UAE Team L’IMAD wrapped up its 2026 campaign the way it had hoped to start it: at the top of the UCI Women’s WorldTour team rankings, a first in the squad’s history. The final confirmation came only in the season’s closing days, after the Emirati team overtook FDJ Suez thanks to points scored at the Veneto Classic and the Chrono des Nations, where Maëva Squiban claimed the last win of the year.
The team announced the full numbers behind the season on Saturday, right after Elisa Longo Borghini and Giada Silo took the Italian time trial titles in the Elite and Under-23 categories, the final race on the calendar for the Abu Dhabi-backed outfit.
Riders connected to the team totalled 58 victories across the year: 31 road wins for the WorldTour squad, 13 for the UAE Development Team, and a further 14 between gravel, track and national team commitments. Nineteen different riders won at least once, with Longo Borghini the most prolific at eight victories, ahead of Paula Blasi with seven, and Dominika Włodarczyk and Lara Gillespie with five each.
The headline result of the season came at the Tour de France Femmes, where Longo Borghini finished third overall, her best result yet at the race after previous attempts had been derailed by illness and crashes. The Italian also won a stage at the Giro d’Italia Women and claimed the UAE Tour Women overall, adding to a palmarès that already includes two Giro titles, Paris-Roubaix, two editions of the Tour of Flanders and an Olympic bronze medal.
Blasi, the 23-year-old Spaniard who emerged from the team’s development programme, won the Amstel Gold Race and the Vuelta a España Femenina during a breakout year, before playing a supporting role at the Tour de France. Włodarczyk doubled up at Itzulia Women, Karlijn Swinkels won the Trofeo Alfredo Binda, and Squiban added a European title in the mixed team relay time trial to her late-season Chrono des Nations win.
On the track, Lara Gillespie became world champion in the points race in Shanghai, her second rainbow jersey in two years after winning the elimination race in Chile in 2025. Longo Borghini also took world title gold in the mixed team relay time trial.
UAE Team L’IMAD’s own breakdown of the season reads as follows:
- 58 victories across road, track and gravel
- 31 road wins for the WorldTour team, 13 for the Development Team
- 2 world titles, 6 continental titles, 17 national titles
- 48 medals and 72 further podium finishes
- 3rd place in the Tour de France Femmes general classification
- Best team at the Tour de France Femmes and in the final UCI Women’s WorldTour ranking
The team only took the L’IMAD name in August, when it dropped its previous UAE Team ADQ branding after the Abu Dhabi fund that bears that name was absorbed into the larger L’IMAD holding. It has also confirmed that its separate Development squad, which helped bring through riders such as Blasi and Gillespie, will not continue as a standalone Continental team in 2027, with young talent instead to be integrated directly into the WorldTour structure.
This article is based on information provided by UAE Team L’IMAD.
