UAE Tour: Adam Yates repeats on Jebel Hafeet, Remco Evenepoel secures GC

Published February 26, 2023 05:30AM

Adam Yates triumphed on Jebel Hafeet for a second time Sunday. Yates dropped Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) in the final kilometers of the UAE Tour’s signature climb to score in his first race with UAE Emirates.

The result continues the Brit’s rich palmarès on Hafeet after winning in 2020 and placing second behind Tadej Pogačar last year.

Evenepoel finished second on the steep Emirati climb Sunday, good to secure the overall leader’s jersey after rising into red on stage 3 of the race. Victory in the Emirates puts the rainbow jersey into the winner’s circle as he pedals a stripped back race program toward the Giro d’Italia.

“Without any specific work on climbs and longer efforts, I can only be happy with today,” Evenepoel told the press at the final podium.

“I wasn’t expecting myself to win this race already. I came here to do a good result but to win by one minute is quite a lot. I was there every day, I was in good shape all week. I can only be happy.”

Geoffrey Bouchard (Ag2r Citroen) outsprinted U.S. climber star Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) for third on the stage.

Luke Plapp (Ineos Grenadiers) and Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) finished at each other’s wheel on the summit, handing the Aussie second overall. After starting the stage in the top-3, Bilbao was squeezed off the GC podium by one second by Yates.

With multiple ramps in excess of 10 percent grade, the Hafeet climb is far more severe than the Jais and is renowned as the UAE’s trademark kingmaker.

At 10.7km long and with a deceptive seven percent average lowered by a section of downhill, Jebel Hafeet dominates the local skyline and towered over the whole stage.

As expected, the Emirati tour all came down to a big battle on the rocky Hafeet’s steep slopes. The final riders from the break rolled into the foot of the climb with around 2:30 over the bunch before the GC teams clicked into action.

Quick-Step set the initial pace before UAE Emirates started to stamp their home team’s authority on the climb. Mikkel Bjerg, Marc Soler, and Brandon McNulty all took big pulls and reeled in the escapees before Yates bounded out of the peloton 6km from the summit.

Yates’ move pulled out a select group that included Kuss and Evenepoel, and put Plapp on the ropes as he looked to secure his second place on the final podium.

Evenepoel, Yates, and Kuss stuck together a few kilometers before the Coloradan dropped off the pace to leave Evenepoel and Yates to do battle.

Yates upped the pace again at 3km to go, and Evenepoel initially looked in trouble and fell back as he worked to protect his 1:14 lead over the Brit.

Evenepoel rallied in the closing kilometers and rode his own TT to stay within range of Yates. The Brit kept pulling hard through the final and danced his way to emphatic victory and salvage his race after starting the tour hoping to hit the top of GC.

“Before I even joined the team, they trusted me and believed in me, and that’s something really special,” Yates said after the stage. “It’s a pleasure to ride for the team and to ride their home race and to come to try to win.”

Further down the road, Bilbao and Plapp came together as they hunted GC placings.

The two couldn’t be separated and came across the line together, though cruelly, Yates’ victory saw Bilbao rolled out of the top-3 overall.

S6: Tim Merlier doubles up with surging sprint kick, Larry Warbasse bosses the break

Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) claimed his stake at the top of the sprinter hierarchy with his second win at the UAE Tour.

Merlier outkicked the dozen-plus sprinters in the Emirates to win the sixth stage of the tour and make it three for the season. Sam Bennett (Bora Hansgrohe) and Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco AlUla) rounded out the podium on the Abu Dhabi Breakwater.

Mark Cavendish (Astana-Qazaqstan) saw his final sprint opportunity of the week derailed by a puncture in the last 2km.

“Here you need a bit of luck because no team can leadout in one line, and that makes it really difficult,” Merlier said after the stage. “To take my second victory here, I can show I have good legs.”

Merlier’s teammate Remco Evenepoel retains his nine-second lead over Luke Plapp (Ineos Grenadiers) in the standings ahead of a decisive summit finish showdown on Jebel Jais on Sunday.

“Defending the jersey is the first objective, the stage win is the second objective,” Evenepoel told the press. “We’ll try to go for the double tomorrow.”

Former U.S. national champion Larry Warbasse (Ag2r Citroen) had a big day out in the sun Saturday. The 32-year-old launched into the day’s breakaway and outlasted his rivals to be the last rider out front after 160km+ on the escape.

