Remco Evenepoel expects 'battle' with Isaac del Toro at UAE Tour

Remco Evenepoel will look to continue his perfect start to life at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe when he lines up at the UAE Tour. After scorching the earth at the Challenge Mallorca and the Volta Comunitat Valenciana, Evenepoel will face even more robust opposition in his first WorldTour outing of the season, despite the absence of Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard.

“As always, I’ll try to win, no matter what,” Evenepoel told Sporza. “I want to have another good week with the team, grab some wins and make progress.”

Evenepoel has an imposing track record in stage races in late February over the years. He won the UAE Tour on his last appearance in 2023, while he also has three wins at the Volta ao Algarve (2020, 2022 and 2024) to his name. In his first season at Red Bull, the Belgian opted for the UAE over southern Portugal. 

“This is a WorldTour race, and at this stage of my career, WorldTour victories are more important to me than ProTour victories,” Evenepoel said. “This was also a race we wanted to win as a team, so the choice to come here was quite easy.”

Following Vingegaard’s withdrawal due to injury, the UAE Tour has been billed as a straight duel between Evenepoel and Isaac del Toro, who has been handed the keys to UAE Team Emirates-XRG leadership. Even without Pogacar, Evenepoel is wary of the threat posed by the team racing before their sponsors.

“They’re definitely strong with Isaac del Toro and Adam Yates, who wasn’t bad in Oman,” said Evenepoel, who will have Mattia Cattaneo, Gianni Moscon, Finn Fisher-Black, Emil Herzog, Jarrad Drizners and Callum Thornley for company in the Red Bull line-up.

“On paper, it’s logical that it will be a battle with Isaac, but someone else could always take the win, like Lennert Van Eetvelt has already done here. I’m not writing anyone off.”

Evenepoel will have a chance to gain an early advantage on Del Toro et al in individual time trial on stage 2, even if the 12.2km course is a touch shorter than the three-time world champion in the discipline would have liked.

“There aren't many corners in the time trial, and that could be to my advantage. It could have been longer than 12km, but you have to make do with what you get,” said Evenepoel. “I'm trying to win that stage and gain time there.” 

While the familiar summit finish at Jebel Hafeet features on stage 6, the first mountaintop finale of the race is a novelty. Stage 3 brings the race up Jebel Mobrah, which rises for 13.2km at an average of 8.1%.

“That unknown final climb will be a specific effort,” Evenepoel said. “That’s why I also participated in the races in Mallorca, where there was also a 15km climb, though with different percentages.”