The UAE Tour wraps up on Sunday with a stage tailor-made for the sprinters. That means all eyes are on Lidl-Trek’s Jonathan Milan. With two dubs already in his pocket, the powerful Italian starts as the clear favourite to complete a hat-trick. That is, provided nothing unexpected shakes up the finale.
The 167-km closing stage unfolds in and around Abu Dhabi. Wide roads and smooth asphalt should keep the pace high as teams jostle for control.
A bunch sprint at Abu Dhabi Breakwater looks almost inevitable…but you never know in cycling The final five km run largely straight, offering lead-out trains plenty of room to organize. Still, Milan won’t have it all his own way. Several hungry sprinters are lining up for one last chance to steal the spotlight.
Stage 6’s queen stage
Saturday was a doozy, as expected. The queen stage delivered the shake-up the general classification had been waiting for. On the slopes of Jebel Hafeet, Isaac del Toro rode away with the race, taking his second stage victory of this year’s UAE Tour and pulling on the red jersey.
Starting the day 21 seconds behind leader Antonio Tiberi, all eyes were on the Mexican, waiting for his incredible kick. There’s no wonder that many compare him to his Slovenian teammate Tadej Pogačar. Because when he goes…he goes. After a largely flat run-in, the decisive 10.6-kilometre climb at 6.9 percent settled everything. Earlier moves by Harold Tejeda and Felix Gall forced the favourites into action before Adam Yates ramped up the tempo.
Del Toro struck with 4 km to climb, and when he accelerated again inside the final 3 kilometres, only brief resistance followed. Tiberi cracked under pressure, while Gall and Luke Plapp surged past.
Further back, national champ Derek Gee-West limited his losses to remain seventh overall, but the day belonged to Del Toro, now on the brink of his first WorldTour stage race title. It was a good week of racing for the Osgoode, Ont. rider, especially given it was his first in eight months. Hopefully his form continues to improve as he sets sights for the 2026 Giro d’Italia.
Coverage for the final stage of the UAE Tour begins at 5:50 a.m. EST on Flobikes.com. (Although the men’s hockey gold medal game starts at 8:00 a.m. on CBC. Thankfully, multiple windows and devices are a thing.)
Canadian Cycling Magazine will have a full report afterward — on the bike race, not the hockey game, silly! But side note: LFG boys!
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