Inside UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s record-breaking 2025 season of 86 victories

UAE Team Emirates-XRG have shattered a 16-year standing record, set by Team Columbia-HTC in 2009, becoming the side with the most professional victories in a single season. 

Brandon McNulty's GC victory at Škoda Tour de Luxembourg marked a historic 86th success in the 2025 season, of which 45 were at the WorldTour level, establishing UAE Team Emirates-XRG as the biggest force in the men’s peloton. 

Here's a look back at some of the most important victories that define a historic season.

In terms of GC success, Tadej Pogačar’s fourth triumph at the Tour de France in July stands out as the standout victory for the team, and their only Grand Tour success in 2025.

However, it’s beyond the Grand Tours that are arguably equally impressive. The team dominated the UCI WorldTour stage race calendar. UAE riders have come out victorious in 7 out of the 10 WorldTour week-long stage races that have taken place so far, with the Tour of Guangxi remaining in October.

Only Paris-Nice, the Volta a Catalunya, and the Renewi Tour were won by riders not in the colours of UAE Team Emirates-XRG. Ayuso finished 2nd in Catalunya, Tim Wellens 3rd in the Renewi Tour, and Almeida 6th at Paris Nice, so it wasn’t far off being a complete UAE clean sweep. UAE also picked up plenty more GC wins beyond WorldTour level also.

Jhonatan Narváez kicked off his career with his new team in style, punching his way to overall victory on Willunga Hill to seal the Santos Tour Down Under. Adam Yates and Pogačar started well in the Middle East, winning the Tour of Oman and UAE Tour respectively, whilst back in Europe, Pavel Sivakov rode a strong and smart performance to win the Ruta Del Sol.

In March, Juan Ayuso stepped up from his debut 2nd at Tirreno-Adriatico, to seal the blue jersey with victory on the summit finish to Frontignano. 

João Almeida has been one of the stars of the 2025 season, and for good reason. The Portuguese rider kicked into gear, winning the GC at the Itzulia Basque Country, the second WorldTour stage race victory nearly four years after taking the Tour de Pologne in 2021. 

Almeida then backed this up with two big wins in Switzerland, taking the Tour de Romandie and Tour de Suisse. Along the way, he picked up two stages in the Basque Country and three at the Tour de Suisse, a perfect run heading into the Tour de France. 

Speaking of which, Tadej Pogačar delivered a statement at the Critérium du Dauphine, winning the memorable opening stage, which saw a battle between the GC contenders and Mathieu van der Poel versus the sprinters. The World Champion would add another two stages in the mountains en route to sealing his first Dauphiné title before adding the big one in July. 

Former under-23 World Champion Filippo Baroncini caused a minor upset to win the Baloise Belgium Tour, a country that the Italian will have grown to love, having won his World title in Leuven, and his only other professional win, the Super 8 Classic in 2024, on Belgian soil.

Del Toro has been one of the most prolific winners in the team, and the Mexican kicked on after his breakthrough Giro d’Italia, wrapping up the Tour of Austria GC plus three stages in July, before adding the Vuelta a Burgos to his palmares.

Finally, Brandon McNulty claimed the first WorldTour GC victory of his career at the Tour de Pologne, snatching the title from Victor Langellotti after a fine final time trial performance, before adding the Tour de Luxembourg.

With the Tour of Guangxi in October, and the record now broken, it would be no surprise to see another UAE rider victorious in China, as the team looks to build on their remarkable achievements of 2025.

It’s fair to say that Tadej Pogačar has enjoyed his first stint in the rainbow jersey in the classics, though things didn’t get off to the perfect start. 

A nasty downhill crash at Strade Bianche looked to derail Pogačar’s attempt to dominate the white gravel roads as he often does. 

However, the World Champion was able to dust himself off to rejoin Tom Pidcock before distancing the British rider and soloing to victory, illustrating the almost indomitable nature of the Slovenian.

Pogačar continued to enjoy a fine spring, adding another Tour of Flanders, La Fléche Wallonne and Liége-Bastogne-Liége to his ever-growing palmares, all in emphatic fashion. 

Meanwhile, Juan Sebastian Molano navigated one of the most chaotic finales to a race in recent times at the Classic Brugge-De Panne, the biggest one-day race victory of the Colombian’s career.

On Sunday, UAE dominated the GP de Montréal, a race which Pogačar has made his own, but this time, the World Champion was joined for company by his teammate Brandon McNulty. The duo had plenty of time to soak in the atmosphere and celebrate the victory together, with the American taking first.

Italy has proven to be a happy hunting ground for the team in one-day races with victories at the Trofeo Laigueglia for Juan Ayuso and Milano Torino for Isaac del Toro in the earlier stages of the season. 

Del Toro has been on fire in Italy in September, winning the GP Industria & Artigianato, Giro della Toscana, Coppa Sabatini, and Trofeo Matteotti in the space of a week.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG accrued 14 Grand Tour stage wins in 2025, five more than the next best team in Lidl-Trek.

Both Ayuso and Del Toro were victorious at the Giro d'Italia, the latter doing so in the maglia rosa. Pogačar would add four stages at the Tour de France, taking his tally to 21 in total, breaking a significant milestone of 100 professional victories along the way. Tim Wellens also delivered one of the best breakaway rides in recent times to win a rapid stage 15 with a 43km solo effort.

The recent Vuelta a España was emphatically dominated by UAE in the stage wins department. After victory in the team time trial on stage 5, the team would go on a streak of winning 7 out of 9 stages, with two each for Ayuso and Jay Vine, and one for Soler from the breakaway, whilst Almeida would win atop the mighty Angliru climb en route to 2nd overall.

With victory number 86, UAE Team Emirates-XRG have surpassed Team HTC-Columbia's long-standing record of 85 wins.

In fact, the two teams follow similar trajectories of exceptional seasons, followed by even better record-breaking campaigns. 

In 2008, Team Columbia picked up a groundbreaking 77 victories, before going even better in 2009, then known as HTC-Columbia, to take 85 wins, the record which stood until UAE Team Emirates-XRG's exploits. 

Mark Cavendish and André Greipel picked up a staggering 23 and 20 victories respectively in the 2009 season.

In turn, the UAE riders have improved on last season's 81 victories, which was mightily impressive in its own right, with Pogačar currently top of the charts on 16.

In 2025, UAE Team Emirates-XRG's advantage over Lidl-Trek, who sit second in victories for 2025, speaks volumes about the magnitude of this record.

With 86 wins, UAE sit 41 ahead of Lidl-Trek, who have picked up 46 in 2025, which is nearly half. Soudal-QuickStep and Visma | Lease a Bike are the only other teams that have achieved at least a third of UAE's victories, with 41 and 38 respectively, whilst the Ineos Grenadiers sit 5th in the list with 27.