Sawt Falasteen - Impressive Del Toro takes statement victory in UAE

Jonathan Milan took the final stage win, his third sprint victory of the week, but it was the performance of the 22-year-old Mexican Del Toro that made the biggest noise.

He won two stages during the race and ended the tour 20 seconds ahead of Italian Antonio Tiberi, with Australian Luke Plapp almost a minute further back in third.

Milan won the bunch sprint at the end of a 147km run which began and ended in Abu Dhabi, ahead of Norway's Erden Blikra and Australian Sam Welsford.

Del Toro follows Tadej Pogacar on the roll of honour of the Emirati race with many seeing that as a portent of what is to come in the grand tours.

There are plenty of parallels in the two men's development.

Del Toro burst onto the scene in 2023 by winning the Tour de l'Avenir -- a junior version of the Tour de France -- just as Pogacar did in 2018.

Like Pogacar, he is a product of the UAE development system and, as with the Slovenian, he needed no adjustment period to shine among the pros, taking victories in his very first races, notably at the Tour Down Under in 2024.

Impressive in time trials and in the mountains, as shown by his second place in the last Giro d'Italia, Del Toro also demonstrated an outstanding turn of speed this week in the Emirates, outsprinting the pure sprinters in a punchy opening stage.

Greater tests will lie ahead for him this season, notably in the Tour de France in July, which he is expected to ride for the first time.

It was a considerably less happy week for Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel, who was viewed as his main rival when the UAE started in Abu Dhabi.

The Belgian, who joined the Red Bull–BORA–Hansgrohe team this winter, had set his sights on the win, buoyed by six victories since the start of the year, notably at the Tour of Valencia.

But he struggled on the climbs of Jebel Mobrah on Thursday and Jebel Hafeet on Saturday, and finished 10th overall.

"I lacked freshness," he said. "I've had a bit of a cold and didn't have the same sensations as in Spain."

The double Paris 2024 Olympic champion will now take a month away from competition to recover before the Tour of Catalonia at the end of March.

E.Qaddoumi--SF-PST