UAE Tour 2026 Route stage 1: Madinat Zayed - Liwa

The riders clip in at Madinat Zayed and head straight into the desert. At first the roads are as flat as they come, but after this first passage in Liwa the terrain changes. A series of short and sometimes very steep climbs takes the race towards the Moreeb Dune. Rising to more than 300 metres, it is one of the highest sand dunes in the world.

The riders will not reach that altitude on asphalt and instead tackle two laps of an 18.1-kilometre circuit, climbing to a maximum elevation of 158 metres. Even so, they face plenty of demanding climbs along the way, with gradients occasionally reaching double digits.

In the final 30 kilometres, the riders leave the dune circuit and head back towards the Liwa Oasis. The route follows rolling roads in this section, after which the final 1.5 kilometres rises at 4.2%, with the last 500 metres averaging 6%.

Last year, Jonathan Milan won on the same finish after an almost identical stage, outsprinting Jasper Philipsen and Finn Fisher-Black.

The first three riders across the line gain 10, 6 and 4 bonus seconds, while 3, 2 and 1 seconds are available at the intermediate sprints.

Fancy riding the route yourself? Download GPX 1st stage 2026 UAE Tour.

Stage 1 of the UAE Tour starts at 13:10 and is expected to finish around 16:30 local time – both local times (GST).

UAE Tour 2026 – stage 1: routes & profiles

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route

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route finale

profile finale

interactive map

interactive map