Jay Vine had already won the elite men's time trial title earlier in the week. In the road race he missed the key break, then spent himself driving the peloton's chase that reanimated the race before fading out of contention — unrewarded work that nonetheless shaped the finale.
UAE arrived without Pogačar, with Vine as designated GC card, and won the way they always do — climbing stages, controlled defence, a minute-plus margin by week's end.
A near-total domination of the climbing days. Jan Christen turned a disastrous Stage 1 (two crashes, 11 seconds lost) into the overall win, attacking alone on the final climb of Stage 5 to take both the stage and the maglia, plus the white youth jersey. Igor Arrieta backed him faultlessly as the team's second card, finishing third overall and third on the decisive stage to complete a UAE 1-3 with Higuita sandwiched between them, while Kevin Vermaerke rounded out a deep climbing roster that controlled the summit finishes. UAE also won the teams classification — the complete result to open the desert season.
UAE backed João Almeida as their GC leader and he delivered the only real resistance to Evenepoel, taking second overall and second on the queen stage. Brandon McNulty's fifth gave the team two riders in the GC top five, but with no stage win it was a solid rather than spectacular early-season block for the squad.
Adam Yates was the strongest individual on the final climb but rode himself into a trap, dragging two Jayco riders clear with no UAE teammate for company. Second place and an early-season podium were a useful pointer to his climbing form ahead of the Tour of Oman GC, but the finale exposed how a lone leader gets picked off by a team that arrives at the line with the numbers. Rui Oliveira's seventh added a second UAE rider to the top ten.
Without Pogačar, UAE split the week between a sprint and a GC objective. Sebastián Molano delivered the opening-stage bunch sprint at the Bimmah Sink Hole (and was third again on Stage 4), while Adam Yates carried the GC card. Yates lit the decisive Green Mountain acceleration that broke the race open, and although Scaroni countered to win, the move secured Yates third overall — a solid early-season GC marker.
A model UAE one-day performance and the team's second win of the day after Marc Soler's overall at the Vuelta a Murcia. Brandon McNulty was the engine — splitting the race twice and then burying himself to protect the lead group — while Felix Großschartner gave the squad another card up the road (8th). Leader António Morgado finished it off, countering Aranburu on the final ramp and winning the two-up sprint for back-to-back Figueira titles. Win number 10 of the season for UAE.
UAE's home tour is always a leadership question — Pogačar usually skips it, the team's secondary GC card takes the protected role. In 2026 that card was Del Toro, who delivered on stage 1.
João Almeida led UAE aggressively on home Portuguese roads, splitting the GC group on the first Malhão ascent and driving the pace on the final climb, but he could not crack Ayuso, Onley or Seixas and finished third overall. A combative, podium ride that fell just short of the win.
Jan Christen led the team's effort and delivered, taking second on the decisive final stage, fourth overall and the best-young-rider classification. At 21 the Swiss confirmed his rise as one of UAE's most promising stage-race talents.
Pogačar attacks, Del Toro holds long enough to ride the chase and salvage third. The UAE pattern for 2026 — leader and a young protected co-card — got its first Monument-level expression. Del Toro's third place is a result Pogačar himself would have called a podium had it been his own three years ago.
Ayuso's Stage 4 crash ended UAE's GC platform week. Pogačar was riding Tirreno simultaneously, leaving Ayuso the protected card; the early abandonment cancelled the race for the team.
Del Toro's gravel ride into second on Stage 2 elevated him into the overall lead. Same template as UAE Tour two weeks earlier: protected card delivers on the right terrain.
UAE put two riders in the top ten — Juan Sebastián Molano onto the podium in third and the young António Morgado tenth — a tidy day's racing for a squad using the Flemish week to build legs. The podium without the win is a fair reflection of a sprint where Philipsen had the edge.
Tactically the only race UAE could win was a selective one — sprinters off, climbers thinned, two or three men into the Poggio. They got it, plus a crash they had to absorb at 32 km to go. Almeida, McNulty and Vine paced their leader back without panic; Pogačar then over-spent on the Cipressa exactly the way the plan demanded. The first cobbled Sanremo. The one that's been getting away.
UAE's plan for the Ronde was minimal because Pogačar was the plan. Almeida, McNulty, Vine, Narváez and Adam Yates ran tempo control through the first half of the bergs; once the favourites' group resolved into the final 50 km, the team's job was positioning, not pace-making. Pogačar made the rest of it simple by attacking earlier than anyone expected on the Kwaremont. Defending Ronde champion makes it back-to-back.
Two storylines: Großschartner third at +27 and the second man ever to beat Roglič in an Itzulia TT, plus Ayuso — defending overall champion now at Lidl-Trek — losing 1:16 on day 1. The UAE-Lidl flip between the two front-row Spaniards is the week's quieter narrative.
