OFFICIAL: João Almeida and Juan Ayuso lead UAE in search of victories at Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico

UAE Team Emirates-XRG will face the first WorldTour stage races in Europe with participation in Paris-Nice and Tirreno Adriatico. The Emirati squad, which already has 14 victories this season, will be looking to continue its good start to the year with two extremely strong lineups that can both contest for the overall wins and stage victories all around.

In France, having Jonas Vingegaard as a competitor will make life hard for UAE, but they will have João Almeida (second in the Algarve behind the Dane) leading the team and the lineup also includes Brandon McNulty and recent Vuelta a Andalucia winner Pavel Sivakov as outsiders. Jhonatan Narváez, winner of the Tour Down Under, should not be a threat in the high mountains but will have plenty opportunities to chase wins on the hilly days. Juan Sebastián Molano will be seeking his luck in the sprints supported by Ivo Oliveira, whilst Nils Politt will be the road captain.

Statements by Joao Almeida before the race for the UAE website: "It's been a good start to the season for me and the team. We have found the way to victory and we are fighting in every race. Here in Paris-Nice, we're going to give our best as a team. I want to be up there with the best and fight for a good result. The form is good after the Volta ao Algarve. I've been recovering and training to stay fit. Now I have a good feeling and we're going to go for it as a team."

UAE Team Emirates - XRG for Paris-Nice:
João Almeida
Brandon McNulty
Juan Sebastián Molano
Jhonatan Narváez
Ivo Oliveira
Nils Politt
Pavel Sivakov

At Tirreno the team will set off as main favourites to win the overall classification taking into consideration a Juan Ayuso who has started his season with incredible form and has won this race's time-trial last year, and Adam Yates who will provide an extra card for the queen stage in the Apennines. The team will largely test it's Giro lineup here with Isaac del Toro, Rafal Majka and Felix Grossschartner as key support men for the flat... Rui Oliveira is heavily rumoured to race the Giro as a domestique for the flat days and he will be present here; and the lineup is completed by Domen Novak who is helping out other leaders as Tadej Pogacar will not race any other stage-race this spring.

Ayuso, winner of the recent Drôme Classic and Trofeo Laigueglia, said before the start: "Since the beginning of the year I have said that Tirreno would be one of my main early season goals, so I am very excited and motivated. This year has started very well for the team so far and personally I'm very pleased to be able to contribute to that with my victories. There's a winning mentality in the team right now that I think motivates everyone a little bit more. For Tirreno, we have a very strong team and between Adam [Yates] and myself, I think we can challenge for the overall. It's a race I really like and I always enjoy racing in Italy, so hopefully it will be a great week of racing."

Juan Ayuso
Isaac del Toro
Felix Grossschartner
Rafal Majka
Domen Novak
Rui Oliveira
Adam Yates