“It was good, nice to be out front to spin the legs a bit,” Warbasse joked to VeloNews afterward.

Despite gusting winds at the start in Abu Dhabi and murmurs of crosswinds in the team paddock, Saturday emerged as another day doomed for a bunch sprint.

Staying almost entirely in the footprint of the Abu Dhabi surrounds, the 166km stage saw next to no vert and a peloton pounded by 30-plus degree sun.

Warbasse attacked with Edward Planckaert (Alpecin Deceuninck) and Samuele Zoccorato (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) at the flag drop, and the three stayed a couple minutes out front nearly all day.

Warbasse, who’s on the comeback trail after a 2022 lost to a litany of illness and injury, kept piling on around one kilometer longer before the bunch reeled him in and the bunch sprint heaved into motion.

For a third day in a row, the wide roads and dozens of sprinter teams made the finale a mess as squads assembled across the road.

Lotto-Dstny was first team to make a concerted push with its leadout inside the final kilometers before Groenewegen came up hot on the wheel of one of his teammates.

However Merlier had the measure of all of them. The Belgian champ came forward hard in the final hundred meters and blasted the pack off his wheel with a bike-length victory.

The tour concludes Sunday on the Emirates’ signature climb to Jebel Hafeet, a steep 11km ascent that will determine whether Evenepoel can claim the race’s red jersey for his collection.

“I know this race is very important in the season as a WorldTour race,” Evenepoel said. “So far I didn’t win many WorldTour weeklong races, only Poland, so for me, this year, the Giro is the main objective but I want to win some more weeklong WorldTour races or at least finish on the podium.

“Now in the red jersey going into the last stage, there’s no other option than trying to win it.”

S5: Dylan Groenewegen gets it right in big bunch sprint

Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco AlUla) launched a big muscling sprint on stage 5 of the UAE Tour to claim his second win of the season and make amends for a missed opportunity Thursday.

Groenewegen surged out of a melee of fast finishers in Umm al Quwain with a powerful kick that bettered Fernando Gaviria (Movistar) and Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe).

Remco Evenepoel extended his overall lead by a handul of seconds by bagging bonus seconds in the day’s intermediate sprint. The Soudal Quick-Step star now has nine seconds over next-best Luke Plapp (Ineos Grenadiers).

Groenewegen sprinted to fifth in a messy headwind sprint Thursday. The Dutchman and his teammates got it right Friday.

“Races like this, it’s like a washing machine, you go to the front, go back, go back to the front. It’s kind of nice, bit really difficult to time the sprint,” Groenewegen told the press after the stage.

“Yesterday I was too far back, but we knew the legs were there. We were really focussed today, and today we have the victory. Tomorrow’s another chance, but first we celebrate this one.”

Friday’s ride into Umm al Quwain saw the peloton tracking through the Emirati desert most of the day under a blazing sun and hot breeze.

The break was slow to stick, and it took some 50km before Thomas de Gendt (Lotto Dstny), Geoffrey Bouchard (Ag2r Citroen) and Quick-Step pair Josef Černy and Louis Vervacke kicked away.

While all three of his breakaway rivals had given up on the effort by around 90km to go, De Gent did what De Gendt does and kept on pedaling solo in the hunt for a breakaway sprint upset.

The Belgian escape artist was allowed around two minutes by the bunch, but his rich reputation meant the peloton didn’t give him too much leash.

De Gent was eventually reeled in at around 20km to go and the race briefly burst into life.

Bora-Hansgrohe drilled the front into a crosswind and split the bunch down to a lead group of around 30. Jayco-AlUla and Bahrain-Victorious piled on alongside the German team to help keep the gap clear.

With GC contender Plapp caught in the second group, Ineos Grenadiers made a wild chase through the next half-dozen kilometers to keep the Aussie in contention.

Everything came back together at around 9km to go and like stage 4, the final sprint was a wild mob of teams spread all over the road.

A roundabout in the final 800m thinned down the front pack as Jayco-AlUla began assembling its carriages – and from there, the stage was in Groenewegen’s grasp.

S4: Juan Sebastián Molano wins it with a bike throw

Juan Sebastian Molano (UAE Team Emirates) won stage 4 of the UAE Tour with a bike throw.

The Colombian sprinter put the home team into the winner’s circle after its climbers saw a calamitous start to the race and made it two-from-two for his nation after Einer Rubio (Movistar) won Wednesday.

