It’s been a while since the races at the beginning of the year stopped being training sessions for the big stars, those who had a placid start to the year, far from raising their arms, and who were looking for their point of shape for spring-summer. Cycling has changed and that is why, before the end of February, three of the great stars on the international scene, perhaps the strongest in the current peloton, have already clearly won, including a stage round: Tadej Pogacar did it in the Back in Andalusia, Jonas Vingegaard is one step away from doing it in O Gran Camiño through Galician lands and Remco Evenepoel did the same in the UAE Tour, being the only one of them in the World Tour category. The Belgian, who was in front for most of the week, sealed his overall victory on the seventh and final day, with the now famous finish at the top of Jabel Hafeet. The stage victory went to Adam Yates, an expert on this climb.
The Briton already won at this peak in 2020, and in 2021 and 2022 he was second after Tadej Pogacar… and with the absence of the Slovenian, because this time he did not have the other great dominator present as a great rival (Valverde also managed to reign on this mountain.) An important triumph for the UAE in the country that sponsors the team, the United Arab Emirates. In the one-on-one with Evenepoel, the Belgian gave in with three kilometers to go (the two of them were left alone six km from the top) and began to regulate, since his advantage over Yates was greater than a minute, an income that was forged in the initial days of the race for the fans. The one with Quick Step, who stressed that his objective was none other than to win the general, He does it to add the 38th victory to his record at the age of 23. This year he will be in the Giro d’Italia, so a hypothetical duel against Pogacar and Vingegaard You’ll have to wait.
The five escapees of the day (Welsford, Ballerstedt, Hanninen, Konovalovas and Hessmann) started the final climb (10.7 km at 6.8%) with 2:45, a small gain for the pace that the favorites were going to set, who they saw how in the equator of the ascension they were neutralized. It was then seen that Evenepoel and Yates were the strongest, with Plapp and Pello Bilbao a step behind. In fact, the Spaniard finally missed the podium by three seconds in favor of Adam Yates, for whom Marc Soler did a great job. For the British it is the first victory with the colors of the UAE team, and although the team could not win the general, they leave with two stages: Molano and Yates himself, who will be in the Tour de France as one of Pogacar’s great squires. The glory this time went to an Evenepoel and that is that, from a distance for now, the big stars of the peloton continue to ‘challenge’ each other.
Classification of the seventh stage
1st Adam Yates (GBR/UAE) 3h 29:42
2nd Remco Evenepoel (BÉL/Quick Step) at 10
3rd Geoffrey Bouchard (FRA/Ag2r) 42
4th Sepp Kuss (USA/Jumbo) 47
5º Pello Bilbao (Bahrain) 54
General
1º Remco Evenepoel (BÉL/Quick Step) 23h 25:26
2nd Luke Plapp (AUS/Ineos) at 59
1st Adam Yates (GBR/UAE) 1:00
4th Pello Bilbao (Bahrain) 1:03
5th Sepp Kuss (USA/Jumbo) 2:06