'Remco won't be pleased' - Red Bull struggle to explain Evenepoel's UAE Tour setback

This certainly wasn’t in the script. The UAE Tour was billed as a duel between Remco Evenepoel and Isaac del Toro, and that seemed to be borne out when they swapped stage wins on the opening two days.

On stage 3 to Jebel Mobrah, however, Evenepoel surprisingly slipped out of the general classification picture when he was distanced with 4km of the wickedly steep climb remaining. Although he battled to limit his losses, Evenepoel would concede just over two minutes to stage winner Antonio Tiberi (Bahran Victorious) and he falls to 11th overall, 1:44 down on the Italian.

Evenepoel’s struggles were all the more surprising given how promptly and smoothly he had responded when Felix Gall (Decathlon) opened the attacking in the red jersey group with 6km to go. But when Evenepoel suddenly swung off a few hundred metres later, it was clear that something was awry. He dropped back to the chasers, and he would be definitively distanced a couple of kilometres later.

Speaking to Sporzaat the finish, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe directeur sportif Klaas Lodewyck wondered if Evenepoel had been a victim of his own enthusiasm.

“From what we could see from the car, Remco may have gone a bit over the limit during Gall’s attack,” Lodewyck said.

“We had discussed this: ‘Take it easy.’ Maybe he felt so good at the time that he wanted to follow. But the end result is clear.”

When Evenepoel responded to Gall’s acceleration in the company of the stage winner Tiberi, Del Toro was languishing towards the back of the group of GC favourites, but the momentum would swing in the opposite direction as the climb drew on.

After Evenepoel was distanced, Del Toro made a late, late charge that carried him to second on the stage, 15 seconds behind Tiberi, and the battle for overall victory now has the look of a duel between him and the Italian.

“I think he was incredibly disappointed,” Lodewyck said of Evenepoel’s preference not to speak to media immediately after the finish. “Yesterday was very good, today was a bit of a downer. Knowing Remco, he won’t be pleased.”

Evenepoel was seen slapping his right thigh repeatedly after he was distanced, which suggested he may have been suffering from cramps, though Lodewyck downplayed the idea.

"From what we saw in the footage, it was a brutal climb. And maybe he pushed himself too hard at the start. But there's no doubt it was a difficult climb."

“No, I don’t think so. Again: I haven’t spoken to him yet, and we won’t have more clarity until tonight,” said Lodewyck, who added that there had been little radio communication with his rider on the climb.

“We tried to keep communication as limited as possible, because everyone was suffering here. We’ll know more soon.”

Evenepoel has a habit of bouncing back quickly from setbacks such as this, and his general form so far in 2026 has been striking, with six individual wins to his name in his first weeks as a Red Bull rider.

Despite the undulating terrain on stage 4 and the summit finish still to come at Jebel Hafeet on stage 6, Lodewyck was reluctant to talk up Evenepoel’s prospects of turning the tide sufficiently to challenge for overall victory. 

“I don’t think so, not unless a miracle happens,” he said. “There’s always a bit of wind on the stage to Jebel Hafeet and you can force something, but making up for this time loss will be very difficult.”