UAE rode the only plan that could have worked: detonate the race long before the velodrome. Pogačar's domestiques drove the Briastre tempo, then committed to position him front-wheel into every star sector. The plan was foiled by mechanical fate, not by team selection — three punctures and three bike changes, including a long solo chase before Arenberg. Politt finished ninth, the only other UAE rider near the finale. Pogačar to Wielerflits: 'I did everything to drop Wout. On Carrefour I felt he still didn't crack. In the sprint he was simply stronger. I have no excuses.' One Monument remains on his career list.
Without Jan Christen on the start sheet, Benoît Cosnefroy carried UAE's puncheur card and was active in the decisive late move before taking third in the sprint. Another front-of-race ride from Cosnefroy across the spring Classics, even if the win again slipped away in the final metres.
Pogačar skipped Amstel to recover for Flèche and Liège. Cosnefroy carried the team's Ardennes card and took third — the kind of result that justifies UAE's depth.
Pogačar deliberately skipped Flèche in 2026 to peak for Liège (which he duly won). UAE's protected card on the Mur became Benoît Cosnefroy — the team's most consistent Ardennes second-tier presence over the past three seasons. Fourth on the line, same time as Tulett, on a day the team treated as a recovery operation between the Liège and Roubaix-period bigger bets. With Del Toro also out injured from the Itzulia crash, Cosnefroy was carrying the entire spring's Ardennes weight for UAE.
UAE's Ardennes plan is one of the simplest in cycling: protect Pogačar to the Redoute, set him up to attack at exactly the right ramp, watch him ride alone to Liège. Adam Yates and Almeida did the pacework on the central Stockeu-Wanne sequence; the closing 40 km were Pogačar's to time. Three from five Monuments this calendar year (Sanremo, Flanders, Liège), with Roubaix lost to Van Aert and Lombardia still to come.
UAE's plan was conservative: keep Pogačar in GC range without burning the legs on a 3.2 km technical TT before climbing stages. Mission completed at +7. Oliveira's second on stage gave the team an early secondary podium card.
UAE's Giro was upended on Stage 2, when a rain-soaked descent crash put Vine, Soler, Adam Yates and Baroncini out in a single afternoon. From that wreckage Jhonatan Narváez salvaged a remarkable campaign — three stage wins (Cosenza, Fermo, Chiavari) — turning a decimated roster into the race's busiest stage-hunting outfit, with youngster Jan Christen prominent in the breakaways.
UAE Team Emirates rode a textbook control race for their finish-line specialist. With the Côte de Cadoudal suiting Cosnefroy perfectly, the team set a hard, even pace on the final ascents to discourage long-range attacks and keep their leader sheltered near the front, then trusted his kick on the uphill sprint. Cosnefroy delivered with a perfectly timed effort for his fourth career win at the Grand Prix du Morbihan — a prestige one-day result for the French squad on home roads.
Coming off Benoît Cosnefroy's win at the GP du Morbihan the day before, UAE kept the puncheur in the front selection at Tro-Bro Léon, where he finished sixth in the reduced-group sprint. Another front-of-race ride across the Breton block, even if the back-to-back double slipped away on the gravel.
UAE had the race's most aggressive opening week through Benoît Cosnefroy, who won the long Stage 2 to Paks and held the overall lead for two days before the queen stage. He couldn't follow Söderqvist's climb on the wet Pécs circuit and slipped to second overall at +0:40, while Juan Sebastián Molano added sprint placings (2nd on Stage 1, 3rd on Stage 3). A strong, controlling week that fell just short of the win when the road tilted up.
A near-flawless week. Johansen's prologue win banked the first yellow jersey and the early initiative, and when the race blew apart on the Stage 2 climbs UAE simply rotated their card to the puncheur best suited to the finish: Cosnefroy won the queen stage, took the lead, and held 7 seconds to Laval for the overall. Molano's fifth on Stage 1 gave them a sprint presence too. From two leaders they got an ITT win and the GC.
UAE's race looked compromised after the stage-3 TTT (del Toro +1:16) and again after the stage-6 split (+3:22, tenth overall). But the team backed del Toro to ride himself back into it on the two summit finishes — and he delivered emphatically, winning stages 7 and 8 to take the overall by 54 seconds plus the young rider jersey. A statement Dauphiné-window result and ideal Tour de France preparation.
Total dominance through four stages. Tadej Pogačar made his Tour de Suisse debut a statement, soloing to the stage 1 win and the leader's jersey from 71 kilometres out, then winning the stage 4 time trial as well — three stage wins in four days. With the GC locked early, the team could even race for stages from the break, and Jhonatan Narváez delivered the rain-soaked stage 3 in Bad Ragaz. A near-perfect opening four days.