The highly-anticipated season start for Remco Evenepoel with his new Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team will begin in Spain at the end of the month, and now the Olympic and World Champion in the time trial discipline is expected to add the high-profile UAE Tour to his calendar for February, according to reports in Belgium.
According to Het Laatste Nieuws' Bram Vandecappelle, the 25-year-old Belgian star should be part of the Red Bull line-up for the men's Middle Eastern stage race, February 16-22, delaying a planned altitude training camp in Tenerife for a build to Volta a Catalunya at the end of March.
The German team announced during the off-season that Evenepoel would make his debut on January 29 at the Trefeo Ses Salines, a 24km team time trial in Mallorca. He would then take part in Volta Comunitat Valenciana, a five-day UCI ProSeries race before focusing on altitude training and a return for more Spanish stage racing at the seven-day Volta a Catalunya, March 23-29.
With a long delay between races, the addition of a competition at the UAE Tour would not be a total surprise. He has raced there twice before, last in 2023 when he won the GC and went on to finish second overall at the Catalunya stage race.
The 2023 UAE Tour featured a 17.3km team time trial, which Evenepoel won with this Soudal-QuickStep squad. The next two years organisers featured a shorter individual time trial at Al Hudayriyat Island. Should a team time trial be part of this year's race, it would be extremely desirable as a tune-up for riders like Evenepoel who have an eye on the Tour de France, which opens with a TTT in Barcelona.
UAE Tour organisers have yet to disclose route details and the list of teams for the eighth edition of the top-tier stage race, which is the third stop of the men's WorldTour calendar following the Tour Down Under and Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.
However, UAE Team Emirates-XRG was expected to compete and have Isaac del Toro as the team leader, as three-time UAE Tour champion Tadej Pogačar was to delay his start until Strade Bianche on March 7.
After seven seasons with the QuickStep WorldTour programme, Evenepoel ended his contract a year early and moved to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe for 2026. The new outfit was suited for his quest to focus more on stage racing and the overall at the Tour de France, where he'll match up against Pogačar going for his fifth title.
