Injury crisis at UAE drags on ahead of Ardennes Classics

With eighteen victories, UAE Team Emirates-XRG currently top the team win rankings in 2026. Yet the Emirati outfit has endured anything but an easy spring. The team of world champion Tadej Pogačar has been hit by a wave of injuries, and that is causing problems heading into the Ardennes Classics.

The bad luck started early in the year. At the Tour Down Under — the first WorldTour race of the season — UAE lost several riders. Jhonatan Narváez fractured multiple vertebrae in Australia. Vegard Stake Laengen was sidelined for a month after a crash, and Mikkel Bjerg and Jay Vine also went down.

In the cobbled spring, Tim Wellens was next. The Belgian broke his collarbone at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and saw his spring go up in smoke. Illness disrupted João Almeida's Giro preparation, and Brandon McNulty also spent time off the bike.

Such injury trouble has predictable consequences. In March, UAE were forced to withdraw from the Settimana Coppi e Bartali entirely. Young Italian Luca Giami, who had been earmarked for the development squad all year, was promoted to the WorldTour roster to fill the gaps.

And the problems are far from over for Pogačar's team. The world champion will skip the Amstel Gold Race and the Flèche Wallonne, before rounding off his spring at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. There he hopes to erase the aftertaste of losing the sprint to Wout van Aert at Paris-Roubaix and claim a fourth victory at La Doyenne.

He will largely be on his own, though. UAE team boss Joxean Matxin Fernández told Bici that the team faces serious issues heading into the Ardennes. Isaac Del Toro was forced to abandon the Tour of the Basque Country after a crash. The Mexican had been pencilled in as team leader for the Amstel Gold Race and Flèche Wallonne and co-leader alongside Pogačar for Liège, but will not be able to start.

Alongside Del Toro, UAE had also counted on Jan Christen, who broke his collarbone at Milan-Sanremo, and Narváez, who is still recovering from his Australian crash. "I'm disappointed. We had four leaders for the Ardennes, and we've lost three of them. Besides Del Toro, Christen and Narváez won't be there either. In total, we have 14 riders who are not at their best or not performing well," Matxin said.

The team at IDL Pro Cycling previewed the 2026 Amstel Gold Race earlier this week, with the lack of UAE talent heading to Limburg standing out. It looks like Brandon McNulty will lead the team in white on Sunday.

While the field at Amstel Gold Race isn't as strong as in previous years, McNulty will have his work cut for him to overcome and in-form Remco Evenepoel, or defending champion Mattias Skjelmose of Lidl-Trek. After a disappointing spring, largely due to injuries of their own, the American outfit will be looking to make a statement on Sunday.