the road bike. "If it was in the time trial bike I could tell you already I finish in the Top3, but in a road bike I don't know, it's a different feeling. In the time trial bike I turn well, the handlebars in the time trial bike is lower and your closer to the floor. Everyone turns better with the road bike but I turn better with the time trial bike".

And he makes a pretty high goal of a smaller race that is in his schedule too, the aforementioned Boucles de la Mayenne, in France. "If they keep the prologue it's good for me, I already know all those corners, I won a year (2023, ed.) and then another I finished second behind," Oliveira takes a moment to point at Benoît Cosnefroy who is sitting close, and is now a teammate of his. 

In a team that is constantly growing and continuously bringing in new talents, it is no longer possible for the Oliveira brothers to rely on young age and potential to be part of UAE. They must now deliver, but both seem to have taken the task at face value and are delivering on what years ago many hoped they would achieve.