UAE Team Emirates-XRG are expecting a "battle" on the final climbing day at the UAE Tour on Saturday, with their man, Isaac del Toro, set to throw everything at Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) to try and wrest back the red leader's jersey and defend Tadej Pogačar's title from 2025.
Del Toro sits just 21 seconds behind the Italian, with the Jebel Hafeet summit finish set to all but decide the GC on the penultimate day of racing, meaning he will likely need to both win the stage and distance Tiberi by 18 seconds to be sure of overall victory when accounting for bonus seconds.
"I'm still in the race, for sure, second on GC, but I would like to try to fight for the win and I will do my best," said Del Toro in the mixed zone before stage 5.
"I'll try to do better than stage 3. Let's see how the legs are going. I'm very motivated, and to be honest, I feel great. It'll all be about how I feel on the day, but I'm very keen to get there. We'll try to be as smart as possible."
Having successfully completed the sketchy stage 5 sprint finale, UAE sports director Andrej Hauptman said to Cyclingnews that the team were already "looking forward to spending as little as possible before the final climb on Saturday, and then we expect a battle."
The UAE Tour has come down to narrow margins in previous years, but on this occasion, for the home team, the tactics are somewhat simple: attack Tiberi and see if the rising superstar Del Toro has the legs to back it up, so expect fireworks from the Mexican on the 10.8km climb.
"Tiberi has already shown that he's in Super condition, so we know that it will not be easy, but you know how it is, if you don't try, you'll never know," said Hauptman.
"I remember two years ago, when Lennert Van Eetvelt [Lotto-Intermarché] attacked in the final two or three kilometres, and then he won by just one second, so everything is possible."
Tiberi isn't going to go quietly, though, and it was clear that his confidence was rising as he spoke to reporters following the fifth stage.
"I already started to think about tomorrow during the stage, and about the last climb. Now I think I will be ready," said Tiberi, who stunned almost everyone bar his own team with the stunning performance he produced to Jebel Mobrah on stage 3.
He's not afraid of the young star Del Toro, perhaps backed up by the knowledge that Jebel Hafeet has often come down to a sprint between the top climbers around the final corner, or simply that, after defeating him on the previous climbing day, he's ready to repeat the feat.
"I'm curious to see how UAE want to play their cards tomorrow, and if they want to try maybe something before the climb or just wait," said the 24-year-old Italian.
"I think Del Toro will try some attacks, because, I mean, he has 21 seconds to make up, so he has to do something. But for sure, I can say that in any case, we are ready, the team is really focused, I feel confident, and the legs are good."
Del Toro has one significant advantage that Tiberi doesn't have for Saturday, and that lies in his support, with Adam Yates being a two-time winner on Jebel Hafeet and knowing exactly where to make the best moves to gain the most time – it'll then be up to his young leader to deliver.
The Mexican rider said the British former UAE Tour GC winner adds "A heck of a lot, whatever he does for me is always very important, and he's good at teaching me to be a bit more patient at times and wait for the right moment," with Hauptman not mincing his words about the importance of Yates for the final GC battle.
"For sure, Adam has won on the climb a few times, so he knows in perfection what you need to do and where you need to attack," he said. "So we are quite confident that Isaac has the best helper possible."
There is the possibility that someone else rises to form and takes the final stage from the two frontrunners – even Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) could bounce back and do so after his stage 3 setback – but with everyone else sitting at least 40 seconds behind Del Toro and a minute down on Tiberi, it looks like the battle for red should come down to them.
