"We Have The Strongest Team In The Race" — UAE Team Emirates-XRG Confirm Ayuso And Yates As Joint 2026 Giro Leaders, Del Toro Makes His Grand Tour Debut Ten Days From The Bulgaria Grande Partenza
Wednesday morning Calpe. UAE Team Emirates-XRG have published the eight-rider line-up that will defend their 2025 maglia rosa at the Giro d'Italia from 9 May, ten days out from the Bulgarian Grande Partenza in Nessebar. The headline is the official confirmation of the joint Juan Ayuso / Adam Yates leadership the team have been signalling since João Almeida was withdrawn on Monday evening, and the inclusion of 22-year-old Mexican Isaac del Toro on his Grand Tour debut.
The full eight: Ayuso, Yates, Del Toro, Jay Vine, Brandon McNulty, Rafał Majka, Igor Arrieta and Filippo Baroncini. The shape of the roster — three Grand Tour debutants in Del Toro, Arrieta and Baroncini alongside the McNulty / Majka / Vine experienced layer and the two GC men — is the third Grand Tour leadership pivot the team have made in fourteen months, and the most public co-leadership UAE have ever fielded. Tadej Pogačar, the 2025 Giro winner, is absent — confirmed in the same release as focused exclusively on Tour de France preparation in July after his Strade Bianche, Milan-San Remo, Flanders, Flèche and Liège-led spring.
Ayuso, speaking from the team's morning press call in Calpe, was the more bullish of the two named leaders. "I think we have the strongest team in the race and I feel that is our biggest strength. We have strong rivals in the GC, with Roglič in particular, but we are ready for the challenge." It is the most direct outright-favourite claim Ayuso has issued since his February UAE Tour overall, and follows a Calpe altitude block that team performance director Iñigo San Millán described as "the cleanest training block of his career" in the team's Tuesday-evening press release.
Yates, typically more measured, framed the leadership as a question of tactical breadth rather than an internal contest. "Between myself and Juan I think we should be able to have a good crack on the general classification and try to defend the title, and I'm looking forward to getting started in what I hope will be a very competitive three weeks." The 33-year-old Briton — second at the 2024 Giro and third at last year's Tour — has not raced since the 16 April Itzulia Basque Country, where he sat seventh on GC before pulling out with a stomach bug.
The Del Toro selection is the most attention-grabbing call of the eight. The Mexican has won three races in 2026 — Trofeo Calvià, Trofeo Andratx-Lloseta and Stage 5 of the UAE Tour — and finished fourth at Milano-Torino in March riding in support of an Ayuso who eventually placed second. UAE General Manager Mauro Gianetti, in the team's Italian-language briefing on Wednesday morning, framed the call as "the right race, the right course, the right teammates" for a debut: "Isaac will not be a leader at this Giro. He will support Juan and Adam. But he will leave the race a Grand Tour rider." Bookmakers have priced him 33/1 outright, the shortest debut Grand Tour price the team have ever set.
The supporting cast is built around stage opportunism and high-mountain protection. McNulty, who has finished second to Ayuso at every Calpe block since November, is locked in for the time-trial days and the high-mountain pulls; Vine is set up as the long-range break card after his Volta a Catalunya stage win in March; Majka — at 36, on his eleventh Giro start — provides the road-captain layer; Arrieta and Baroncini are the climbing domestiques on rotation. The team have not officially named a road captain but the signals from Calpe point to Majka.
The GC card heading into the Bulgarian start has tightened in the last 96 hours. Vingegaard remains 1/2 outright, the shortest pre-Giro favourite price since Merckx in 1973. Ayuso has shortened from 9/2 to 7/2 across the major British operators, Yates has held at 16/1, and Del Toro's debut listing at 33/1 is the longest of the eight named UAE riders. Roglič at 6/1 — the dual maglia rosa winner now in his fourth Giro start with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe — remains the second-favourite. The pre-race press conference is set for Thursday 7 May in Sofia, with the Stage 1 Nessebar coastline opener the following Saturday.