Stage 2 of the UAE Tour brings a 12.2-kilometre individual time trial on Al Hudayriyat Island.. The route is quite similar to last year.The course is completely flat, with wide roads, minimal corners and an intermediate split at six km. Wind may play a role, but the course is built for pure power.
Olympic and world TT champ Remco Evenepoel enters as the clear favourite. The Belgian excels on fast, uncomplicated layouts and is expected to take time on his general classification rivals. He’s also already flying this season. It’s only February and the Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe ride has five wins, including the TT and overall at the Volta Comunitat Valenciana.
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He begins the day ten seconds behind race leader Isaac Del Toro Romero, who took the opening stage and leads multiple classifications.
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Former stage winner Joshua Tarling is a major contender after beating Evenepoel in past time trials. Canada enters with a few riders who are pretty, pretty good in TTs. First off there’s Lidl-Trek’s Derek Gee. But there are many question marks about his early season form.
Although he’s had some very strong TTs in the past few years in major races, Stage 1 of the UAE Tour was his first race in half a year. After the 2025 Giro d’Italia, where he finished fourth, his only other races last year were the Canadian nationals. He won the road race–and has a brand-new jersey for it–and was second in the TT. So it may take more race miles for him to get back to the high-end solo efforts required to compete against the best in time trials.
There’s also his former teammate from the team formerly known as Israel-Premier Tech (now NSN cycling) Pier-André Côté. He’s a former national TT champ and can do well against the clock. Riley Pickrell (Modern Adventure Pro Cycling) who had a terrific seventh on stage 1, will likely be on cruise control on Tuesday, saving his legs for another sprint stage. Nickolas Zukowsky (Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) is also a strong rider in the time trials (or at the front of the field like an absolute beast) so he may test his legs in the solo effort, or, like Pickrell, ride tempo.
The race is being broadcast on Flobikes.com. Coverage begins at 5:50 a.m. EST. As always, Canadian Cycling Magazine will have a full report after.
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