Three UAE Team Emirates riders kicked out of Volta a Portugal in time-limit controversy: “None of us riders, nor our sports directors, had been informed”

UAE Team Emirates – XRG have been reduced to just four riders at the 2026 Volta a Portugal after Julius Johansen, Luca Giaimi and Marcos Freire were eliminated on the time limit following Thursday's Stage 7, with Johansen claiming neither the riders nor the team's sports directors had been informed that a 15 per cent cut would be applied.

The trio finished in a group 39:23 behind stage winner and teammate Adria Pericas at Termas do Geres. The official limit was 34:17, calculated at 15 per cent of the winner's time, but the race roadbook listed a 20 per cent cut for the stage.

On that basis, the riders believed they had roughly 46 minutes to reach the finish.

Johansen's exit was particularly striking after an excellent first week in Portugal. The Dane won the opening prologue in Lisbon and then dominated the Stage 5 individual time trial, while also contributing heavily to UAE's wider race. His Volta ended two days later after a crash and a time-limit calculation that he insists was based on the information available to him and the team.

Johansen had started Stage 7 aggressively, spending the opening 40 minutes alone at the front before being caught by the peloton. His day changed when he crashed on a descent after taking a corner too quickly, something he was quick to accept was his own mistake.

“After some really good days in Volta a Portugal it’s extremely disappointing to see my race end like this,” Johansen wrote on Instagram. “Today started well. I spent the first 40 minutes out alone before being caught by the peloton. Unfortunately, I then crashed on a descent after taking one corner too fast, completely my own mistake.”

Rather than trying to force his way back through the race after the crash, Johansen chose to ride conservatively with the remaining stages in mind. That decision, according to the UAE rider, was directly influenced by the 20 per cent figure printed in the roadbook. “After the crash, I decided to save myself for the days ahead and ride safely to the finish. It was a very hard mountain stage, and with a 20% time limit stated in the roadbook, there was no reason to take unnecessary risks.”

Johansen eventually found himself in a small group at the back alongside teammates Giaimi and Freire, Stage 2 winner Santiago Mesa and several other riders. With the 20 per cent figure still in mind, they believed they had plenty of margin. “We calculated that the time limit would be comfortably above 45 minutes, and we finished just under 40 minutes behind,” he explained. “So we thought everything was fine.”

That changed only once they reached the finish. “Until we were told at the finish that the time limit had been changed to 15%.”

Johansen then made the claim at the centre of the controversy, insisting the reduction had not been communicated to UAE. “None of us riders, nor our sports directors, had been informed about this change, not even during the pre-race meeting for all sport directors.”

The 26-year-old was left particularly frustrated by the way his race ended after two victories and several days of prominent racing. “It’s incredibly frustrating and disappointing to leave a race this way, especially when I felt I had so much more to give in the coming days. Volta Portugal is a race I was really looking forward to, and I wanted to fight for more.”

There was also a sharp contrast within UAE on the same afternoon. While Johansen, Giaimi and Freire were riding towards elimination further down the road, Pericas was fighting for the stage win at the front.

“It feels even stranger on a day where the team rode an incredible race. Adria Pericas finished it off with a fantastic victory, while three of us were eliminated,” Johansen added. “Congratulations to Adria Pericas. I’m extremely disappointed, but that’s cycling. I’ll take the lessons from this and come back stronger. Good luck to the boys for the remaining stages, I’ll be cheering for you.”

The Volta a Portugal organisation has pushed back against Johansen's claim that the revised limit had not been communicated. A race spokesperson told Cyclingnews that an amended table of time limits was circulated to teams and sports directors before Stage 1, with 15 per cent listed for Stage 7.

The online roadbook itself was not updated, leaving the 20 per cent figure visible for the stage. The organisers' position is therefore that the revised limits had been formally communicated separately, while Johansen insists neither the riders nor UAE's sports directors had been informed of the change.

Stage 7 was not the first occasion during this Volta on which the applied time limit differed from the percentage printed in the original roadbook. Revised limits were also used on the opening two stages and Stage 6, with the organisers maintaining that all of those changes were included in the same pre-race communication.

For Johansen, the practical consequence was immediate. Had the 20 per cent figure been applied, the group finishing 39:23 down would have been comfortably inside the cut. Under the 15 per cent limit, Johansen, Giaimi and Freire were all removed from the race.

Rui Oliveira publicly backed his teammate after the decision, responding directly beneath Johansen's Instagram post. “Thank you for everything you have done in this Volta, for us and for the team. 2 stage wins and incredible work! So unfair,” Oliveira wrote.

That leaves UAE with only four riders still in the race at a point when Pericas has emerged as a genuine general classification threat. The 21-year-old beat race leader Alexis Guerin and defending Volta winner Artem Nych on Stage 7 to claim his first professional victory and move up to third overall, 1:57 behind Guerin.

UAE therefore head into the decisive final stages with a rider on the provisional podium, but without Johansen, Giaimi and Freire after a time-limit dispute that has produced directly conflicting accounts over what the team had been told before the stage.