Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) won the UAE Tour 2021 (Image credit: GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Image)

Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates) successfully sealed the overall victory in the opening WorldTour race of the 2021 season, after the cancellation of the Tour Down Under due to the coronavirus pandemic.

One year on from COVID-19 hitting the race and ending it prematurely, Pogacar won stage 3 on Jebel Hafeet and finished second behind Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) on the finish at Jebel Jais and was fourth in the individual time trial - the three main difficulties in the race - to claim the overall win ahead of 2020 champion Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers).

On the sprint stages, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) won the opening stage and took the race lead but his team withdrew after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19. Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quickstep) took a pair of stage wins while Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) took out the final stage.

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Header Cell - Column 0	Stage winner	Race leader	Points	Young Riders	Teams
Stage 1	Mathieu van der Poel	Mathieu van der Poel	Mathieu van der Poel	David Dekker	Deceuninck-Quickstep
Stage 2 (ITT)	Filippo Ganna	Tadej Pogacar	João Almeida	Tadej Pogacar	UAE Team Emirates
Stage 3	Tadej Pogacar	Tadej Pogacar	Tadej Pogacar	Tadej Pogacar	UAE Team Emirates
Stage 4	Sam Bennett	Tadej Pogacar	David Dekker	Tadej Pogacar	UAE Team Emirates
Stage 5	Jonas Vingegaard	Tadej Pogacar	Tadej Pogacar	Tadej Pogacar	UAE Team Emirates
Stage 6	Sam Bennett	Tadej Pogacar	David Dekker	Tadej Pogacar	UAE Team Emirates
Stage 7	Caleb Ewan	Tadej Pogacar	David Dekker	Tadej Pogacar	UAE Team Emirates
Final		Tadej Pogacar	David Dekker	Tadej Pogacar	UAE Team Emirates

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Final general classification
Pos.	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates	24:00:28
2	Adam Yates (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers	0:00:35
3	João Almeida (Por) Deceuninck-QuickStep	0:01:02
4	Chris Harper (Aus) Jumbo-Visma	0:01:42
5	Neilson Powless (USA) EF Education-Nippo	0:01:45
6	Mattias Jensen (Den) Trek-Segafredo	0:02:37
7	Damiano Caruso (Ita) Bahrain Victorious	0:02:39
8	Mattia Cattaneo (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep	0:03:53
9	Ruben Fernandez Andujar (Spa) Cofidis	0:04:13
10	Fausto Masnada (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep	0:06:30