UAE Tour: Valverde wins atop Jebel Hafeet

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Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) took his first victory as world champion on Tuesday, winning atop Jebel Hafeet on stage 3 of the UAE Tour.

At the top of the 10.8km final climb, the Spaniard, who triumphed here at the Abu Dhabi Tour 12 months ago, won the sprint for the line ahead of race leader Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) and David Gaudu (Groupama- FDJ).

Roglic retained his overall lead, with Valverde moving up to second at 14 seconds. Gaudu is now third, at 31 seconds.

There was virtually no action in the race until the closing climb. Jumbo-Visma controlled the entire ascent, with Roglic himself taking charge in the finale. In the end, only Gaudu, Valverde, and Emmanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) were able to stay with him.

"It's my first victory of the year, and I was really keen to take it. It was hard, but I felt good," Valverde said in a post-race interview. "I did a good job of keeping sheltered because there was a lot of wind out there and I managed to get the victory.

"It was difficult to follow Roglic. He went very early. I knew I had to bide my time and go at the same point I went last year, and that's what I did. It was very important to know the climb and have that reference from last year."

The Dutch team pushed the tempo all the way up, with rider after rider dropping off the back. Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) and Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) were amongst the biggest losers. Sunweb's Tom Dumoulin and Wilco Kelderman were unable to follow the closing attack, but still maintained their top ten GC positions.

How it unfolded

The stage was a simple one, on paper. 165km through the desert, and then the climb up the Jebel Hafeet. A break group of four got away early on. The group had a familiar look as three of the four were repeats from stage 2. Igor Baev and Stepan Kuriyanov, both Gazprom, were joined by Charles Planet of Novo Nordisk, along with his teammate and break group 'newcomer' Fabio Calabria.

The group was caught surprisingly early. After a gap of no more than four minutes, the peloton gathered them back in with 80km to go.

An intermediate sprint near the base of the climb saw the first real action. The tempo picked up enough to drop the first batch of riders, and almost immediately the climbing started, on a wide, well-paved road. Astana, Movistar, CCC were all at the front, and riders were steadily shedding off the back.

CCC's Paddy Bevin was the first to pull away from the field, followed by UAE Team Emirates' Diego Ulissi. They built up a gap, second by second. Robert Power (Sunweb) was the next to jump from the field, bridging the 12-second gap.

Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) was the first of the big names to be dropped. The pace stayed high and with just over six kilometres to go, the three leaders were caught. Laurens De Plus led race leader Primoz Roglic up the climb.

Soon Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) had to let the group go, and young Remo Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) then joined him.

With 4.2km to go, De Plus peeled away and Roglic took off. Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) went with him. They opened up a small gap, with Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) joining them.

Alejandro Valverde and Davide Formolo gave chase, with the world champion driving away. He soon caught Martin, who had dropped, while Buchmann and Gaudu followed Roglic.

Wilco Kelderman and Ilnur Zakarin were the next to move up, with Dumoulin unable to make the jump. Kelderman fell back as Zakarin caught Formolo.

With 1km to go, Valverde dropped a tiring Martin and joined the three leaders. He immediately took Roglic's rear wheel. Buchmann was the first to try to go, with 600 metres to go, and Valverde went with him, cancelling the attack. Valverde opened the sprint and beat out Roglic for the win.

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