Jhonatan Narváez will leave Ineos at the end of this season to join UAE Team Emirates, signing a two-year contract. The Ecuadorian rider has enjoyed an impressive 2024 campaign, highlighted by his victory in Turin on the opening day of the Giro d’Italia, where he outsprinted future teammate Tadej Pogačar to take the first pink jersey.
Narváez has spent five seasons with Ineos and now follows Adam Yates and Pavel Sivakov in moving to UAE from the British team. Narváez remarked, “Since the beginning of my career, I’ve always wanted to be involved at the highest level of cycling, and we can say that UAE Team Emirates is the best team in the world in the last years, so it’s an honour to be moving there. I feel I’ve taken big steps at Ineos, but I think I still have room to take another step in the coming years.”
“I feel like I still haven’t reached my full maturity as a rider and hope to keep progressing and improve both as a classics rider and as an all-rounder,” added Narváez in a statement released by his new team.
Narváez’s move from Ineos to UAE had been heavily rumoured since the start of the summer, and there was little surprise when the deal was confirmed as soon as the transfer window opened on 1st August. UAE manager Mauro Gianetti said, “We are very pleased to welcome Jhonatan to UAE Team Emirates for the coming years. He’s shown his ability both as a winner and as a worker, and we feel he can slot in well to our team. Jhonatan is an aggressive rider with lots of experience at the top level, so we are confident to see the best of him over the next years with us.”
Narváez demonstrated his capability on the cobbles with a sixth-place finish at E3 Harelbeke in March. However, his Classics campaign was cut short by a heavy crash at Gent-Wevelgem. The 27-year-old returned to Ecuador to train ahead of an all-action Giro, where he narrowly missed additional stage wins in Naples, Fano, and Sappada.
In addition to his Giro exploits, Narváez claimed the Ecuadorian national title in 2024 and has been selected for the road race at the Paris Olympics, ahead of Tokyo gold medallist Richard Carapaz. UAE Team Emirates will be eager to integrate Narváez into their team, filled with top-level talent and ambitions for the upcoming seasons.