UAE Tour 2026, February 16-22

[Cookster15]

Impressive start to 2026 by Del Toro. Good to see Luke Plapp with a strong ride. Hopefully 2026 is the year he can finally begin to live up to his promise.

 

[Oldman]

Impressive start to 2026 by Del Toro. Good to see Luke Plapp with a strong ride. Hopefully 2026 is the year he can finally begin to live up to his promise.

Both look on exceptional form with Plapp benefitting from the TdU. Hopefully they continue to have upside to shake up the GTs as well. Just when the argument on who will challenge Pogi stalls out the next generation speaks up. Great to see.

 

[VayaVayaVaya]

Only Finestre is remembered, but on San Valentino he was clearly defeated by Carapaz. By the way, Simon Yates also beat him that day.

Carapaz was the best climber in that Giro.

He didn't lose just because of Finestre; Carapaz, especially, and Yates were better that day, and I'm sure his fear on Finestre stemmed from that defeat.

Giro d'Italia 2025 Stage 16 results

Giro d'Italia 2025 Stage 16 from Piazzola sul Brenta to San Valentino (Brentonico) was won by Christian Scaroni before Lorenzo Fortunato and Giulio Pellizzari. Isaac del Toro was leading the general classification.

www.procyclingstats.com

I still have doubts about what Del Toro can do on another stage as tough as this one. I had no doubts about him for single-climb stages like today, but we still have to consider who he's beaten. Plapp and Tiberi are good riders, but thear are in a third level GT contenders.

The fact that Carapaz beat him so clearly that day is still significant; he'll have to prove in the mountains of a Tour de France stage that he's a rider suited to that type of stage.
What happened in San Valentino is unfairly forgotten. For mi, Finestre's key was there; he was afraid of cracking again against Carapaz.

What's now beyond doubt is that Del Toro and Ayuso appear to be the best cyclists for one-week races (excluding Pogacar and Vingegaard sometimes). Now they have to prove whether they can translate that power to stages with several hors catégorie climbs.

Let’s let Ayuso beat Roglic head to head before we anoint him. Some of us remember what happened last year.