UAE Tour sprint guide: The contenders for the flat stages

Jonathan Milan is undoubtedly one of the top two sprinters in the world right now, with the Italian a multiple Grand Tour stage winner. He also has three Grand Tour points jerseys accumulated over his career so far, including at the 2025 Tour de France. 

Milan began his 2026 season strongly at the AlUla Tour, bringing home two stage wins in differing circumstances. His stage 1 victory was from a reduced group after echelons split up the field, whilst his stage 2 victory was a more traditional bunch sprint, where Milan simply wiped the floor with the opposition with his trademark 'bobblehead' style sprint, imitating Peter Sagan's 'Hulk' celebration.

There will be question marks surrounding his stage 4 second-place finish as he was outkicked by a compatriot, Matteo Malucelli, to the surprise of everybody. Milan's Lidl-Trek sprint train is a cut above the rest with its familiar last man, Simone Consonni, German powerhouse Max Walschied and Edward Theuns.

Milan will be aiming for a repeat of the opening stage back in 2025, where he took a superb victory on the slight rise in the final kilometre. He will also be aiming for success on stage 4, depending on how they are raced, stages 5 and stage 7.

Sam Welsford (Ineos Grenadiers) is likely to be Jonathan Milan’s biggest challenger in the sprints at the 2026 UAE Tour. Since joining the British squad for the 2026 season, Welsford has hit the ground running, winning Australia’s national criterium title, taking his usual stage win at the Tour Down Under, and then backing it up with victory at the Cadel Crit.

Welsford last raced the UAE Tour in 2024, where his best stage finish was third. In 2026 he will be looking to go better, even with Milan in the field. Ineos should also bring one of the sharpest leadouts in the race, with Ben Swift, Connor Swift and Joshua Tarling able to position Welsford perfectly before the final launch.

Malucelli has had a wonderful journeyman career. In previous years, the Italian has endured stints with teams in Asia before securing a three-year deal with XDS-Astana through 2027. The signing has displayed signals of paying off for XDS-Astana, as Malucelli took a victory in his first stage race appearance for the Kazakh team against the mighty Milan, which is quite a scalp to claim. 

Malucelli could be a serious contender for the opening stage, especially on the uphill drag to the line, where he has set a precedent previously of winning similar finishes with his opening stage win at the Giro di Sicilia coming on a near identical finish.

XDS-Astana, since their 2025 turnaround, have seen their sprint trains well drilled, so Malucelli should, like the mentioned Milan, be well positioned heading into the sprint finales.

Juan Sebastián Molano recently extended his streak of consecutive seasons with a win to ten in a row after his victory on stage 1 of the 2026 Tour of Oman, with the Colombian outpowering fellow Colombian Fernando Gaviria to take the spoils. 

He also took a stage podium on stage 4, finishing third. Molano will be aiming to roll back time to recreate a similar performance to his 2023 UAE Tour stage win, where he won a bunch sprint ahead of Olav Kooij and Sam Welsford. 

At the home race of his UAE Team Emirates-XRG team, victory is all the more important for Molano. Not surprisingly, his team is off to a flying start to the 2026 season, with nine victories already in the bag.

Steffen De Schuyteneer heads into the second UAE Tour appearance of his career after picking up a handful of top ten finishes in the 2025 edition. The 20-year-old has already displayed strong signs of progress in 2026 , beginning with an immediate bang after finishing a narrow second at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Marseille behind the winner Bryan Coquard. His Tour of Oman didn't go quite to plan, but the young Belgian will be aiming to put that behind him in the UAE. 

Expect to see De Schuyteneer competing towards the top five positions in the sprint stages and perhaps able to be located within the top 15-20 positions on the individual time trial on stage 2 with the 12km effort suiting the raw power he possesses.

Other notable contenders to watch out for in the sprints are Casper Van Uden (Picnic PostNL), Alberto Dainese (Soudal-QuickStep), and Ethan Vernon (NSN).