In the recent history of Quick Step, it had never happened that the team arrived on February 12th without having obtained at least one victory. This year, however, due to Remco Evenepoel's departure and the knee problems that have kept Tim Merlier sidelined so far (someone who usually tends to raise his arms repeatedly at the start of the season), the Belgian team with Soudal as main sponsor has not been able to avoid this scenario and is therefore approaching the upcoming calendar events with the clear goal of breaking the ice.

Among these, the UAE Tour is certainly the most promising, which, from February 16th to 22nd, will give Jurgen Foré's team several opportunities to hunt for the first victory of 2026, a year where, for now, the best result remains the 2nd place with which Paul Magnier closed the Clàssica Comunitat Valenciana on January 25th.

The French sprinter, this year's primary rider (along with Merlier) tasked with bringing the most victories to the team, will not be at the start of the race won in 2025 by Tadej Pogacar, a race where our Alberto Dainese will be in charge of performing well in the sprint, who, at his first commitment after the Australian efforts of late January, will have at least 3-4 opportunities to unleash all his horses.

Alongside the Padua-born sprinter, Soudal will field men capable of supporting him in the fast finales such as Ayco Bastiaens, Warre Vangheluwe and Bert Van Lerberghe, British time trial champion Ethan Hayter (looking for confirmation after a 2025 where some nutritional problems affected his performance), a promising young rider like Junior Lecerf (who might try to make his own race in the harder stages) and Ilan Van Wilder who, as current time trial bronze medalist and strong from his excellent placement on the UAE roads in 2024, will try to take care of the general classification.

"We have a strong and very motivated team for this race. Ilan finished fourth here two years ago and comes with the ambition to do a good general classification, but Junior can also try to make something happen," said sports director Geert Van Bondt through the team's official channels.

"Ilan, together with Ethan, will aim to do a good individual time trial, while Alberto, guided by Bert Van Lerberghe, will be our man for group sprints," continued Van Bondt before indicating what should be the crucial points of the race.

"The course features a new and very challenging climb, with sections at 17%, where we will have a clearer picture of the general classification before tackling the Jebel Hafeet climb on the penultimate day, a climb we know well and where everything will be decided."

On this difficulty, like the stages of the following and preceding days, the blue-and-white men will try to draw on all their desire and qualities to promptly seize the opportunities that will materialize along the way and, in this way, finally remove that zero from the column of seasonal victories.