Remco Evenepoel was eyeing up an early-season duel with Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) when he decided to take on the UAE Tour in 2026, according to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Chief of Sports, Zak Dempster.
Unfortunately for the Belgian, the world champion won’t be back to defend his crown at his team’s home race, so his main rival now looks set to be Pogačar’s teammate, Isaac del Toro, the rising Mexican star.
“Definitely,” he responded to the question of whether they were disappointed. “You want to measure yourself against the best, but actually, the primary reason why he wanted to do UAE originally was that he was thinking the Pogačar would be there. So we’re not avoiding anyone,” Dempster told Cyclingnews.
“I think the win in Valencia was against a top-class field, too, like [João] Almeida is a hell of a rider, even going close to Vingegaard last year. So let’s not discount the win in Valencia at all, but definitely UAE is going to be a new challenge, and we’re really looking forward.”
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