Pogacar's domination, McNulty's breakthrough and Del Toro's consolidation - UAE Team Emirates - XRG's top riders in 2026
Cycling
Tadej Pogacar won a record-equalling fifth Tour de France, Brandon McNulty became world champion and Isaac del Toro joined his Slovenian teammate on the podium in Paris. UAE Team Emirates - XRG’s leading riders delivered some of the defining performances of 2026, even as crashes and illness disrupted several of their strongest teammates’ seasons.
UAE finished with 78 victories and a fourth consecutive year atop the UCI team rankings. Pogacar and Del Toro supplied 34 of those wins between them, while McNulty’s world title and Benoit Cosnefroy’s productive first campaign helped reshape the hierarchy behind the team’s biggest star.
Pogacar remained comfortably ahead in the individual standings. These were UAE’s ten highest scorers in UCI calendar-year ranking on 29 October, ranked within the team.
| Rank | Rider | Points |
| 1 | Tadej Pogacar | 9,331.8 |
| 2 | Isaac del Toro | 5,606.5 |
| 3 | Brandon McNulty | 2,710.9 |
| 4 | Benoit Cosnefroy | 2,355.3 |
| 5 | Jan Christen | 1,294 |
| 6 | Florian Vermeersch | 1,095.8 |
| 7 | Jhonatan Narvaez | 1,053 |
| 8 | Antonio Morgado | 1,002.6 |
| 9 | Igor Arrieta | 958.1 |
| 10 | Adam Yates | 820.8 |
Pogacar adds San Remo and a historic fifth Tour
Milan-San Remo finally fell to Pogacar in 2026, leaving Paris-Roubaix as the only Monument missing from his palmares. Further successes at the Tour of Flanders and Liege-Bastogne-Liege gave him three spring Monuments, alongside another victory at Strade Bianche.
Overall victories at the Tour de Romandie and Tour de Suisse preceded his fifth Tour de France title, accompanied by five stage wins. In Paris, he joined Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain on the race’s record number of overall victories.
At Roubaix, mechanical problems forced him to spend energy chasing before he recovered to contest victory with Wout van Aert. The Belgian beat him in the velodrome, leaving Pogacar second for the second successive edition. He had reached the decisive move again, but could neither distance Van Aert on the remaining cobbles nor beat him in the sprint.
His return to the Vuelta a Espana produced three stage victories before a crash ended both his race and his season. UAE subsequently confirmed that he would concentrate on recovery rather than return for the autumn, ruling out a defence of his world title.
Pogacar finished with 22 victories and 9,331.8 points, down from 11,680 in 2025. His curtailed calendar left him unable to contest the late-season races that had contributed to his previous total. Even so, he remained world number one and scored more than UAE’s third- and fourth-ranked riders, McNulty and Cosnefroy, combined.
McNulty’s world title changes his standing
McNulty entered 2026 with overall victories at the Tour de Pologne, Tour de Luxembourg and CRO Race from the previous season. He had already won regularly when given leadership opportunities, although none of those successes approached what he achieved in Montreal.
The American attacked with 33 kilometres remaining in the World Championships road race and committed to a long solo effort. His advantage grew beyond a minute before the chasers brought him back within sight. He resisted that pressure and reached the finish 13 seconds ahead of Michael Matthews and Mathieu van der Poel to become world champion.
McNulty won representing the United States, with his national teammates contributing to the race that delivered his rainbow jersey. His victory ensured that UAE would have the world champion on their roster for a third successive season, despite Pogacar’s enforced absence.
Fifth at Il Lombardia was his best Monument result, followed by a solo victory at Veneto Classic that allowed him to finish the campaign with a win in the rainbow jersey. At Lombardia, UAE had raced for McNulty and Del Toro, with Adam Yates and Pavel Sivakov setting the pace before Paul Seixas escaped to victory.
Those autumn opportunities followed McNulty’s participation in UAE’s Tour squad, where Pogacar was the designated leader. He finished the year third among the team’s scorers, up from sixth in 2025, with 2,710.9 points. The world title and Veneto Classic alone contributed 1,150 points to that total.
Brandon McNulty on the podium of the 2026 Montreal World Championships
Del Toro turns promise into sustained elite success
Del Toro’s points increased from 5,514 to 5,606.5, but his 2026 results included a succession of victories in some of the calendar’s biggest stage races.
He won the UAE Tour, Tirreno-Adriatico and Tour Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes, then added the Deutschland Tour and GP Montreal. Across those five races, he accumulated overall titles, mountain-stage victories and a WorldTour one-day success.
At the Tour de France, he won a stage, finished third overall and took the white jersey while Pogacar secured yellow. UAE left Paris with two riders on the podium, having accommodated Del Toro’s general classification challenge within a squad built around its defending champion.
On stage 14, the pair finished first and second. Pogacar extended his overall lead, while Del Toro gained ground in his pursuit of a podium position. Rivals trying to dislodge the Slovenian also faced a second UAE rider competing for the places immediately behind him.
Del Toro had lost the latter part of his spring to an injury at Itzulia. He returned to win Tour Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes before making his Tour debut, then sustained his form into September with victory at GP Montreal and fifth at the World Championships.
He ended the season third in the world ranking and comfortably second within UAE. A first Grand Tour title remains outstanding, but his Tour podium has strengthened his claim to lead a three-week race himself.
