“UAE Team Emirates - XRG's dominance is bad for cycling”

Nine stages into the 2026 Tour de France, one question keeps returning on the rest day: has UAE Team Emirates-XRG become too strong for the good of the race? Tadej Pogačar leads by more than two and a half minutes, and rivals are running out of ways to respond. On the Tourmalet he rode away 43 kilometres from the finish and beat Jonas Vingegaard by 2 minutes and 38 seconds. The season-long numbers tell the same story: UAE have 55 wins in 2026, almost double second-placed Red Bull Bora-hansgrohe on 32. Since then the peloton has been split between admiration and frustration. The sharpest criticism came from Movistar sports director José Joaquín Rojas. He believes the fight for yellow is over and that UAE's control is draining the race of drama. "Pogačar is above everyone else and he has the strongest, most crushing and most dominant team we have seen in recent years," he told EFE. His real complaint was tactical. On stage nine UAE chased a harmless breakaway instead of letting it go. "UAE can do whatever it wants because this is cycling, but there are also unwritten rules that should be respected," he said. When the strongest team leaves nothing for anyone, he argues, the reward for attacking disappears and "it takes away part of the spectacle." UAE reject the idea that they should hold back. Florian Vermeersch put it plainly to HLN: "surely we cannot be expected to perform at a lower level just to make it all more exciting?" He also pushed back on the charge of greed. "Every rider and every team would do the same in our situation." His teammate Tim Wellens understands why others are unhappy, but only to a point. "If I were a rider in a weaker team, I would not enjoy seeing a race completely controlled by the opposition either," he said. The booing on the Tourmalet did not move him. "It means we are doing something right." Inside the bunch, the mood is closer to disbelief. Alpecin-Premier Tech manager Philip Roodhooft respected the ride but was stunned by the margins. "The difference is so big." Ilan Van Wilder, who finished the Tourmalet stage in pieces, said it more bluntly. "I find it difficult to understand how you can be so dominant." Julian Alaphilippe simply shrugged. "Nothing surprises me anymore." UAE general manager Mauro Gianetti offers the wider context. He refuses to call the Tour finished and points to the depth of talent still in the race, from Vingegaard to Ayuso, Seixas, Evenepoel and Lipowitz. "The level of this Tour is extremely high," he said. In his telling, UAE are not killing the race, they are simply the best prepared team in a very strong field. That is the trade-off. A dominant team and a generational rider give the sport a star to build around, but they also risk turning the biggest race of the year into a procession. So is UAE's dominance bad for cycling, or is punishing everyone else exactly what a great team is supposed to do? Where do you stand?