Rising talents Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma) and Sam Welsord (Team DSM) came up for second and third in the hectic sprint on the huge boulevards of Dubai.

Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla) was the only one of the Emirates’ marquee sprinters to crack the top-5 as star racers like Mark Cavendish and Caleb Ewan were stuck toward the back of the huge bundle of fastmen.

Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) enjoyed a snoozy day in the sun and finished safe in the bunch to retain his GC lead.

The stage Thursday had all the markers of a boilerplate sprinter stage, and unlike stage 1, things played per the script.

Rolling out of Dubai’s Al Shindagha neighborhood, the 175km pan-flat course dived in and out of the desert before finishing at Dubai’s harbor.

The token “TV breakaway” of three kicked away in the opening kilometers and hung a couple of minutes in front of the peloton all the way through until 10km to go.

The trio – Alex Baudin (Ag2r-Citroën), Alessandro Tonelli, and Samuele Zoccarato (both Green Project-Bardiani CSF) – were then left hanging 50 meters in front of the bunch as the race zoomed through the Dubai suburbs.

The three were only caught 3km from the line as the sprinter squads awoke from their long day in the sun.

With around a dozen teams trying to set up fast finishers and a huge multi-lane highway to play with, the final was a melee of leadout trains spreading across the road.

Fernando Gaviria (Movistar) opened up the acceleration out of a mess of riders, and stage 1 winner Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick Step) tried to counter.

Welsford came up fast in the final few hundred meters, flanked by Kooij, and the pair hit the front of the pack. However, Molano came up late with a perfectly timed surge to score UAE Team Emirates its first win of its home race.

The dozen-plus sprinters will see a second and third chance at victory in the flat finishes Friday and Saturday.

S3: Einer Rubio conquers Jebel Jais, Remco Evenepoel rises to race lead

Rubio added his name Wednesday to an illustrious list of winners on Jebel Jais with his solo victory on stage 3 of the UAE Tour. Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard, and Primož Roglic were the last three to be crowned atop the rocky peak.

Behind the Colombian, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) won a 30-rider sprint for second with a huge long gallop that scooped him a handful of bonus seconds and vaulted him into the leader’s jersey.

Overnight race-leader Luke Plapp (Ineos Grenadiers) finished in the lead group on the same time as Evenepoel but now drops to second overall, seven seconds back on the Belgian. Pello Bilbo (Bahrain Victorious) is third at 11 seconds.

With the rest of the classification a further one minute back, the Emirati tour could be reduced to a three-horse race that will be determined on the steep Hafeet climb Sunday.

“This is a good sign for Jebel Hafeet,” Evenepoel said at the post-stage conference. “I was able to leave some fast guys behind, for example, Bilbao. It shows for Sunday I can maybe focus more on that last 400m. But of course, first I will need to follow the other guys first.”

Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) finished third on Jais in a much-needed boost for UAE Team Emirates.

The home team saw a disaster start to the tour take another turn before the stage even started Wednesday. After team leader Yates lost time in the echelons Monday, it was confirmed Wednesday morning co-captain Jay Vine had to abandon with knee issues.

At the base of the Jais, Oier Lazkano (Movistar) was the last of four breakaway riders out front as Bahrain Victorious powered the peloton.

The 20km grinder and its smooth pavement and steady, 5 percent grade saw a handful of small early attacks fail to stick as the peloton controlled the dynamic.

Once Lazkano was caught, it wasn’t until Rubio and teammate Albert Torres broke clear at 10km to go that anything changed, and from there, it was a stalemate to the top.

Torres emptied himself a few kilometers longer to set Rubio free for a long solo while Mauro Schmid controlled the bunch behind for Evenepoel and Quick-Step.

A group of around 30 ripped into the final kilometers and Evenepoel surged in the final 50 meters to secure second on the stage and land in the red ahead of three consecutive sprint stages.

“It was a climb that suits me, it was like a TT, always big power, but never the biggest power,” Evenepoel said. “I was thinking of going earlier but I knew it would be a headwind in the final 400m so I had to be smart and wait for a last big punch.”

S2: Soudal Quick-Step squeezes narrow victory over EF Education-EasyPost in TTT

Soudal Quick-Step scored its second win of the UAE Tour with a blasting team time trial Tuesday.

Quick-Step made it two-from-two with another extra-tight victory, beating EF Education-EasyPost by just one second on a super-fast Khalifa Port parcours.

