UAE Team Emirates’ quintet makes team the big earner in the Giro so far

We’ve reached the second rest day of the 2026 Giro d’Italia. The peloton is recovering from three demanding stages: Friday’s Blockhaus test, Saturday’s punchy ride through Le Marche and Sunday’s climb to Corno alle Scale.

While the opening days of the race brought little but setbacks for UAE Team Emirates-XRG, with Jay Vine, Marc Soler and Adam Yates all forced to abandon, the Emirati team has quickly turned the page.

Since then, UAE Team Emirates-XRG has bounced back in style, taking three stage victories: two through Jonathan Narváez and one through Igor Arrieta.

“Before the Giro, we established that there would be seven stages where we would have to be focused completely on the GC, which didn’t leave too many opportunities for the other guys on the team,” sports manager Joxean Matxin Fernandez told Domestique. “When there aren’t riders for the general classification anymore, it’s a problem, but problems sometimes become solutions. Here, the solution was that we had more room and more opportunities for the remaining riders, and more stages to try to win.”

Those results have earned the team €50,211, putting them at the top of the Giro d’Italia prize money standings. They are followed by Soudal Quick-Step on €47,513, largely thanks to the strong performances of Frenchman Paul Magnier.

The top five is completed by XDS Astana in third with €42,563, boosted by Ballerini’s and Silva’s stage wins, as well as their time in the pink jersey. Visma | Lease a Bike sit fourth with €30,978, built on Jonas Vingegaard’s two stage wins and their hold on the mountains classification, while Bahrain Victorious come in fifth with €27,644 after Afonso Eulálio’s dream Giro so far.

At the bottom of the prize-money standings are Pinarello-Q36.5, Lotto-Intermarché, Picnic PostNL and Alpecin-Premier Tech, with Groupama-FDJ United bringing up the rear on a modest €828.