Cyclingflash
Superior Jonathan Milan sprints to third stage win in UAE Tour, Del Toro takes overall victory

Superior Jonathan Milan sprints to third stage win in UAE Tour, Del Toro takes overall victory

Three out of three: Jonathan Milan also won the seventh and final stage of the UAE Tour. The Italian powerhouse was once again the fastest in the sprint. Isaac Del Toro finished the final stage without any issues and can now call himself the overall winner.

The cards were already dealt, the general classification decided, but there was still a stage victory up for grabs in the flat final stage of the UAE Tour. The stage took place in and around Abu Dhabi city. At the Zayed Museum—which was originally scheduled to open in 2013 but was only completed in December 2025—the riders clipped in for a 167-kilometer race.

The route led the peloton over several artificial islands. The bunch then stormed down the highway toward the finish at Abu Dhabi Breakwater. A classic sprint finish was expected here. The last five kilometers were almost completely straight, leaving plenty of room to organize the sprint trains.

Evenepoel is fired up
On paper, the seventh stage didn’t seem too challenging, but that didn’t stop Remco Evenepoel from attacking right from the start. The leader of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe—who before the race had called it a ‘reality check’—had something to prove after a few difficult days and launched multiple offensives. However, UAE Emirates XRG wasn’t keen on that—Evenepoel was still quite close in the GC—and gave the Belgian very little space.

Evenepoel’s attacks did create plenty of tension, excitement, and an extremely fast opening phase marked by continuous accelerations. We saw GC riders like Ilan Van Wilder and Lennert Van Eetvelt (currently sixth overall) pushing at the front, but ultimately five other riders managed—albeit with some effort—to break away from the peloton.

Breakaway with Daan Hoole stays clear for long
Daan Hoole (Decathlon CMA CGM), Lorenzo Milesi (Movistar), Callum Thornley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Ezra Caudel (Modern Adventure), and Aivaras Mikutis (Tudor) joined forces and built a maximum lead of about two minutes. This didn’t seem enough to hold off the sprinters’ teams, so it was a matter of counting down the kilometers toward a bunch sprint.

With thirty kilometers to go, Hoole and company’s advantage was down to just forty seconds. The escapees looked like a sitting duck for the chasing peloton but put up a very strong fight. As a result, the gap hovered around forty seconds for a long time, and with eight kilometers left, the four attackers (Caudel had dropped off by then) were still twenty seconds ahead of the pursuing group.

Yet another showdown among the fast men
Were we headed for a surprising finish? It was looking better and better for the leaders, but the finish line was just out of reach for Hoole and company. Two kilometers from the finish, the regrouping was complete. In the subsequent sprint, all eyes were once again on Jonathan Milan.

This time, Milan had to mostly rely on himself, as there was no sign of a dream lead-out from his Lidl-Trek teammates. That didn’t seem to bother the Italian: the powerhouse held his position perfectly near the front, launched fairly early, and impressively kept the challengers at bay. Erlend Blikra (Uno-X Mobility) finished second once again, ahead of Sam Welsford (INEOS Grenadiers).

Watch here Milan’s sprint and third victory:

Isaac Del Toro crossed the finish safely within the peloton and thereby secured overall victory. The Mexican was flanked on the final podium by Antonio Tiberi and Luke Plapp. Lennert Van Eetvelt was the first Belgian in sixth place, while Remco Evenepoel ended the turbulent week in tenth overall.