Volta a Catalunya, Coppi e Bartali and Classic Brugge-De Panne squads announced

UAE Team Emirates-XRG is well placed for the first WorldTour race of the season in Spain, with recent Tirreno-Adriatico winner Juan Ayuso part of a strong seven-man squad for the Volta a Catalunya. The week-long stage race will begin on the Mediterranean coast and conclude with the traditional city circuit in Barcelona, but not before a series of three summit finishes and tough mountain stages have produced what promises to be an exciting race.

This year’s Volta a Catalunya will be the 104th edition of this historic race, and UAE Team Emirates-XRG will hope to carry on in last year’s wheel tracks. In 2024, Tadej Pogačar dominated proceedings to claim four stage victories, the points, mountain and general classifications. This time around, the Emirati squad pack a host of talented climbers, with Pavel Sivakov, Marc Soler, Pablo Torres and Adam Yates joining Ayuso in Catalunya.

The dependable Julius Johansen and Domen Novak will support their ambitions, the latter of whom has ridden this race on four occasions. For Johansen and the neo-pro Torres, next week will provide their first taste of action at the Volta a Catalunya.

In their UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates, the pair have plenty of experience to draw upon. Soler has finished in the top five on three occasions, with Ayuso fifth on his first participation in 2022, whilst Yates is a former winner of the overall. The British climber won the race in 2021 and finished second a year prior, with both outings yielding a memorable stage win.

Once more, the organisers of the Volta a Catalunya have put together a tough parcours that will pit the peloton’s best climbers against each other to decide the final podium.

Beginning in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, the first two stages are expected to suit the sprinters, before stage 3 delivers a whopping 5,086m of climbing that is enough to rival any Grand Tour mountain stage. The stage from Viladecans (The Style Outlets) to La Molina will feature the first summit finish of the race and a day later, the second summit finish will pay homage to a truly iconic feature of the Catalan landscape.

Finishing beside the Montserrat Monastery, stage 4 will mark the thousandth anniversary of the institute first founded by Oliba, Bishop of Vic and Abbot of Ripoll in 1025. Laurent Jalabert was the last winner on this mountain in 1995, and the return of the Volta a Catalunya this time around will no doubt draw a huge crowd. There will be no let-up on stage 5, either, where a flat route awaits but so might the potential for crosswinds between Paüls and Amposta.

Stage 6 will be another tough day in the saddle at a little under 4,000m of elevation gain and finishing atop the Queralt Monastery before the seventh and final stage will see the peloton race six laps of the now traditional Montjuïc circuit in Barcelona. Looking ahead to his second participation in the race, Ayuso is full of confidence after taking four victories in as many races thus far in 2025.

Ayuso: “It’s been the dream start to the season so far both for me personally and for the team as a collective. In Catalunya, we’ll be up against some very strong rivals. Tirreno-Adriatico was a big objective for me this season so for it to have gone the way it did is really positive and a confidence boost.

“But Catalunya is a different race and I’m under no illusions that we’ll need to be at our best as a team to go for a result there. It’s been a few years since I’ve been to the Volta so I’m excited to be heading back and racing on Catalan roads.”

Across the continent in Italy, a seven-man UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad will take to the start of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali on Tuesday, 25 March. Running through Saturday, the five-day stage race is often one of the most exciting races of the early season, with plenty of tricky stages on offer through the Emilia-Romagna region.

After playing a pivotal role in Isaac del Toro’s victory at Milano-Torino, Igor Arrieta, Vegard Stake Laengen and Alessandro Covi will all be in attendance, whilst Jay Vine will make his first outing of the season in Europe. The Australian climber will be part of the following UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad:
Igor Arrieta (Spa)
Alessandro Covi (Ita)
Vegard Stake Laengen (Nor)
Rafał Majka (Pol)
Ivo Oliveira (Por)
Enea Sambinello (Gen Z) (Ita)
Jay Vine (Aus)

UAE Team Emirates-XRG has raced the Coppi e Bartali three times in the past, finishing inside the top five overall on each occasion. Placing on the podium with Diego Ulissi last season, the Emirati squad also claimed victory on stage 2 through the Italian.

After Milano-San Remo takes place on Saturday, a series of five WorldTour one-day races will be held in Belgium, culminating with the historic Ronde van Vlaanderen, or Tour of Flanders. Beginning this series of back-to-back spring Classics, the Classic Brugge-De Panne will be held on Wednesday, 26 March, and see UAE Team Emirates-XRG go for broke with an aggressive lineup ready to race on the front foot.

Three animators of Danilith Nokere Koerse will all be there: Mikkel Bjerg, Florian Vermeersch and Sebastián Molano, as will Filippo Barconcini, Rune Herregodts, António Morgado and Rui Oliveira. The seven-strong squad will be on alert for the crosswinds that could flip the script on what usually ends in a bunch sprint to decide the winner.

Previously held as a three-day stage race, the Classic Brugge-De Panne became a one-day event in 2018 and has since suited the fast men. UAE Team Emirates-XRG placed second through Fernando Gaviria in 2019 but will have options to attack on all fronts this time around.

Beginning in Bruges, the 2025 edition stands at 196.3km in length and is pan-flat in its entirety. The peloton will race across the plains of De Moeren and take on three laps of a 43km-long circuit through Veurne, Adinkerke, De Panne and Koksijde. The winner will be crowned on the finishing straight in De Panne.