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.

 

[Unchained]

Those wins don't mean anything specially when those races were completely different compared to UAE mountain stages.
Media is one thing, other is Remco who knows about his true level in the mountains. It's not like he was close to Del Toro or Tiberi, there were 15 more riders better than him in the mountains. At what exactly point in his training, he thought "Yes, I can win one mountain stages in the UAE Tour"?

They may have shortened stages in TDU because of what was considered extreme temperature but as someone posted Remco was frantically showering himself with multiple bottles like he was on fire. France in deep summer is going to hotter than UAE is right now, in mid 20s . they have to be thinking without insulting anyone that Lipowitz and Roglic are obviously superior on anything over @6-7% grade. UAE didn't really have the best sign sheet and if Remco is exposed to a strong Visma, Trek, even an improving Movistar he is setting himself up for heartbreak. Guy is going to get destroyed. Remco is like a guy that keeps touching a hot stove, burning himself over and over. He really should not be scheduled for grand tours

Del Toro is the real deal. He would've won the Giro as well if he had better tactics.

Young Isaac still follows directions from the team car instead of his natural race instinct. He didn't toss Giro in the trash , just followed the boss's instructions

I don't know why people are so desperate to insist he's the dumbest rider in the history of the sport.

2 wins already in February and putting on an excellent race in UAE wearing a UAE kit.

 

[Red Rick]

Young Isaac still follows directions from the team car instead of his natural race instinct. He didn't toss Giro in the trash , just followed the boss's instructions

2 wins already in February and putting on an excellent race in UAE wearing a UAE kit.

So his natural instinct is to race, but he gave away a Giro because he wanted to be a good obedient puppy rather than win the Giro?

And I'm supposed to admire that?

Like how insane do we have to think to let ourselves believe he wasn't just couldn't do better when it was literally also the best climbing performance of his career until that point and on the only big MTF prior he basically got ragdolled by the entire top 10.

 

[Unchained]

So his natural instinct is to race, but he gave away a Giro because he wanted to be a good obedient puppy rather than win the Giro?

And I'm supposed to admire that?

Like how insane do we have to think to let ourselves believe he wasn't just couldn't do better when it was literally also the best climbing performance of his career until that point and on the only big MTF prior he basically got ragdolled by the entire top 10.

That's certainly a viable alternative scenario, real one was young kid, who barely needs to shave, had the race accidentally tossed in his lap and because of his vast experience of racing in a grand tour as a pink jersey wearing leader, he took advice, they said make Carapaz do some work, don't you chase and tow him, and to everyone's surprise, Del Toro and Carapaz both looking at each other with dumb looks on their faces" I thought you would chase " " no I thought you would chase " " no you chase " " no you do it " and the cycling world couldn't believe their eyes when both guys let the race go up the road . The mistake by Richard Carapaz, a racer with 14 grand tours on his record and Del Toro, Ayuso's wet behind the ears nervous wreck.. Both riders made a huge mistake. And when Pogacar told struggling Del Toro at worlds, when I go, you go. He followed, almost blew up and nearly blew up his race, but he did follow instructions. Del Toro made many many poor assumptions, when he was in the bus at camps, he just assumed that Ayuso, Yates, Almedia, Vine, Hirschi, were his superiors, Ayuso changed everything and now people talk and treat Isaac like he is a leader instead of a new domestique.
Watch Tom Brady roast and look at Drew Bledsoe story, pretty familiar, 1 guy hurt and his replacement never relinquished the job. Ayuso always had the possibility of just racing better than Del Toro. He chose drama instead. We will see how Almedia reacts to Del Toro's success.. time will tell.
And speaking of drama Visma ,everyone, everything in question, Bora, is Remco really the team leader?

 

[Peyresourde]

I think the Finestre stage has been discussed enough, but I have not given my oppinion yet, so I might as well.
In my oppinion, at the start of the stage and knowing in advance what kind of legs he and his rivals would have on Finestre, he was easily strong enough to win the race with just average tactics. Yes, he was less strong than Yates and Carapaz, but strong enough.

The biggest mistake was obviously made by his team for letting van Aert in the break and giving them 10 minutes.

On the climb itself, Del Toro might have tried his hardest (or not) but instead of hyperfocusing on Carapaz, there were at least 4 better options (not ordered):

1) Hyperfocus on Yates, ignore Carapaz
2) TT your way up, ignore others and do the fastest possible climb
3) Cover every move from Carapaz and Yates until you either blow or succeed to the end
4) Stay with your team and do a TTT from the top of Finestre to Sestriere

Then, what I think grates many the most happened after Finestre. He just stopped chasing after 1 minute of pulling. We have rarely (or never?) seen a rider in history in a similar situation just give up. There is always a chance if you try, the situation was dire but not 100% hopeless.