Despite going into the UAE Tour "uncertain" about her form as defending champion, Elisa Longo Borghini cleaned the floor with the rest of the field on Sunday's Jebel Hafeet ascent. The race was, perhaps, the best attended edition yet, with Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto's Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, Kim Le Court-Piennar (AG Insurance-Soudal), and SD Worx-Protime's Anna van der Breggen on the start list, yet it was Monica Trinca Colonel (Liv AlUla Jayco) and Visma-Lease a Bike's Femke De Vries who were the only riders to come anywhere close to the UAE Team ADQ captain. In the sprints, SD Worx's Lorena Wiebes was again untouchable, but thanks to some fantastic leadouts from the eventual overall winner, ELB's Irish teammate Lara Gillespie came close ... close for Wiebes, at least.
It's no Paris-Nice, but the UAE Tour did answer a few questions going into the Classics and provide us with some solid talking points for the podcast.
First things first: Never put Elisa Longo Borghini in a box
Last year, her first with UAE Team ADQ, Elisa Longo Borghini went into the UAE Tour in top shape. She called the race the team's "World Championships," and obviously, given the team's main title sponsor, that makes sense.
Longo Borghini has spoken many times about how important it is for her to not only be a general classification rider. Her win at the Giro d'Italia Women was something she dreamed about most of her life, but she's not a person who would be happy cloistering herself away to focus solely on one goal. She is also not the type of person to simply ride into a sprint finish when she could be participating in a leadout. We saw this already when she was with Lidl-Trek, riding for Elisa Balsamo.
Still, Longo Borghini's multi-kilometre leadouts going into the sprints at the UAE Tour were a joy to watch. The first stage was particularly fun:
With two Giro titles to her name, what will Longo Borghini set her sights on next? It's still very early into 2026, but the way she rode away from Niewiadoma-Phinney and Le Court-Pienaar on the final stage after helping out Gillespie for three days should have the other teams grimacing a little. To be fair, the front of the peloton was the safest place to be with those wide roads and so many fresh legs, something Movistar's Marlen Reusser learned the hard way.
Matt de Neef
Racing continues...
We've got a weekend off from WorldTour racing, but a handful of WorldTeams and ProTeams will line up in Spain for Setmana Ciclista Valenciana. The 2.Pro-rated four-stage race has become a hotspot for big names shaking out their legs ahead of Opening Weekend or Strade Bianche, and although the startlist is not out yet (check here in a few days) the teams lineup is first class: AG Insurance-Soudal, Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto, EF Education-Oatly, FDJ United-Suez, Fenix-Premier Tech, Human Powered Health, Lidl-Trek, Liv AlUla Jayco, Movistar, Picnic-PostNL, Visma-Lease a Bike, Uno-X Mobility, UAE Team ADQ, VolkerWessels, Ma Petite Entreprise, Cofidis, Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi, and St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93 are all set to race. Here's a brief look at the course profiles:
Stage 1 - Thursday, February 12: Gandia (121 km)
Stage 2 - Friday, February 13: Villa-Real (115.5 km)
Stage 3 - Saturday, February 14: Agost to La Nucía (128 km)
Stage 4 - Sunday, February 15: Sagunt to Valencia (117 km)
Last year, the race for the overall was between FDJ United-Suez's Demi Vollering, Reusser and Van der Breggen. It was Vollering's first race with her then-new French team, and her first win for them. It was also her first race against Reusser and Van der Breggen since the mass shake-up at SD Worx going into the 2025 season. So, definitely a race worth keeping an eye on.
It will also have live coverage, although the timing will clash with the Olympics, particularly the women's 10 km Individual Skate (Nordic Skiing) and the women's 5000m (Speed Skating) on Thursday, the women's 7.5 km relay (Nordic Skiing), men's Latvia vs. Germany (Hockey), and the women's Team Pursuit (Speed Skating) on Saturday, and the women's Giant Slalom (Alpine Skiing) on Sunday.
Wheel Talk podcast
Gracie, Loren, Georgie, and I are back this week to talk about the UAE Tour, Lorena Wiebes, sprinting in February, UAE Team ADQ, and ... the Winter Olympics.
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