OFFICIAL: UAE adds another quality classics rider to its Tadej Pogacar-led block
CyclingTuesday, 18 August 2026 at 10:41
The transfer market continues to move and another signing has been made official this Tuesday morning. UAE Team Emirates - XRG are one of the key teams in the peloton and every rider that goes in or out is worked to the minor detail. The new has revealed its new rider: Marco Frigo.
UAE sign Marco Frigo after five seasons at NSN
The move had previously been rumoured throughout the summer. The Emirati team had 22 riders confirmed for the upcoming season, with the Italian rouleur being the 23rd - signing a two-year deal that will see him stay all the way into the end of the 2028 season.
“I think the first four years as a pro have been a process where I shaped and found my identity as a rider," Frigo said in a press release. "I feel UAE understood that, believed in it, and that our ideas about the future are very much aligned".
The Emirati team is seeing the departure of Igor Arrieta, Pavel Sivakov, Juan Sebastian Molano and Rune Herregodts in the very least, meaning four new riders are set to come into the team. Despite the team's financial capacity, other than Frigo no rider has had credible rumours connecting them with UAE.
But Frigo appeared to be a done deal already throughout the ongoing summer, with him also recently being part of the team's lineup for the Tour de France. "With that said, I can’t wait to transform the big motivation I feel into the next years and contribute to the team achieving its big goals.”
Marco Frigo has signed with UAE Team Emirates - XRG
Frigo - A wildcard or new domestique for UAE?
In a team like UAE, as is the case with Visma, riders often change their roles taking into consideration the race they are taking part in. Frigo resembles Visma's signing of Bruno Armirail, with both riders being quite similar in stature and skillset.
Frigo is a rider who is capable of climbing quite well, but simultaneously having a notable capacity of rolling well on the flat roads. His most prominent performance of the season came at Amstel Gold Race, where he finished 10th, part of the day's early breakaway and having briefly ridden with the Remco Evenepoel group after surviving the peloton's hard pace all the way into the final kilometers.
Frigo has one professional victory to his name, achieved at last year's Tour of the Alps - once again, a solo win from the breakaway. The 26-year old is a very versatile figure, who has on several occasions been close to winning stages in Grand Tours. Recently, he was fourth during stage 4 of the Tour de France, won by Mads Pedersen on a day where the breakaway succeeded.
Frigo's natural attacking behaviour favours UAE's often aggressive racing style and stage hunting; but simultaneously his versatility could see him be deployed as a domestique for leaders such as Pogacar or Isaac del Toro. Having teammates such as Tim Wellens and Florian Vermeersch who appear to have balanced their ambitions perfectly, it could be that Frigo will have a similar role.
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A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
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Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
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- UAE man..These guys just insanemiguel18-08-2026
- this is about the most idiotic comment on here - to wish for war to serve one's nation. We're talking about bike racing. which is in part my point about Jonas. it is a bike, you get paid 5 million euro to ride it. You are lucky, go with it.mij18-08-2026
- I am giving my opinion, I think it is an honor to ride for one's nation. My opinion is that if my countrymen asked me to help him win, I would do so. The fact is as a 3x champion, Peter Sagan rode a course he knew he would get crushed on, because he felt it was an honor to ride for his country. And, I'm not the only one that feels this way. Mark Cavendish, Yves Lampaert, Jai Hindlay and more have all said they would never say "no" to their country and the honor of riding for their nation. Jai Hindlay is not a one day racer, he was never going to win last year. But, he said, “To race for your country, there's nothing better . . . it never gets old.” Jai said Worlds was one of the best weeks of his year and said he was “super proud to race for the green and gold.” And again, he is NOT a one day racer, like Jonas. Unlike Jonas, he would never say "no" to represent his country. So, I like Jai better. Maybe it is YOUR opinion that it is not an honor, and you would say no. I don't know Jonas, I'm sure he is a great guy. But I personally don't have respect for a man that complains about making 5 million euro a year for a sport, how hard it is, when 99.9% of the planet will never see that kind of money. And I personally don't have respect for someone that is able to ride but says no to his country, says no to his teammate. You can feel as you wish.mij18-08-2026
- Cavendish in particular is not very fond of Lefevere's often cold and calculative approach to negotiations, rarely willing to pay extra and often letting go of his stars as a consequence. Lefevere was always very fair in how he wanted to compensate riders. Base wage fee, high bonus fee. Perform and you earn as much as you want. Don't perform, and you get a normal wage for a cyclist. What's wrong with that? Makes perfect sense, but I can imagine that someone who wants to slowly burnout and earn based on past performances has a problem with that. Primož Roglič is my compatriot and I respect him for what he's done for Slovenian cycling, but if he can't perform anymore, what then? Like Lefevere said: The teams are not waiting in line to sign up Roglič.PogiSloFans18-08-2026
- I only came on as a fan in 2019, by which time both of them had committed to other teams. So I never did get the story of how the most important classics team in modern cycling missed out on the two best classics riders of their generation. MVDP would have been a perfect fit in terms of personality and programming, but Wout is of course Belgian. It has worked out spectacularly well for both of them with other teams, but it was an epic miss by Lefevere and Soudal.MidnightRider18-08-2026
- So another rider flies the coop, even a 20 yearold can see the mess this team is in. Hope NetCompany buy out the rest of the contract, move to Europe and rebuild from the top. Thomas has to be the 1st to go.
Senna196018-08-2026 - "How to Destroy a 50 million Cycling Team"abstractengineer18-08-2026
- He needed to sign WVA or MVDP, both of whom he knew pretty well from the Cyclocross scene and he did notabstractengineer18-08-2026
- Or Seixas or others coming up. Didn't say Froome or Roglic, quite the leap you take. Seixas rides LBL and the Tour, as does Remco, Tadej, Pidcock, and many more. I'd prefer to employ a full time rider for a full time salary.mij18-08-2026
- While I will always appreciate Lefevere's commitment to a Belgian classics squad, something the sport needs, he is nonetheless a pompous and boorish ass. No other leading figure in cycling is so publicly hostile to his own riders or so determined to keep himself in the spotlight through petty beefs. He blew his own team up to serve Remco and now spends his days as a grumpy old man.MidnightRider18-08-2026
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