Giro d’Italia stage 1 winner Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers) is set to join Tadej Pogačar at UAE Team Emirates in 2025, according to multiple media reports.
If confirmed after the transfer window opens on August 1st, the 27-year-old Ecuadorian would be a major boost to an already powerful UAE line-up.
A talented allrounder, Narváez has two stage wins in the Giro d’Italia to his name, as well as being a gifted one-day racer who has captured both the National Championships twice and the Pan American Games road title in 2023. He also has a hefty number of top places in the Spring Classics.
Beyond that, Narváez has also won week-long stage races like the Tour of Austria and Coppi e Bartali and finished second overall in the Tour Down Under early this year.
Thanks to his stage 1 victory, Narváez is currently the only other rider apart from Pogačar to wear the maglia rosa in the 2024 Giro d'Italia- something that is looking increasingly likely to remain the case, given the Slovenian's stranglehold on the overall.
On a hilly opening day's racing in Turin, Narváez outpaced both Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Pogačar to both take the stage win and hold the race lead for 24 hours.
The 2024 Giro is in his first comeback race after falling badly and suffering a concussion in Gent-Wevelgem earlier this spring.
Narváez also came within a whisker of a second Giro stage triumph at Naples, where after a gutsy late breakaway he was caught just metres from the line by a reduced bunch.
Apart from a single season at QuickStep back in 2018, Narváez's only professional team has been Sky/Ineos Grenadiers. Assuming his widely published move to UAE Team Emirates goes ahead, he will join other former top Ineos riders like Adam Yates and Pavel Sivakov in the Middle Eastern team.
