UAE Tour 2026, February 16-22

[peterfin]

Dan Hoole beat Tarling last year. His only victory outside the national championships. LIDL is a very good team at time trial , or at least they were last year, especially in the Giro where they were in great form.
Perhaps he has gotten worse at Decathlon.

Herregodts' best result last year in ITT (with UAE) was a tenth place in Baloise. Nothing like Hoole's victory in the Giro.

Herregodts was 3rd in the Baloise in 2024, 8 sec faster than Hoole. Similar distance as today.

 

[KoopaCycling]

Well Dunbar is going slow

 

[Cycling111]

@peterfin He wasn't in UAE in 2024. You mentioned that he should be flying in UAE in ITT, and that wasn't the case last year, so today's situation might not be due to the wind.

 

[yaco]

Bit premature?

Didnt he have problems in the NC one?

Dont think this one suits him very well here. 12km flat.

Still beating guys like Bissegger, Van Wilder and Gee here so far.

He should be around the Cavagna time.

 

[Rechtschreibfehler]

So Del Toro has to start last because he's the leader, so he's doomed to loose much more time because of the wind?

 

[Berniece]

Wind seems the same, according to the visuals during broadcast. Although if his speed is correct, he’s going much slower for that T1 split. Tarling/Evenepoel went 60km/h

 

[Tim Cahill]

Very impressive power for someone of that weight but he’s moving around a lot on the bike and road so there’s room for improvement.

 

[KoopaCycling]

Commentators saying the wind situation got better for Del Toro

 

[Samamba]

auch

 

[Rechtschreibfehler]

Commentators saying the wind situation got better for Del Toro

German ES commentatos claiming the opposite, looking at the time it would be wild if it wasn't the winds fault.

 

[Didinho]

Does he have more tailwind now in part 2 than early starters? Looks like he was struggling on this part (full headwind?).

 

[Rou]

Thermonuclear speed by del Toro.

 

[Cycling111]

Oh, that's too bad.

I expected he would bein the time of Castrillo or better.

34th at point 1 is a very bad ITT for him.

 

[Samamba]

Does he have more tailwind now than early starters? Looks like he was struggling on this part (full headwind?).

I mean yeah it's a circuit so first part is more headwind, second part is more tailwind, so he won't lose that much time anymore but it's still a lot in total

 

[Tim Cahill]

UAE trainers worriedly sorting through papers as they realise they’ve mixed up his training plans and he’s spent 3 months in Mexico doing hack squats and sprint intervals. Monalo waiting in the wings about to drop an insane climbing performance.

 

[search]

Does he have more tailwind now in part 2 than early starters?

yes, but the 2nd part is less influenced by the wind

 

[Berniece]

He’s going to lose almost a minute

EDIT: no, just around 30-40s

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Del Toro is objectively losing (a fair bit) more than the 10 bonus seconds he gained yesterday due solely to the wind and the bogus start order procedure. It couldn't have happened to a better team, but it still fundamentally isn't right.

 

[Cycling111]

UAE trainers worriedly sorting through papers as they realise they’ve mixed up his training plans and he’s spent 3 months in Mexico doing hack squats and sprint intervals. Monalo waiting in the wings about to drop an insane climbing performance.

UAE is overrated in ITT performance considering the riders they have. Pogacar performs very well in the Tour, but outside of it, he barely trains. This is more likely his own problem, as he doesn't want it to train more , but he compensates for the rest of the year.

McNulty is very good, although he had worse results last year.

And TTT often puts in some mediocre time trials considering their potential. Jayco usually does much better than them with inferior individual riders.

 

[KoopaCycling]

Del Toro socks are too high. same like with Wellens yesterday. They should follow that up more.

 

[Samamba]

A lot of TT aero specialists in here it seems

 

[Samamba]

Benji and Patrick saying yesterday he wouldn't lose more than 10s

 

[KoopaCycling]

42 seconds time gap, so 32 sec behind Remco after today.
More than expected for me (not for others on this forum), Del Toro also moved around more than expected for someone that has gotten good TT results before.

 

[Rou]

Remco putting everyone in the bin with a 12km ITT and some people suggested the TT to be longer.

 

[Cycling111]

Benji and Patrick saying yesterday he wouldn't lose more than 10s

Someone asked before why Visma was doing some things so badly. Perhaps the answer is there .