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UAE Tour: Tadej Pogacar wins third stage to maintain lead
Tadej Pogacar celebrates his win. (UAE Team Emirates Twitter)
Dubai - With the stage win, the Slovenian has increased his overall lead in the competition and retained the Red Jersey
UAE Team Emirates rider Tadej Pogacar was delighted after executing his plan to perfection on Tuesday, winning the third stage of the UAE Tour and extending his overall lead in the competition.
By winning the first climbing stage of the Tour, the Tour de France winner also moved a step closer to earning a maiden victory in his team’s home cycling Tour.
Pogacar, who dominated on the second summit finish at Jebel Hafeet last year, is only the second rider to win twice at the UAE’s iconic mountain after Alejandro Valverde (2018, 2019).
The four other stage winners on the mountain top at the Abu Dhabi Tour and the UAE Tour have been Esteban Chaves, Tanel Kangert, Rui Costa and Adam Yates.
The 22-year-old Slovenian rider had already started the day in the leader’s red jersey and finished it by beating last year’s UAE Tour winner Yates, who Pogacar forced into doing most of the grunt work in the finale.
“I made my move early because the final two corners makes it tough for a guy behind to overtake,” said Pogacar, who climbed this section in training repeatedly in intense preparation for the Tour.
“I knew exactly what I needed to do to win this sprint,” Pogacar admitted when asked about his preparations for the race.
Yates, the Ineos team leader this week, now sits second, 43sec behind with one more climb stage to overhaul the on form Slovenian.
“The UAE Tour is not won overall yet. A lot can happen in the last four stages,” Pogacar said on the winning line.
“We wanted a win and we got one. It was a really tough day and kind of stressful,” he said mentioning the crosswind that caused breaks in the main group on the flat exposed sections of the ride.
“It was super hard but I’m super happy to win,” said the new cycling superstar who had his image emblazoned on the tallest building in the world the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai after his win in September on the 2020 Tour de France.
But Yates truly took the battle to Pogacar with a series of blistering accelerations on the way up the 10km 5.4 percent gradient Jebel Hafeet summit finish climb.
Only Pogacar managed to follow Yates as the other contenders, chiefly the brilliant Portuguese rookie Joao Almeida dropped away with Yates’ relentless attacking.
“I wanted to make time on the others, and Adam certainly did,” said Pogacar.
But under immense pressure to win this Tour Pogacar refused Yates’ pleas to launch a joint bid to distance the others.
Instead, from a position of strength he sat on Yates’ wheel and then skipped away from him over the final 400m.
The Briton however almost overhauled him on the line and the pair finished on the same time of 3hrs 58min 35sec.
Almeida and the chasing group crossed the line 48 seconds off the pace, leaving the Quick-Step man in third overall at 1min 03sec.
There are four more stages to race with three potential sprint finishes and Thursday’s toughest stage featuring a summit finish at the 21km long Jebel Jais climb likely to be decisive.
“We need to be prepared, we need to stay focused, and we need to go into the next few stages with confidence,” said Pogacar before revealing his admiration for the UAE.
“I really like this country and always love coming back here. There’s a really good welcome, good people around here. I also like the race because it’s well organized,” he said.
“No one can come to cheer for us, there are no spectators around the course, but I’m super happy that all the fans are watching on TV, cheering for us and giving us motivation that way. To everybody around the world: thank you for all the support.” (with inputs from AFP)
STAGE RESULT
1 - Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), 166km in 3h58’35”, average speed 41.746km/h
2 - Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers), s.t.
3 - Sergio Andres Higuita Garcia (EF Education - Nippo), 48''
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
1 - Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates)
2 - Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers) at 43''
3 - João Almeida (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) at 1'03''
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