'Finally a victory' - Tadej Pogačar wins first race of 2025 with mountaintop sprint at UAE Tour

It took three days, but Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) is finally off the mark for 2025, earning his first victory of the year on stage three of the UAE Tour.

The world champion was the fastest in a mountaintop dash at the summit of Jebel Jais, kicking beyond Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) and Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) in the final 500m.

So fierce was the Slovenian’s sprint, that he had time to look over his shoulder, sit up in the saddle, and check behind again, before celebrating across the line. He was later congratulated by his family, as he warmed down beneath the setting sun on the limestone mountain.

"It feels amazing," Pogačar said afterwards. "Finally back racing, finally a victory after three days. We're super happy."

UAE Team Emirates-XRG controlled Wednesday's stage from the beginning, commanding the peloton on the flat, and swapping through turns on the 21km ascent of Jebel Jais.

"We had no help whatsoever until the final climb," Pogačar said. "We executed it really good. Everybody deserves the victory today from our team.

"We asked Ineos if they wanted to pay the honours to the jersey from the start, but we were left alone, so Rune [Herregodts] was really good pulling all day. Lotto helped us a bit, but then in the climb we just tried to do our own pace."

Pogačar now leads the UAE Tour by 18 seconds over Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers), the winner of stage two’s time trial.

"It’s really good to win in the rainbow jersey," the Slovenian said. "Part of me hoped that Tarling would hold onto the bunch and he would keep the jersey, but I will be more than happy to have the leader’s jersey tomorrow instead of the rainbows."

In each of the last two seasons, Pogačar won on his season opener, going on to claim 16 victories in 2023, and 25 in 2024.

The UAE Tour continues on Thursday with a flat finish to Umm al Quwain. "Nothing’s won yet. Tomorrow’s the middle point of the race, so we still have more than halfway to go," Pogačar said.

The seven-day race will conclude at the summit of Jebel Hafeet, where the world champion has won three times already in his career, on Sunday.