On Monday the 2026 UCI WorldTour continued with its third round, the seven-stage UAE Tour, where Derek Gee-West made his debut for new squad Lidl-Trek, coming 37th. Isaac del Toro grabbed the uphill sprint win to wear the first leader’s jersey. Riley Pickrell was the top Canadian in seventh.
Preliminaries
The 8th edition was supposed to be an early opportunity for 2023 champion Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard to kick up dust, but Vingegaard crashed on a training ride with a fan in pursuit. To start his stint at Red Bull, Evenepoel ran wild through Spain, taking six wins over a stretch of 12 days.
UAE-Emirates’ del Toro was also making his 2026 debut. Despite 18 victories last season, del Toro’s 2025 will be remembered for his losing the pink jersey to recent retiree Simon Yates on the final GC day of the Giro d’Italia.
Besides Gee-West, the other Canadians were Pier-André Côté of NSN Cycling Team, Riley Pickrell, now with Modern Adventure Pro Cycling, and Nickolas Zukowsky of Pinarello Q36.5.
The Course
Madinat Zayed Majlis to Liwa Palace was 144 km, with a couple of appearances of a cycletrack, a steep little second intermediate sprint and a final 1.4-km climb to the line of 4.2 percent with a maximum grade of eight percent.
Because of high winds, the 144 km course was cut down to 118 km, dropping the cycletrack.
Silvan Dillier made the solo breakaway on Monday, enjoying all those vistas of sand and taking the first intermediate sprint. He was brought to heel with 29 km to go, just before Gee-West’s teammate Jonathan Milan earned the second intermediate sprint.
The peloton headed to Liwa Palace with no sense of dispatch until 11 km remaining. The colour blocks formed and the field stretched out. Gee-West stayed on the right side. Just before the red kite, a crash took down some chaps, including Milan. Ineos held the front. Isaac del Toro launched early and took the win.
Tuesday is a 12.2-km time trial.
2026 UAE Tour Stage 1
1) Isaac del Toro (Mexico/UAE-Emirates) 2:30:56
2) Cees Bol (The Netherlands/Decathlon-CMA) s.t.
3) Antonio Tiberi (Italy/Bahrain-Victorious) s.t
7) Riley Pickrell (Canada/Modern Adventure) s.t.
37) Derek Gee-West (Canada/Lidl-Trek) s.t.
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