Some of the squad’s most notable results were:
| Rider | Result |
| Tadej Pogacar | Tour de France overall winner and five stage victories |
| Tadej Pogacar | Winner of Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders and Liege-Bastogne-Liege |
| Brandon McNulty | World road race champion and Veneto Classic winner |
| Isaac del Toro | Third overall at the Tour de France, white jersey and one stage victory |
| Isaac del Toro | Overall winner of the UAE Tour, Tirreno-Adriatico and Tour Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes |
| Benoit Cosnefroy | Boucles de la Mayenne overall winner and Coppa Sabatini winner |
| Jan Christen | AlUla Tour overall winner and Tour de Pologne stage winner |
| Igor Arrieta | Giro d’Italia stage five winner |
| Jay Vine | Tour Down Under overall winner |
Cosnefroy delivers immediately in UAE colours
Cosnefroy finished fourth within UAE and 23rd globally, just 355.6 points behind McNulty. His first campaign with the team produced five victories across a programme that differed substantially from those of its principal Grand Tour contenders.
He won GP du Morbihan, a Tour de Hongrie stage, a stage and the overall classification at Boucles de la Mayenne, and Coppa Sabatini. At Mayenne, his decisive stage victory established the advantage he defended to secure the overall title, already his fourth success in less than a month.
UAE had recruited Cosnefroy with an established record in hilly one-day races. He delivered on that terrain while also winning a stage race, collecting 2,355.3 points without competing for the Grand Tour leadership opportunities sought by the team’s climbers.
His arrival added another regular winner to races outside Pogacar’s programme. By the end of the season, he stood more than 1,000 points clear of UAE’s fifth-highest scorer, Jan Christen.
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Christen’s year included his first stage-race overall victory at AlUla, both Swiss national titles and a Tour de Pologne stage. Arrieta finished third overall at AlUla before taking his first Grand Tour stage win at the Giro d’Italia.
UAE’s Giro had been badly damaged by a stage-two crash that forced Jay Vine, Marc Soler and Adam Yates out of the race. Jhonatan Narvaez then won stage four, before Arrieta overcame a crash and a wrong turn to win in Potenza the following day. The team secured consecutive victories with just five riders remaining.
Arrieta rose from 366 points in 2025 to 958.1, moving into UAE’s top ten. Florian Vermeersch, Narvaez and Antonio Morgado each exceeded 1,000 points, while Yates recovered sufficiently to join the Tour squad and finish tenth among the team’s scorers.
Joao Almeida’s season was more severely compromised. Illness disrupted his spring and ultimately forced him to miss the Giro, before further physical problems and a crash in Poland interrupted his return. His total fell from 4,331.1 points in 2025 to 468.7.
Vine’s decline to 791 points also came amid major setbacks. He had opened the year with the Australian time trial title and victory at the Tour Down Under, but suffered a fractured elbow and concussion in the Giro crash. Second at Chrono des Nations gave him a strong finish to a campaign repeatedly interrupted by injury.
A healthier Almeida would give UAE another established contender for the races Pogacar does not target. Del Toro’s Tour podium strengthens his claim to lead a Grand Tour himself, while McNulty’s world title adds weight to his opportunities in the major one-day races. UAE’s programme will need to accommodate those ambitions as well as assemble its strongest possible team around Pogacar.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- As you are describing Jonas fighting before he'd had time to build back the muscle he'd lost from the crash, I still feel uncomfortable about it. It felt like crossing a line from driven to a bit obsessed with winning three Tours in a row. Jonas must still have been unwell when he made the decision to go all-in for that Tour instead of, say, targeting the Vuelta, wonder if he was put under any pressure. I guess I won't get much support in this view!Hills3330-10-2026
- Yes, I meant to add to what had been said about that stage already.Hills3330-10-2026
- Pretty sure you're right. Jonas may be served better by going to do another Giro, I don't know, we all speculate but never truly know until the season rolls around. I will say this, we are all lucky to be living in the time we are, the best cyclists in history are racing right now, it's awesome to watch.awp30-10-2026
- Considering the severity of those injuries, his performance at that tour was absolutely incredible. That lunge for the line on stage 11 (IIRC), he was a complete animal to get fit, turn up, and fight the entire way to Paris for second.wrsty30-10-2026
- Google this headline and read. Calling me names doesn't make you right and me wrong. I'm mostly always right though lol, you're welcome.. 'I wasn't happy, we had to change something' – Jonas Vingegaard reveals he considered stepping away from pro cycling last yearawp30-10-2026
- I speak from experience. If I'm wrong, feel free to call me out.awp30-10-2026
- Actually it should be the reverse. Sexias should get used to wining a GT. That means Giro Vuelta (one of them not both). Get a Podium/wins there would be good for morale especially when you look at the self blaming mentality of Sexias. TDF is simply unwinnable and the probability of crashes is high.abstractengineer30-10-2026
- it is easy to check whether he has the engine for today's races or not. Just do a VO2 max test. Then check the endurance. Recovery is the hardest to check but 5 day at the same effort should help understand. But even Froome has said that he couldn't compete against Pogi. After this it becomes difficult, whether physical or mental limit. Whether you find it or not, tactics become very important to win. Neither Ineos nor Bernal are known for their tactics. All they know is brute force and domestique train.abstractengineer30-10-2026
- I have only one word "Delusional"abstractengineer30-10-2026
- Geez do you have a medical and cycling degree? I highly doubt it! You are the only one on here spewing this crap about a C7 affecting his TT position...LOL !frieders330-10-2026
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