Julius Johansen opens up the Volta a Portugal with prologue victory

Danish rouleur picks up his fourth short ITT victory of the season, with teammates Rui Oliveira and Luca Giaimi in second and fourth, respectively

News | Team –5th August 2026

Continuing a remarkable run, Julius Johansen picked up his fourth career victory on Wednesday afternoon at the Volta a Portugal. The Dane triumphed in the opening prologue to take the first leader’s jersey of this year’s race.

Incredibly, all four of Johansen’s wins have now come in the 2026 campaign, and all four have been in short individual time trials. It is a discipline in which the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider is becoming quite the specialist, and this latest win takes the Emirati squad to 60 victories for the season.

Making the opening day of the Volta a Portugal all the sweeter, UAE Team Emirates-XRG also placed Rui Oliveira and Luca Giaimi in second and fourth place, respectively. The home favourite Oliveira had his place in the hot seat before his time was ultimately beaten by his teammate, Johansen.

The Dane’s stellar display gives him the lead of the race, with 10 stages now to come in the whopping Volta a Portugal. Spanning across almost two weeks, the Portuguese stage race is the longest of the season outside of the Grand Tours.

With Johansen’s victory and his teammates’ performances, UAE Team Emirates-XRG have laid down a real marker for the race to come.

Johansen: “I am really proud of my performance to be the best in the prologue in Portugal. This is very special, I saw the time of Rui and it was an amazing time so I knew it would be really hard to beat. I just did my best, I trained really hard for this, so I am really happy I can finish it off with a victory today.

“I think the goal will be to swap the jersey with Rui if he can win the stage [tomorrow] – that would be amazing and can be our goal for tomorrow.”

Volta a Portugal 2026 prologue results:

1. Julius Johansen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 7:12

2. Rui Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +4″

3. Rafael Reis (Anicolor/Campicarn) +7″

4.Luca Giaimi (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +9″

Volta a Portugal 2026 general classification after the prologue:

1. Julius Johansen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 7:12

2. Rui Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +4″

3. Rafael Reis (Anicolor/Campicarn) +7″

4.Luca Giaimi (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +9″