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Follow us on GoogleTadej Pogačar and UAE Emirates-XRG will head to the Vuelta a España with major ambitions, especially now that the competition for the overall victory does not appear overwhelmingly strong and the road seems open for Pogačar to complete his Grand Tour trilogy. Expect UAE to go on the offensive throughout the Vuelta, because the team has some serious catching up to do.
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At UAE Emirates-XRG, they will always laugh it off as a nice bonus, but it has become impossible to deny that Pogačar's team essentially wants to win everything there is to win. During the Tour de France, even the team classification became important enough at one point for UAE to chase down a dangerous breakaway. With that mentality, there will be several different targets awaiting them at the Vuelta.
The Emirati formation was already prolific in last year's Tour of Spain, collecting seven stage victories in total. João Almeida also finished second overall, although that did not add another victory to UAE's official tally. And that tally is likely to become an important part of the story at this year's Vuelta.
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UAE Emirates-XRG's victory count stands at 62 with just over a week remaining before the Vuelta a España. Julius Johansen added two more wins with a pair of time trial victories at the Tour of Portugal, but perhaps the most telling detail is that UAE, with the star-studded squad at its disposal, is competing in the ten-day 2.1 race at all. The message appears obvious: more victories are needed.
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Julius Johansen
Pogačar and UAE are behind their 2025 pace
Why is there so much focus on victories? In 2025, UAE Emirates-XRG comfortably broke the record for the most wins by a team in a single season. The squad eventually finished with 97 victories, 12 more than Columbia-HTC achieved in 2009. Breaking that record was certainly not presented as the team's main talking point over the winter, but surpassing the magical barrier of 100 victories was nevertheless mentioned as an objective. IDL Procycling already examined UAE's record-chasing season earlier this summer, when the team had reached 51 victories.
From that perspective, 62 victories at the time of writing is still nowhere near enough. On August 12, 2025, UAE's tally had already reached 72. Brandon McNulty had just completed a double by winning both a stage and the overall classification at the Tour de Pologne, while Isaac del Toro had won the Vuelta a Burgos. This year, UAE left both races empty-handed, partly as a consequence of crashes.
That means there is ground to make up, which will undoubtedly have been one reason for starting the Tour of Portugal. UAE will also send strong riders to the Renewi Tour and Deutschland Tour, while Isaac del Toro — third in the Tour de France — is scheduled to compete in Germany's one-day Cyclassics Hamburg.
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Isaac del Toro will race in Germany
UAE could dominate the Vuelta a España
Pogačar's place on the Vuelta start list is, first and foremost, about completing his collection of Grand Tour victories. After winning the Giro d'Italia in 2024 and the Tour de France five times, the Spanish Grand Tour is the one race still missing from his palmarès. But his participation in the Vuelta could naturally go hand in hand with a long list of stage victories. UAE has already confirmed a squad around the Slovenian that includes João Almeida, Jay Vine and Kevin Vermaerke.
After the opening weekend, Pogačar could conceivably already have two stage victories from the uphill sprint finishes — and the major summit finishes will still be to come. Looking at the 2026 Vuelta route, the idea of Pogačar winning seven or eight stages is not especially far-fetched if he decides he wants to pursue them. And that is before considering what his seven teammates might achieve.
With Almeida, Jay Vine, Pavel Sivakov, Pablo Torres, Kevin Vermaerke, Ivo Oliveira and Domen Novak alongside him, Pogačar has teammates who are each capable of winning a stage themselves. It is rare for one team to win half of the stages in a Grand Tour, but remarkably, with a squad this strong it is not an entirely unrealistic scenario. If UAE starts racking up victories in Spain, its season total could suddenly climb very quickly.
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Tadej Pogacar
Where did UAE Emirates-XRG miss opportunities compared with 2025?
From August 12 until the end of the season, UAE Emirates-XRG still needs another 35 victories simply to equal last year's total of 97. Ideally, another three would follow to take the team to 100. That will be an exceptionally difficult challenge, especially considering that UAE barely allowed an opportunity to slip away during the final two months of the 2025 season. World and European Championship titles do not count toward the team's tally either.
The Italian autumn — including Il Lombardia — together with races such as the CRO Race and Tour de Luxembourg produced another remarkable run of UAE victories last year. Whether the magical 100-win barrier can genuinely become a target again will therefore depend to a large extent on how much the team can collect at the Vuelta, where the overall victory itself would, of course, also count as one more win.
Bram van der PloegEditor-in-chief
Bram van der Ploeg (35) is the proud founder of In de Leiderstrui, IDL Pro Cycling's parent site, launched in 2018. Finally, he could create stories about the sport he had followed since childhood. He is the editor-in-chief on paper, but prefers to be with his recorder next to a rider, a team bus, or in the mud at a cyclocross race. Every year, from February to the end of May, Bram follows the entire Italian cycling season, from the Trofeo Laigueglia to the Giro d'Italia, with the grand finale in October in Lombardy. During that time, he lives in Tuscany, where he has since come to call Italy his 'home'.
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Latest Comments
- I’m not sure how WorldTour licences work—could these reports affect whether the team gets one next year, or is that decision based on other criteria?velodromevirtuoso113-11-2026
- Pointing to three former riders doesn’t settle what nearly 100 people have reportedly shared. Hopefully the review looks at the team’s systems and culture, not just whose version of events sounds more convincing.julien13-11-2026
- Eight questions or 23? That’s a pretty significant difference in the accounts, and it’d be useful to know exactly what was sent and when.robert6513-11-2026
- Kittel’s position sounds more nuanced than Spekenbrink suggests: he didn’t endorse the “culture of fear” label, but still called for the team to be looked at critically. That distinction matters.bikebuffj13-11-2026
- The independent investigation is the important bit now. It needs to give current staff a safe way to speak honestly, not just become another round of public statements.michael5413-11-2026
- One Lombardia doesn’t tell us how Seixas will handle a full Grand Tour. I’d rather see him develop steadily than have every result turned into a Pogačar comparison.samanthak12-11-2026
- Pogacar is 30 already? I thought he was younger. If he keeps winning like this, how long can he realistically ride at the top?jeremya12-11-2026
- Interesting that Thomas made the comparison while speaking to Rowe, given Decathlon’s hopes of keeping Seixas and the reports linking INEOS with him. Praise, or a subtle message to a potential signing?gearguru3312-11-2026
- Seixas winning Il Lombardia at this age is a huge statement. The Pogačar comparisons are inevitable, but Thomas is right to leave room for both of them to keep improving—Pog is still setting the bar.robert6512-11-2026
- A fascinating career, but the article leans heavily on his side of the story. Were the three disqualifications all for the same equipment rule, or were there different issues each time?michael5412-11-2026