UAE Tour: Tadej Pogacar wins stage 4 on Jebel Jais mountain finish

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Tadej Pogačar  won stage 4 of the UAE Tour atop Jebel Jais, beating Adam Yates (Ineos) and Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) in a group sprint at the summit. 

The UAE Team Emirates rider also takes over the red jersey of race leader, just two seconds clear of Filippo Ganna (Ineos), who battled gamely to stay in contact on the ascent.

Despite a blizzard of accelerations on its slopes, the first summit finish of the UAE Tour saw a larger than expected group contest stage victory in the final kilometre, though there was nothing remotely surprising about the eventual outcome, as Pogačar unleashed a rasping acceleration in the final 200 metres to take all the spoils.

Only Yates and Vlasov could come close to matching his surge, and that trio crossed the line three seconds clear of the rest of the group. Together with the stage winner’s time bonus, that split ensured that Pogačar moved into the overall lead despite Ganna’s spirited effort to haul himself back into contention on the upper part of the climb.

“It was an amazing day. The teamwork was perfect. It was the first climb, with a lot of strong riders attacking left right and centre. The team did a super job bringing me to the final sprint, and I did my best possible and am super happy,” said Pogačar, who faces another summit finish at Jebel Hafeet on the final stage.

“I'm super happy to take the stage and kick off the year with a win. You don't know what can happen on the last day, you can lose time, so I'm super happy to take the jersey and the win today. So now we have two flat stages and then we focus on the final day and see how it goes.”

In the overall standings, Pogačar has two seconds in hand on Ganna, 13 on Vlasov and 15 on Yates.

UAE Team Emirates selected a strong squad for their home race, and they set their stall out early on the steady, 20km climb to the finish. Mikkel Bjerg took up the reins early on, before George Bennett refined the front group still further with a long stint of pace-making.

Overnight leader Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost) withstood the pace there longer than expected before slipping back and conceding his jersey, but the sight of Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) getting dropped with 8km remaining was rather more surprising, particularly given the size of the front group at that juncture.
By then, Rafal Majka and Pogačar already launched probing accelerations, and it briefly looked as though a very select group indeed would contest the spoils at the top.

Instead, the race settled into a pattern of attack and counter-attack, as the front group split and reformed several times on the upper slopes of the climb. The Intermarché-Wanty duo of Rein Taaramae and Jan Hirt were notable aggressors, with Majka seemingly able to jump on every move, while Pogačar always appeared to be pedalling smoothly in the company of men like Vlasov and Yates.

Majka was part of the move that gained most traction with 6km to go when he jumped off the front in the company of Taaramae, Ruben Guerreiro (EF Education-EasyPost), Andreas Leknussund (DSM), Chris Harper (Jumbo-Visma) and Gino Mäder (Bahrain Victorious). The sextet built a lead of 17 seconds before they were pinned back by Australian champion Luke Plapp (Ineos), who rode with notable assurance in this elite company.

After that group was eventually brought to heel, Taaramae devoted himself to teeing up Jan Hirt, who attacked inside the final 3km, with Pogačar, Yates, Vlasov and Romain Bardet (DSM) moved to respond in person.

Yates, who had been planted on Pogačar’s rear wheel for much of the climb, launched an acceleration of his own as the gradient stiffened with 2.4km remaining, drawing the Slovenian, Vlasov, Hirt, Plapp and Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious). Just as the move looked to be petering out, Hirt breathed life into it with another dig of his own, but with a shade over a kilometre remaining, the front group swelled once again to 20 or so riders. Among them was Ganna, who was now on the cusp of moving into the red jersey.

João Almeida had the indefatigable Majka and Pogačar on his wheel as he led this group beneath the flamme rouge, but the first telling acceleration came from an unexpected source, as Plapp kicked with intent with 500 metres to go.

Majka’s final act of the day was to shut down the Australian’s effort. Guerreiro then opened the group sprint from distance before Pogačar closed the argument just as quickly with a crisp, incisive effort. It was his first victory of the new season, and the first reminder of his pre-eminence on the long road towards the Tour de France.

How it unfolded 

Although 181km in length, stage 4 of the UAE Tour could effectively be distilled into the action that took place on the final climb, though Jakob Egholm (Trek-Segafredo) and Luca Rastelli (Bardiani-CSF-Faizane) did their bit to animate the long and flat preamble by going on the offensive in the opening kilometres. 

Mark Cavendish (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) was a faller around 50km into the stage but the Briton remounted and rejoined the peloton shortly afterwards. 

Out in front, meanwhile, Egholm and Rastelli built a lead in excess of five minutes, but their advantage gradually receded as the afternoon drew on and the pace rose accordingly in the peloton. 

One mild deviation from the script was created by Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix), who outsprinted Dmitry Strakhov (Gazprom-Rusvelo) for third at the intermediate sprint with 35km to go and decided to keep on going. Philipsen was joined by Strakhov and his Alpecin-Fenix teammate Jonas Rickaert in the short-lived attack. 

Inevitably, however, both of the breakaway groups were swept up as UAE Team Emirates worked to tee up Pogačar on the final climb.