Led by the four-time defending champion Tadej Pogačar, UAE Team Emirates-XRG is delighted to announce its eight-strong lineup for the 2026 Tour de France.
Headed up from the team cars by Sports Directors Fabrizio Guidi, Andrej Hauptman, and Simone Pedrazzini, the Emirati squad will consist of Pogačar, Isaac del Toro, Felix Großschartner, Brandon McNulty, Nils Politt, Florian Vermeersch, Tim Wellens, and Adam Yates.
Combining an all-star ensemble of rouleurs and climbers, the experienced team will hope to support Pogačar’s ambitions of taking his third Tour title on the bounce. Should he do so, the two-time world champion would equal the record of five Tour de France victories, joining an exclusive club that contains Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Miguel Induráin.
Of course, three weeks of the toughest racing of the season stand between Pogačar and that goal, but the Slovenian will head into this year’s race fresh from victories at both the Tour de Romandie and the Tour de Suisse.
Looking forward to the challenge that lies ahead, Pogačar spoke of his motivation to put all the months of preparation to good use in July.
Pogačar: “The Tour de France is always the biggest challenge of the season and also the race that motivates us the most. Every year, you arrive at the start knowing that anything can happen over three weeks, and that’s what makes it so special.
“We’ve prepared really well as a team, everyone has worked incredibly hard, and now we’re excited to finally get started in Barcelona.
“I feel good, I’m looking forward to racing, and I know I’ll have a fantastic group of teammates and staff around me. We have a lot of confidence in each other and have built up a lot of experience together over the years.
“There will be strong rivals, difficult stages and many other unpredictable moments, but we’re ready to give everything.
“It’s a privilege to wear these colours at the Tour de France, and we’ll do our best to make ourselves, the team and the fans proud.”
Speaking of the team, Pogačar will count on the support of a wealth of experience across the race’s 21 stages. For Nils Politt and Adam Yates, this year’s race will mark their tenth appearances in the Tour de France, whilst Tim Wellens, Brandon McNulty, and Felix Großschartner all have a track record of helping Pogačar land Grand Tour titles.
After a wonderful Classics campaign for the Emirati squad, Florian Vermeersch adds to the team’s engine room, and for the mountains, Isaac del Toro will be ready to shine.
The Mexican youngster is all set to make his Tour de France debut, and heads into the race having recently won the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes at a canter. Prior to winning two stages and the overall at the race formerly known as the Critérium du Dauphiné, the 22-year-old also won the general classification at both the UAE Tour and Tirreno-Adriatico.
With this track record, not to mention his second-place finish at the Giro d’Italia in 2025, Del Toro can begin his first Tour confident of rising to the occasion.
As for Pogačar, since claiming the most memorable Tour de France victory on debut in 2020, the 27-year-old has never finished outside of the top two. With four titles along the way, the Slovenian has enjoyed a generational contest with Jonas Vingegaard of Visma-Lease a Bike. The pair’s consistency of finishing in a varying pattern of 1-2 on the final podium for each of the last five years is unprecedented.
In that time, Pogačar has taken his tally of Tour de France stage wins to 21, adding four to that number in last year’s edition alone.
Full of motivation to raise their arms to the sky in Paris once more, Pogačar and his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates will begin their title defence 830km south, in Barcelona. In fact, the first three stages of this year’s Grand Départ will all take place in Catalunya, with Barcelona hosting the opening stage on Saturday, 4 July.
There, the race will get underway in spectacular fashion with an evening team time trial around the city centre. Across 19.6km, the first yellow jersey of the Tour will be awarded, with every single team preparing for this task for months in advance. The general classification contenders will all note the importance of getting off to a good start, and there will be no place to hide in the race against the clock.
As has been seen at Paris-Nice and the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes to great entertainment earlier this year, the rules of the TTT will be that each rider is awarded individual times. As such, there is no need for a minimum set of riders to reach the finish line together, opening up the possibility of GC leaders going off on their own towards the end of the route, where two tricky climbs appear.
Time will tell whether individual strength can outweigh a unified team, though.
For UAE Team Emirates-XRG, both Großschartner and Politt can look forward to pulling on their newly-made skinsuits, having won the National Time Trial Championships of Austria and Germany, respectively.
Ron is the chief cook and bottlewasher at Bike World News, doing everything from website design to bike reviews.
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