Five conclusions about the bizarre stats of Pogacar, Del Toro, and the others from UAE Emirates-XRG in 2025

A problem shared is a problem halved, as the saying goes. Well, at UAE, they took that very seriously in 2025. Of the 29 riders who started the year, an impressive 20 won at least one race. And that's not even counting Florian Vermeersch's world title on the gravel bike. The Belgian did not win on the road for his new team and was joined by eight others.

Besides Vermeersch, Mikkel Bjerg, Rune Herregodts, Julius Johansen, Vegard Stake Laengen, Domen Novak, Rui Oliveira, Nils Politt, and Pablo Torres also won no cycling races in 2025. Of course, almost all of them played a decisive role in the team's 95 victories. For example, Bjerg and Novak won the team time trial at the Vuelta a España.

Apart from the diversity in victories, the big man from UAE Emirates-XRG also stands out, of course. Pogacar won 20 times in 2025, surpassing no fewer than 10 of the 17 other WorldTour teams. Only Soudal-Quick Step (54), Lidl-Trek (46), Visma | Lease a Bike (40), XDS Astana (32), INEOS Grenadiers (28), Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale (26), and Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe (23) won more often.

Stat padding is a popular term in basketball. It means that basketball players often aim to score as many points, assists, rebounds, and blocks as possible, without necessarily contributing to the team's success. Stat padding is also often used to describe a soccer player who scores only against weaker clubs and fails to deliver against the big teams.

In cycling, you could say that Isaac Del Toro (UAE) or Paul Magnier (Quick Step), for example, won quite often in lower-ranked races. However, that may be less fair in cycling. Pogacar was the one who triumphed almost exclusively at the highest level. Of his 20 victories, only Tre Valli Varesine was of 1.Pro status, the rest were WorldTour, World Championships, or European Championships.

With 95 victories, you may wonder: how many sprints and time trials were included? Teams with a time trial specialist such as Remco Evenepoel or a sprinter such as Magnier can, of course, rack up a lot of victories per year. Not for free, but in that respect, time trials and sprints are more often a reflection of simple quality, unlike many other races.

The statistics for UAE are particularly remarkable in this respect, because the team doesn't actually have any top sprinters available. Juan Sebastián Molano won two sprints, Ivo Oliveira three. There were hardly any real bunch sprints among them. Time trials? Only five individual ones, plus one team time trial in the Vuelta.

Was UAE Emirates-XRG a one-day wonder in 2025? Absolutely not. In 2024, the team already recorded 81 victories, and in 2023, there were 57. Every year, more victories are added, and the winning formula used by UAE will remain largely intact in 2026, revolving around leader Pogacar. This means that a large part of the selection will also ride for UAE in 2026.

Juan Ayuso moved to Lidl-Trek, Alessandro Covi to Jayco AlUla, and Rafal Majka retired. The trio accounted for 11 of the 95 victories in 2025. With Pogacar, the increasingly impressive João Almeida, and new star Del Toro, there is nothing to suggest that the machine will slow down in 2026. The competition has been warned...

Bram van der Ploeg ( Twitter: @BvdPloegg | email : [email protected])