Ineos Grenadiers finished third, just three seconds back. The narrow gap leaves left Luke Plapp level on GC time with Quick-Step racer Remco Evenepoel thanks to his bonus points from the opening stage, and lands the Aussie in the red jersey.

“It’s the first leader’s jersey of my career, so it’s really nice. It’s definitely a long way to go, but I’ll try to keep it as long as I can,” Plapp said at the post-race conference.

Stage 2 in and out of the Khalifa Port saw teams blitzing through an out n’back course on the Port peninsula. The 17.3km track was designed to be fast as you like with long straights broken up by two U-Turn bends.

Riders delivered on the potential for extra fast times, with Soudal Quick-Step scoring victory with a pace of 56.77kph, stopping the watch at 18.17.

UAE Team Emirates was first down the ramp and straight away set the tone with a mark that couldn’t be matched for some time.

EF Education-EasyPost’s power-heavy seven began in the middle of the race and promptly bust down the best time after going faster than UAE through the front half of the course and extending the gap in the closing canter to the line.

Once EF got into the collective hot seat they were able to get comfortable until the very final second of the race.

Ineos Grenadiers, Bahrain-Victorious, and Jayco AlUla all came within seconds in a race of extra-tight margins, but EF’s lead remained intact.

Soudal Quick-Step was last to start and had intentions on at least getting a GC advantage for Evenepoel by going faster than Pello Bilbao and Bahrain-Victorious.

The Belgian squad drove it hard to the line through the final as their riders started to suffer – and it proved worth it with a stage victory.

With Evenepoel level on GC time and Pello Bilbao just four seconds down, Plapp’s time in the red jersey could be limited as the first summit finish of the race to Jebel Jais looms Wednesday.

“It’s not the hardest climb, so sitting in the wheel gives a good advantage. It will be about saving and having a good punch for the victory,” Evenepoel said at the finish.

“We have two victories already so it’s not a must to win another stage, but it would be nice to have three out of three. There will be other strong riders as well though, we saw Bilbao and Plapp yesterday were very strong in the echelons.”

S1: Tim Merlier edges Caleb Ewan in dramatic day of echelon racing

Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) squeezed out Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Dstny) in a small group sprint to score an opening-stage victory at the UAE Tour.

Ewan, Merlier, and the Belgian’s teammates Remco Evenepoel and Bert van Lerberghe made a 13-rider group that galloped clear in the final 30km of a dramatic day of crosswind racing.

Mark Cavendish and his Astana leadout man Cees Bol also made the split and scored a mojo-boosting third in what was their first race together. Merlier is now already on two sprint victories this season after also winning in Oman.

“It’s always nice to start the season with a win, last year I didn’t take directly a win, I had to wait until Tirenno-Adriatico. Now I have two already [on the road] and one cyclocross,” Merlier said. “This has been a really good start for me.”

Pre-race favorite Adam Yates (UAE Emirates) was caught out on the wrong side of the final split and lost a big bunch of time on GC rivals Evenepoel and Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious).

Merlier’s victory hands him the red jersey of race leader and leaves Evenepoel an early GC advantage. The Quick-Step captain was on the offense all day in an impressive start to the week.

“I had a pretty good day. I’ve had some good training and that came out today. I was always able to follow pretty easy and I’m happy with the feeling,” Evenepoel said at the finish. “There are some good signs for the coming days.”

Racers were braced for winds from the moment the race rumbled out of Al Dhafra on Monday morning, and their fears proved well-founded.

A gusting 20kph breeze and pressure on the front saw the race split from as early as the opening half hour of racing. Evenepoel and Bilbao made a lead bunch of 25 while a swath of GC racers and sprinters and were left straggling behind.

With, pre-race contender, Yates left floundering in the second group and Evenepoel galloping across the desert, UAE Team Emirates toiled in the chase to bring the race back together in the final 50km.

The race exploded again inside the final 30km to leave just a select 13 at the front.

GC contenders Evenepoel, Bilbao, and Luke Plapp made the split, as did sprinter stars Ewan, Merlier, Cavendish, and Olav Kooij (Jumbo Visma).

The lead group piled on in the roads into Al Mirfa and was never seen again, despite the whole peloton regrouping behind and UAE Emirates pulling to save Yates’ chances.

Evenepoel tried to lead a late attack inside the final 3km only for the leaders to come back together for the final reduced sprint.