Isaac del Toro vs Remco Evenepoel at UAE Tour - Olympic Champion set to announce schedule change
Cycling
It was rumoured before the calendar reveal on the 10th of December in Mallorca, but when Remco Evenepoel talked to the media, the schedule he outlined did not include the UAE Tour. However, as it is being reported, the Belgian will indeed be present at the Emirati race this next February where a battle against Isaac del Toro is to be expected.
Evenepoel is going to be starting his season on the 29th of January at the Trofeo Ses Salines, a new team time trial event in the Mallorca Challenge that will see Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe start with several riders that will be taking part in the Tour de France later in the year. The Tour will begin with a TTT in Barcelona, therefore a few teams are interested in ramping up the preparation for that specific day already.
From there on, the Belgian will be racing the Volta a Comunitat Valenciana close to his home in Spain, to test his early-season form. Initially, the schedule he outlined then only had the Volta a Catalunya as the next race, creating a month-and-a-half gap between the two races - with the Ardennes following after Catalunya. Whilst Evenepoel has an altitude camp at Mount Teide scheduled for that period, it was nevertheless odd that he wouldn't compete for such a large amount of time.
Whilst Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe's plan is to have Evenepoel to a simple but effective season, the break was substantial and perhaps not beneficial. According to Het Laatste Nieuws, the decision has been made to add the UAE Tour to the calendar, perhaps with the aid of the race organizers who have made a big push to have the star present.
Evenepoel faces off with UAE
If this does happen, he will be going head-to-head with a few riders that have already confirmed their presence such as Isaac del Toro and Jay Vine of UAE Team Emirates - XRG; Antonio Tiberi and Damiano Caruso of Bahrain - Victorious; and David Gaudu.
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- Who’s gifting grand tours at UAE? Defo not Pogi! Stage wins maybe.Lozza13-11-2026
- Sepp Kuss Vuelta 2023.Lozza13-11-2026
- they have no expertise with classics, they have no leaders in classics. the classics is dominated by the few Fuori Classe riders where other riders are left with scraps. the Hiring , the salaries dont make sense at all. Same problem as Man Utd. over paid players, egos, very little performanceabstractengineer13-11-2026
- Contract year means you gotta win, at least collect UCI points, helping be damnedabstractengineer13-11-2026
- Arensman is their best rider and he is paid very less in comparisonabstractengineer13-11-2026
- I'm not trying to argue with you but if you didn't see Del Toro struggling in the Tour I'll pay for some glasses for you lol. He struggled so much that Tadej missed winning stage 15, Tadej also dropped the pace along some stages to help Del Toro hold onto the podium. Now he may have been sick, that is a possibility, but he definitely struggled. You have a nice weekend as well brother.awp13-11-2026
- Im not copmaring him to jonas palmares...but current level of power and again like you even pointed out 19sec difference and on other ocassions del toro dropping him. Its evidently their close and based on both their different trajectory its self explanatory...where we are next year.And Del Toro didnt struggle if getting a podium in his first TDF at 22 year old is struggling you sure dont know how to be objective haha. But have a good weekend this is so dumb to discuss as its not even a discussin in reality as facts speak for themselves of what were actually speaking of - and self explanatory.miguel13-11-2026
- fingers crossed. my son has a poster of wout and mathieu battling each other at the beach at ostend up in his room. would be great to see them again there!Ketterechts13-11-2026
- This Giro is very strange in it's circular route. If you were to have stage starting in Trieste and ending atop Monte Zoncolan (end stage 20) you'd get a stage only 145 km long
Rafionain-Glas13-11-2026 - When Thomas gets the bullet from INEOS he can get a job as a comedian.
Senna196013-11-2026
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