The first blow at the UAE Tour came from Soudal-QuickStep with a one-two punch from a wind-torn peloton. While Tim Merlier won the stage from a 12-rider bunch sprint, determined by hundredths of a second in a photo finish over Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Dstny), it was Remco Evenepoel who trailed in eighth place who delivered a huge punch to his GC rivals and made him the rider of the day.
Evenepoel was on the hunt for his first victory of 2023 in the world champion’s jersey, and stayed attentive to both the turbulent winds and movements in the peloton. Sustained crosswinds of 30kph on the exposed expanses of the 151km route from Al Dhafra Castle to Al Mirfa tore apart the peloton, but it was Evenepoel who avoided early crashes and splits to jump into a 20-rider front group in the first part of the race.
At the end of the day, the Belgian used his top placing and bonus seconds from an intermediate sprint to sit fifth in the GC, eight seconds behind his teammate Merlier.
While Lucas Plapp (Ineos Grenadiers) and Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) surrounded him by one second on each side, the rest of his main GC competitors had massive work to do in scraping back a little more than a full minute, like Adam Yates and Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates), both incentivised by a home race.
It was just after the second intermediate sprint that four Soudal-QuickStep teammates, who had missed the initial split due to a crash, rejoined Evenepoel and they blasted through more of the gusts with 30km to go to produce another echelon. Then Merlier accelerated, Evenepoel and Bert Van Leberghe pounced as well, devastating the front group that left only a dozen riders.
Working with three Bahrain Victorious riders, including Bilbao, the Astana Qazaqstan duo of Cees Bol and Mark Cavendish, who was third on the stage, the Lotto Dstny pair of Ewan and Jarrad Drizners, as well as Plapp, the front group entered the final 20 km with 40 seconds in hand on the chasers. The decisive move opened a one-minute gap that went all the way to the line.
Analysis
Evenepoel did not need to win the opening stage to prove his mettle. By the time the front group of 12 riders dashed across the finish line, it became evident that a chunk of a full minute or more would be an even greater result, giving Evenepoel an advantage in the GC.
Evenepoel last raced at the UAE Tour in 2019 when as a neo-pro he had a solid ride on stage 3 on the Jebel Hafeet and was 15th in GC, 56 seconds off the pace set by eventual…
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