Remco Evenepoel delivered a commanding performance on Stage 2 of the UAE Tour, powering to victory in the 12.2km circuit on Hudayriyat Island and moving into the overall race lead.
On a flat and non-technical course, the Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe rider set a time of 13:03 minutes, averaging 56.1km/h in a blisteringly fast display against the clock. It marked his second time trial win of 2026 and his seventh victory of the season so far.
“It was pretty quick. The course was completely flat, not super technical, so it was the perfect course to try and ride that fast,” he said afterwards. “So I’m very happy to have pulled it off today.”
Starting early as the fifth rider off the ramp, Evenepoel laid down the benchmark and then spent nearly two hours in the hot seat as rivals attempted to match his time. With no-one able to do so, the Belgian moved into the red leader’s jersey and also pulled on the green jersey after two stages.
“In 2023, when I won the UAE Tour overall, I didn’t take any stage victories apart from the team time trial, so to take my first individual stage victory at this race is great,” Evenepoel said.
Looking ahead to the decisive days to come, he was level-headed about his objective.
“The battle for the general classification is on. It’s always better to go into that ahead rather than behind, to defend rather than have to attack, so I think it’s a good situation for us. Now we’ll work hard to defend the race lead until the final stage.”
— Remco Evenepoel
Speaking about today’s result and reflecting on the racing still to come, Sports Director Klaas Lodewyck is mindful of what lies ahead:
“It was a really good day for us. We had a big objective to try and win the stage today, and that’s exactly what Remco did. He has a nice time gap in the general classification for the moment, but the race isn’t over. Tomorrow we’ve got a really hard climb coming up in the finale, so by tomorrow evening we’ll know better where we’re at.”
— Klaas Lodewyk
Tomorrow brings the first summit finish of the race at Jebel Mobrah, where Evenepoel and his team will face the first major climbing test of this year’s edition.
