Tadej Pogacar triumphant on Jebel Jais; takes UAE Tour lead

Ras Al Khaimah [UAE], February 19 (ANI/WAM): With a show of strength in the final few hundred metres of stage 3, Tadej Pogacar won atop the Jebel Jais Mountain in the UAE Tour for the second time of his career. It was a day decided in a sprint finish amongst the race's best climbers, from which Pogacar made the winning acceleration and in doing so, takes the race lead for UAE Team Emirates-XRG heading into Thursday.
Following his teammates' excellent work to set a hard pace from the foot of the nigh on 21km-long climb, Pogacar made the most of Jay Vine's late pull to round the Australian and make his dash for the line within the final couple of hundred metres. Standing up out of the saddle, the Slovenian punched his way towards the summit and would not be stopped before the line.
Ultimately, the two-time winner of this race could celebrate before the finish, knowing that his burst of pace had delivered him a stage win atop this renowned climb for the second time. Just as in 2022, Pogacar's companions on the day's podium - Oscar Onley (Team Picnic-PostNL) and Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) - finished with the same time, and once again, it was the Slovenian who used the United Arab Emirates' highest peak to take hold of the race lead.
Held by Ineos Grenadiers' Josh Tarling before the stage, the British time trial specialist put up a valiant fight to stay in the red jersey, but he now sits second overall, 18 seconds adrift of Pogacar.
As well as taking Pogacar into the race lead, stage 3 also marked an important moment for UAE Team Emirates-XRG, as the victory became the first taken aboard Colnago's new flagship Y1Rs bike. Designed to be the most aerodynamic bike in the WorldTour peloton, the Y1Rs came into its own on a climb that saw the peloton attack Jebel Jais with plenty of speed. Throughout the final slopes, Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates set a searing tempo to tee up the stage-winning attack, and the Slovenian was full of praise after the stage.
Pogacar: "It feels amazing to finally be back racing and to have a victory after three days. We did a perfect job; it was a hard day for the guys to control the race because it was long and we had no help whatsoever until the final climb. We executed it really well and everybody deserves the victory today from our team.
"Rune [Herregodts] was really good at pulling all day, then Lotto helped us a bit and in the final we just tried to go at our pace. It [feels] really good to win in the rainbow jersey."
As mentioned by Pogacar, the bulk of the work throughout the stage fell on the shoulders of Herregodts, who more than stood up to the task and led the peloton into the one and only climb of the day. On Jebel Jais, Mikkel Bjerg moved to the front and his face would become synonymous with the day, such was the strength of his pull.
At first exchanging turns with teammate Florian Vermeersch, Bjerg continued to graft alone from 13.2km to go, and his face told a story of how hard he was working on behalf of Pogacar. With each kilometre that passed, Bjerg's pace remained incessant as riders dropped by the dozen behind. It was a display that will long be remembered and set UAE Team Emirates-XRG up for the final few kilometres of the day.
With 4.3km to go, the Dane's monstrous turn finally came to an end, at which point teammate Domen Novak stepped up to the mark and further ramped up the speed. As the Slovenian pulled to the side inside the final 2km, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale looked to take over proceedings but their dalliance at the front would not last long. As the final 1.5km came into view, Vine stomped on the pedals and guided Pogacar to the head of proceedings.
It was with a couple of hundred metres to go that Vine took his leave and opened the space for Pogacar to finish the stage in style. The world champion's first victory of the season was a just reward for the tremendous efforts of all his teammates on stage 3, with the race leader's jersey proving a welcome bonus for UAE Team Emirates-XRG on Wednesday afternoon. (ANI/WAM)